When someone I know is expecting a baby, one of the first things I want to know is: What's his or her name? (Besides whether "it" is a he or a she, of course!) Then, once I work the information out of the expectant parents-to-be, I usually will look that name right up on an online name finder so that I know what it means. Why? I suppose some of my love of the meanings of names comes from reading Scripture, in which a person's name is so closely linked to what is expected of them, where they came from, or what they're known for.
Take, for example, Nabal. His wife says of him, "He's called Nabal, and he is a fool." Or Peter, upon whose testimony the Lord built the Church. Or - in an interesting twist - Jabez. (Nope, I've never read the book about him, so I can't tell you if that's good or not.) He was named Jabez, meaning, "He will cause trouble." And it seems that his life would have followed that course, had he not cried out to God, asking that he not cause trouble, that he not fulfill the meaning of his name. And God granted his request.
So, in that tradition, when I write, I try to choose carefully the names I give to the characters. The names have to include some meaning for that character's life or personality or what the Lord is going to do through/in them. The names also have to be time-period correct. In The House of Mercy, I didn't include a glossary of the characters' names, but some readers have asked about them. For those of you who are curious about why I chose the names I did and what they mean, here you go, the first in a three- or four-part series! (Just the major male protagonists this week ... The villains and the ladies come next!)
