What's In a Name? Choosing a name for our son was not an easy job. I suppose in one way it seems like a trivial task, just pick something and be done with it. But I was getting kind of hung up on the idea choosing a word that will form people's conception of our boy, maybe before they've even met him. If you're not careful, you can go crazy with that kind of thought, so I did try to stay focused. I liked the idea of being named after an admirable figure, someone that you could be proud to be named after and perhaps even draw inspiration from. For myself, I have thought from time to time about Matthew the Apostle, and what it means to be named after such a person. Most of the names we considered were people from the Bible, plus a few others. But this was not the only factor that we considered, and the names we did choose were not necessarily more admirable people than the ones we didn't choose. We also wanted a name that was not too common (we're not into being trendy) but not too uncommon either (we don't need to be different just for its own sake). The Social Security baby names page was a big help to us in figuring this out. We also paid attention to the sound of the name, and what sounded good to us. I was not going to name him Amos or Ezekiel under any circumstances, regardless of how much I appreciate those particular prophets. After a good deal of time going around and around with these considerations, we finally felt a bit of inspiration in the combination of Samuel and Patrick.

Samuel was the first prophet of the nation of Israel, someone who brought the word of God to a people that had not heard it for a long time. His story is found in the first 8 chapters of the book of First Samuel (the rest of First Samuel, and all of Second Samuel, go on to tell the stories of Samuel's proteges, Saul and David). Samuel probably lived about 1,000 years before Christ. In Hebrew, the name Samuel means "God has heard me," and it is part of the beautiful response of Samuel's mother Hannah to receiving the blessing of a son. You can read Hannah's story in First Samuel 1:1-2:11. In short, she was granted a son after many years of infertility, and in response she "lent him to the Lord," in the hope that God would use him to be a blessing to others. In some ways, Laura and I feel an affinity for Hannah, having the same desire that our little Samuel would belong to God.

Patrick is one of the few names that I considered that is not actually found in the Bible. Saint Patrick lived around A.D. 400, and was a dynamic pioneer of the faith in many different ways. While the First Century apostles had courageously spread the Christian faith throughout the Roman Empire, the situation had become much more static and complacent by the year 400. The Empire had been thoroughly evangelized, and Christianity had become the "religion of civilization," but it did not seem to have occurred to many people that tribes beyond the "civilized empire" also needed to hear the good news of the Gospel. It was in this atmosphere that Patrick became the first foreign missionary in several hundred years, leaving his native Britain to live among the (then) barbaric tribes of Ireland. This was not Patrick's first visit to Ireland; as a teenager, he had been kidnapped by Irish pirates and lived in Ireland as a slave for several years until he escaped back to Britain. It was an act of enormous courage and forgiveness for him to return to his captors with a message of spiritual freedom. Patrick's mission was wildly successful, not because of any dazzling intellect or use of force, but because he showed himself to the Irish as a genuine man of flesh and blood, toughness and emotion, courage and love. For centuries afterward, the stories of his Irish disciples are stories of the most genuinely Christian men and women of the Middle Ages. The prayer known as Saint Patrick's Breastplate, though it may have been written after his death, surely captures the essence of Patrick's spirit. The name Patrick, by the way, comes from the Latin for "noble or royal." Laura mentions the idea that, while the name Samuel reflects our desire that we as parents would have a godly attitude towards our son's life (as Hannah did), so the name Patrick reflects our hope that he also will eventually choose that path for himself.

When you think about it, Samuel Patrick Tiscareno is a rather "ethnically confused" name. But it actually does represent much of his ancestry, product of the good ol' American melting pot. Samuel, of course, is a Hebrew name, but also one that has long been popular in the English tradition. Both Laura and I have plenty of Anglo ancestry, and Laura's dad in fact is Jewish. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland, and Laura and I both have Irish ancestry as well. And Tiscareno is a Mexican/Spanish/Basque name, handed down from my great-grandparents who fled to the U.S. from revolutionary Mexico in the 1910's. Little Samuel also has significant German and Norwegian ancestry, but you can't fit everything into one person's name!

I'm sorry that this has been turning into the "baby blog." To be honest, it is what I have mostly been thinking about for the past few weeks. I will try to write about something else soon. :) 

Posted by Matt on 11/10/2003 02:09:00 PM