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What’s in a Name?

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For as long as I could remember, I’ve been interested in names. Their meanings. Why parents pick certain names. Etc.

As I got older and delved into the Word, I became fascinated with how God changed the names of those He called. When we encounter God, repent of our sins, He changes us. Not just inwardly, but our name as well.

It’s why I always take care when naming my characters. Some are very intentional and I use my favorite website (Behind the Name) to pick the right one. Some were chosen by my readers.

In my Freedom Lake series, the first thing I focused on was the fictional town. Freedom Lake has so many layers of meanings. First of, the fictional town represents the actual places African Americans were allowed to vacation at. There were towns all over the US that were Black only and a place where they could relax and vacation. Freedom Lake is such a town. Now it’s integrated, but they remember their roots. Remember what the town represents: freedom.

But Freedom Lake is also a place where each of my characters found freedom in the Lord. All my heroines (Jo, Michelle, and Chloe) and heroes (Evan, Guy, and Darryl) come from different walks of faith. Some are nonbelievers, in between, and staunch Christians. But still, they all had a past to overcome, trials to walk through, and an awakening of faith that leads to freedom.

And just for fun, I’ll share the meanings of my characters in the Freedom Lake Collection.

Evan – apparently Evan is a Welsh form of John which means God is gracious.

Jo Ellen – well I put these two names together because I liked the sound of it and I knew that Jo would shorten it. It fit her personality of who she is but also showed us who her mother wanted her to be. Jo can be considered the feminine form of John and Ellen was formerly Helen, which means torch.

I think it’s awesome that both Evan and Jo can be linked to God being gracious. If you’ve read their story, this makes perfect sense.

Guy – has a French history meaning wood or wide.

Michelle – is the feminine form of Michael, which means “Who is like God?”

Darryl – has many spellings and originally meant a person from Airelle in France.

Chloe – means green shoot in Greek.

My name is the feminine form of Anthony which comes from the Greek meaning of flower. (Am I the only one picturing Toula’s dad explaining how every word comes from the greeks?)

via GIPHY

Now it’s your turn. I’m offering a $5 Amazon gift card to a random winner. To enter this giveaway, leave a comment telling me what your name means. Leave a comment by 1/10/20 11:59pm EDT. (Feel free to search on Behind the Name, or other name database in case you don’t already know the meaning.) I’ll pick a random winner on 1/11/20.

Toni Shiloh (60 Posts)

Toni Shiloh is a wife, mom, and Christian fiction writer. Once she understood the powerful saving grace thanks to the love of Christ, she was moved to honor her Savior. She writes to bring Him glory and to learn more about His goodness. She spends her days hanging out with her husband and their two boys. She is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW). Find out more on her website at http://tonishiloh.com.


Comments

  2. Happy New Year Toni! Inspiring blog. My devout German mom was adamant when she named me and as a child I heard the story often. My name means “born again,” and to honor my mom and my name I want to live a virtuous life. My husband’s name is Michael. My oldest son is Matthew, meaning “Gift of God.” My second son is Jonathan, meaning “Gift of God” – just a different language. My youngest son is Nathan, meaning “the Gift.” We choose their names based on meaning. We had our oldest son while my husband was finishing seminary and studying Greek and Hebrew. Also during the 1980s plagues with names and their meanings were popular. We had a plague with our family name surrounded by each persons’ name. The names also had to reflect both my German and American heritage. Therefore Biblical names worked.Best wishes. Happy Writing.

  3. I, too, have always loved naming things and characters. I usually try to name the characters in my book names that were popular in the year they were born.

    My name means different things, depending on which site you ask. My dad saw my first name in a western book he was reading and really liked it, and apparently my mom looked up what it meant, and she found that Lila means “pure.” She added Joy as my middle name, which means “delight.” As I was their first baby after several years of trying, I was their “pure delight.” I personally have never found any naming site or bookmark that says this, but I let my parents believe this anyway. :) Some of the meanings I’ve found are “dark,” “night,” “play,” or “amusement.”

  6. Thanks for this interesting post. I also find it interesting which names people chose for their kids. I just learned that Shakespeare first used this form of Jessica in The Merchant of Venice and that he probably based it on the name Iscah which means “to behold”. I think that my parents chose it because they liked the name and thought it would age well and work with my middle name, Kristine, and not because of the meaning.

  11. My real first name is Lelia meaning sweetly spoken or well spoken. I was named after my grandma.

  13. Hi Toni! I love this blog post.
    My name is Ebosereme. It’s an Esan name. Esan is a part of Edo state in Nigeria. It means “What God has given me” or simply “God’s gift”
    It can be shorten as Ebos, Sereme, or Osereme.

  16. I love learning what names mean and I remember being very prayerful when it came to naming our children. I also use advice Jerry Jenkins gave about names when I’m writing. I find it all fascinating.

    My name means youthful, and that is something about me I hear a lot. I love being around young people, and as I’ve let my hair go natural in curls and color, I’ve heard time and time again I’m able to pull it off because I have a “youthful” face. Thanks, God! LOL

    Great post!

  19. Valerie means strong, or strength.

    I spend a lot of time deciding on character names, too. They have to work with the character’s age and personality. Sometimes the meaning comes into play, sometimes not, but it always has to “click” for that character.

  20. My first and middle name is Sherri Darlene. Sherri means beloved and Darlene means little darling.

  23. Megan is a Welsh diminutive of Margaret apparently. I’m not sure what the meaning is, but just knowing that is kind of neat.

  27. It was not until well into my adult years that I learned the meaning of my first name, Lincoln. It was certainly an unusual name when I was growing up. There is the obvious connection to Abraham Lincoln but my mom never said that was what drew her to the name. I’m caucasian so there is not a connection particularly to slavery or emancipation. I’ve noticed that it has become more popular in the last 5 years or so. The derivation is Welsh. It means town (coln, colony) by the lake (lin). I have puzzled for some time with what might be a variant to use for something like a pen name. Waterton and D’Eauville work for a last name but nothing yet for a first name.

    Thanks for your thought-provoking post.

  29. My first name is a derivative of Gertrude. Some places say it means Spear Maiden. Another site says it’s of German origin and means adored warrior. Another says it means Beloved. I know that Mom liked the name, and since it would give me my Daddy’s first initial, it became my first name. Mom decided when my oldest sister was born that since she couldn’t name her after Daddy, she would give her Daddy’s initials, and kept it going with all four of us girls.

  30. My name is made up, so I don’t have any idea about the meaning. My mother’s maiden name was Merrill. My parents added two Es to Merrill and came up with Merrillee. I supposed one could take the meaning of Mary in there.

  31. I LOVE learning the meaning behind names! I’m Angela, which comes the Greek meaning “messenger of God”. Funny thing is, my younger brother and sister are named after my father and mother. As the first child, I was christened simply because they liked the name. 😊

  32. I loved this post, Toni!
    My first name: Caitlyn is of Irish origin and means pure.

  33. Jennifer is a form of Gwenhwyvar of Welsh origin and means white, fair and smooth, soft
    My middle name is Alice and it is German origin and means Nobel, Kind.

    I like how you check on names and meanings.

  34. I also think the meaning of names is important, and I love the way your character’s names feed into their stories.

    Iola (that’s iola, not LOLA) is a Welsh name, and means “valued by the Lord.” I love that meaning – we’re all valued by the Lord, but I like the constant reminder embedded in my name.

  35. I love checking out name meanings and that played a strong hand in choosing our kids names: Samuel (“God has heard” in reference to God answering Ana’s prayer in the Old Testament) and Matias (“Gift of God”, also the Portuguese spelling of the name of the new apostle chosen to replace Judas in the New Testament).
    Ever since I learned Priscila was mentioned in the epistles in the New Testament, referring to the wife of Aquila (friend of Paul), I was smitten with Biblical names and meanings. My name means “ancient” and in some websites you find an additional explanation of “old wisdom” related to it. This is fun and I enjoy talking about it, hence the long answer…

  42. Love the names you chose for your kids and I love seeing people’s names in the Bible. When I married my husband, imagine my surprise when I learned Shiloh is in the Bible. :)

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