What’s in a name?
Before I entertained the thought of having children, I already had some ideas of names I liked, mainly for girls. I remember liking Paloma, Phoebe and some others, not really for the meaning but for the sound of the name or the cultural aspect.
It wasn’t till we found out we were pregnant that I took the name matter seriously… I mean it’s the third question people ask after knowing you are pregnant, “When are you due?”, “Do you know what you’re having?”, “Do you have a name picked out?”
Now a days people have the opportunity to name their children whatever they want, but Pedro and I both agreed that we wanted to give our children a name that had a biblical meaning and would be transversal in our world’s (Europe and U.S.).
After living in Greece for two years I always knew I wanted to give my children a Greek name or second name. When I learned the language I loved the fact that most names in Greek have some type of biblical context whether after the saints or words like Life, Freedom, Knowledge, Hope, and Love. I had bought a Portuguese baby name book on our last trip to Lisbon, and strangely enough found out that a lot of Portuguese names originally derive from the Greek language.
Pedro and I came to agreement pretty early on that our baby girl would be named Sofia. We both liked the name and it matched exactly what we were looking for…
But God confirmed this name for us when I came across the passage in Proverbs 4:7-9.
“The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom;
And with all your acquiring, get understanding.
“Prize her, and she will exalt you;
She will honor you if you embrace her.
“She will place on your head a garland of grace;
She will present you with a crown of beauty.”
Sofia in Greek means Wisdom. I was so excited about this confirmation! We had a good reason and right to call our little girl, “Our Princess”… And be able to explain to her that her name means Wisdom and that it is the most important thing she can acquire, which will ultimately give her a crown of beauty/glory.
Today girls are taught from a very early age that beauty is found in the physical appearance… we encourage it with comments, such as “wow, you look so beautiful in your new dress”, “you look like a princess”, “look how beautiful your hair is”… I’m even guilty of it… I say these things to my niece too… and I think she really believes that she is a real princess. She changes her clothes at least three times a day and could wear her ballet clothes everyday if her parents would let her.
It’s not easy today to teach girls that beauty lies beyond appearances and what the eye can see, when they begin to shape their identity around their looks at a very early age.
It’s our responsibility in part I guess… to esteem girls for their interest and abilities and not just their looks… we could make comments like, “wow, you made that”, “Show me your favorite book”, “you like to do that, wow you’re really talented”. But girls are just so darn cute! And stores sell more cute clothes for girls than for boys’… uff, what a challenge!
We are excited to name our daughter Sofia because it gives us the opportunity to raise her up differently. It is our hope as new parents – embracing the responsibility to bring up a godly girl -that Sofia will learn to see beauty in herself and the world around… beyond the physical appearances.
Sofia will be “our princess” because she means wisdom, and that is the most important thing anyone can gain… this is what gives her a crown of beauty.
