What's in a name?

This weekend I went to a baby shower for a friend, Angyla, from our former church.  Thanks to Wendi, who introduced me to Mod Podge, I decided to make some wall name plagues for Baby Sara.  I was so relieved when I found out the baby's name was four letter Sara and not E-l-i-z-a-b-e-t-h(although a good name) or something! So I've been thinking about names...I've always had a fascination for names and their origin.  When it comes to naming your child, you have to know that this is what he or she will be called for the rest of their entire life!  When we were looking for names for Caris, oh my word, it took me forever to decide on a name!  Then there's always the back and forth between the hubby whether he liked or not.  Even though he said it was up to me and I originally chose Grace, he said it had been overused, and I had to agree with that.  So when Angyla's mom, Paula, told me that Charis meant "grace"in biblical Greek then well I knew that was it!  But I digress, my fascination for names is due to the fact that I really don't think people know the meanings of names and just pick names because they think it sounds good.  C'mon, would you think of naming your child a name that meant "helmet head"? Well, a popular name right now means just that! Just a thought for future parents...Because I chose a different name for our daughter, I can say this, that kids nowadays have such unique names as opposed to, say my generation.  If you have friends your age with your same name, you know it was probably a popular name that year.  So I thought I would look up the top five popular names for 2009:

  

Boys:

 1. Aiden/Aidan/Aden/Adan

2. Ethan

3. Noah

4. Kaden/Caden/Cayden/Kayden

5. Caleb/Kaleb

 

Girls:

1. Ava

2. Isabella

3. Madeline/Madelyn

4. Emma

5. Abigail 

And yes, I must know all the little boys with all the "Kaden" spelling combinations!  But I think Sara(princess) Jolie(pretty) is a good and solid name.  It means pretty princess, how wonderful is that!  Proverbs 22:1 "A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches."