Behind the name

So I have had a lot of people ask me why we named our daughter What we named her (Jordan Oyekemi).
Comments have ranged from "that's a cute name" to "were you unsure of the baby's gender?" Or "why didn't you spell it differently to feminize the name?" I often want to make a rude comment but I know it's not coming from a mean place. At least I hope not.

So the question remains, what's behind the name?

We knew we wanted a name from the bible and that the name would begin with a J. The names we had on the list were: Jenesis (yes...genesis with a J), JoAnna, Jessie, and Joelle.
We narrowed it down to 3 names. Jenesis, JoAnna or Jordan. The name Jordan literally jumped into my head. First, it isn't a person's name in the bible but rather the name of a river. Secondly, I thought for sure, we would go with Jenesis which means first or beginning.
Jordan was originally not on our list of names. We added it to our list during hurricane Sandy when we lost power. Basically, hubby and I were sitting around talking since at that point, I think we were done singing about the "bottles of beer on the wall" (our way of passing time) :-).

J & I both decided that we would give her a name after we meet her. But we knew we had at least 3 good names.

I said if it was an easy birth, she would be named "Jordan" because there is something calming and soothing about rivers. However, if it wasn't, she would be named Jenesis.
The labor was HARD! But when it came time to push, it was rather easy. I knew there and then that her name would be Jordan. The minute J asked me what we wanted to go with, there was no doubt in my mind.

Her middle name is a name her dad loves. Or rather, he loves the short form (Kemi). It is a Nigerian name (Yoruba origin...my heritage). But Kemi alone doesn't mean anything so we had to add on to it. Oyekemi means "honor favors me". We thought it was very appropriate for a child who was certainly prayed for and has been showered with lots of gifts and favors from conception.

So, now you know, the rest of the story :-).





Have you ever wondered how your parents decided on your name? If you have kids, how did you come up with their names? If not, do you have a name picked out yet for when you become parents?