The name of our son is....
Louis Gabriel Watkins
We will be calling him "Louie" for as long as he will let us :)
...and let me just say that when we name a child in this household, it is no small feat.
The naming process for both our children have had similarities and huge differences, but both have been a labor of love, thought, and prayer.
Josh and I believe that a name holds weight, and that the person we are getting the privilege of raising has a name that is just right and will suit them perfectly.
Let me start by saying that Josh and I have only ever really agreed on 2 full names. Ever. In the history of knowing each other. Those are obviously the ones of our children.
Sit back and get a cup of coffee or something because I'm starting at the beginning of the naming journey for our son.
It was sometime in early 2014...maybe Spring, tops. Josh and I had been talking and thinking about when we might try for a second child. At one of those conversations names came up and that is not a light subject as we don't have much crossover of names we both love. But out of the blue I asked Josh what he thought of the name Louis for a boy, and calling him Louie. His response was something to the effect of - "I actually like that."
In that moment of his response I remember 2 things very clearly...#1 - "I'm shocked he likes it" and #2 - "Well obviously if we have another child it will be a boy because we have never been so much on the same page for a name since Noelle."
So fast forward to actually being pregnant in the fall. We didn't talk names for a while. To me, it is not much worth it when I'm not sure if it is a boy or a girl. It takes enough work to deal with one gender of names, let alone two. By late October I had a strong sense it was a boy, though my mother insisted I was having another girl (HA).
Right around Thanksgiving my mom had a dream that she told me about. She told me she was with me in her house, and suddenly her parents walked through the door. They looked to be in their 40's and they were so happy - excited even. She was so glad to have had the dream because she hadn't dreamt about them in a very long time (Grammy died in 2008, and Poppy died in 1985). She told me about the dream because she felt it was God's way of telling her that everything was going to be ok for Josh and I (as Josh had just lost his job at the time). I still loved giving her a hard time that I thought the baby was a boy, so I told her, "What if they were so happy because the baby is a boy, and they never got to have any boys?" I also knew, but did not say to her, that if it WAS a boy it was probably going to be named Louis, which was my grandfather's name. She didn't think my interpretation was very amusing as she was still convinced it was a girl.
So then finally on December 11, we went to find out what our little bundle of joy was, and of course you should always trust the mother's intuition :)
A week or two later I was just reading something in my bible, and God pressed upon my heart so clearly that our son's name was Louis. From then on it was just a done deal in my heart. I approached Josh a couple days later with that information and he really just agreed with me, but didn't want to make a FULL decision until baby brother also had a middle name.
And for as easy as the first name was...oh the middle name. I was just eager to land it and announce the whole thing because I was tired of dodging questions from friends and family alike on what we were naming this kiddo.
Here was our dilemma...Louis means "renowned warrior" - a fabulous meaning for a boy. But at the same time, we wanted the middle name to complement such a strong first name. We wanted a softness to it, and a name that would also point back to God.
I went through so many biblical names. I would read them off, give meanings, look for a clue to anything that would seem to entice Josh.
Nothing.
Then one saturday we had an honest middle name discussion at random. And Josh said he wanted something that was along the lines of "God strengthens" - so the idea would be that our son would be a great warrior, but one that relied on the strength of God. I looked at him and said, "That's essentially what Gabriel means."
**Please note that I had given him the name Gabriel as a middle name option several times at this point.
He fought me on it for a minute, because his brother's name is Gabriel, and his brother has a tattoo that says "messenger" and he thought that was the name's meaning. I corrected him (without having to look it up, because I am that much of a naming nerd) and said Gabe probably chose that because Gabriel is very much God's messenger in the bible...however, that is NOT what the name means. Josh then googled and confirmed the meaning as "God is my strength."
The finalization began to take place...Josh loves his brother and loved the idea of getting to use his name as a middle name. We both loved the idea of being able to use 2 family names in the process.
Louis is special certainly because of my grandfather. He died when I was just 2 years old, and I was the last grandchild he met. He and I also bore a resemblance to each other when we were babies...so much so that at one point he said to my family, "OK, I can die now. One of them looks like me." They got mad at him for saying that, but then it actually happened and it just seemed to take on a different meaning.
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| Louis & Florence D'Ambrosio |
Though I have no memories of my own of Poppy, I have only ever heard wonderful things about him. He was the first born of 4 sons of the D'Ambrosio family (and according to my mom he was my great grandmother's favorite son). All of the brothers were the first generation born in America. He had to learn english in school because only Italian was spoken in the home. He dropped out of high school six months shy of graduating, but he was very hard working and provided as good a life as he could for his wife and three daughters. He served as an Italian interpreter during World War II, but was never sent overseas to fight, as he became 18 towards the end of the war. He was extremely funny and loved to have a good time. At one point he got to open his own Italian delicatessen and it was in that little deli that my mom and dad met. It is actually also thanks to my grandfather that my parents ever went on their first date.
My mom was 16 and had a big crush on my dad who was 20 (yikes, I know - Noelle would NOT have my permission). However, it was the 70's and times were different! Anyway, Poppy knew my mom had a crush on my dad and he asked my dad to take my mom to a Mets game because he had a meeting and couldn't take her. Mom was a little mad at first, but got over it enough to actually go on the date. The rest they say is history, as my mom and dad married 5 years later. So would I be here if Lou D'Ambrosio hadn't interfered with his daughter's dating life? Seems like I wouldn't!
Poppy died all too soon at the young age of 59 from a heart attack. I am sorry I never got to really know him, but part of me feels like I did because of all the fond memories that my family has shared about him over the years.
So I had the example of my grandfather, and then I read the book "Unbroken" which is a biography about Louis Zamperini. The movie came out this past December too, but please, skip the movie and go straight for the book. Zamperini was most definitely a warrior, and he survived things that you and I couldn't even begin to imagine over the course of WWII. Despite his seemingly "invincible" nature, he was brought to his knees after the war and gave his life to Christ at a Billy Graham event in the 50's. His story was so inspiring and it truly anchored in the name and every thought I had behind its meaning.
I am also very excited about Gabriel. I love my brother in law and have always loved the name Gabriel. For some reason, I also have always thought the angel Gabriel in the bible had the best jobs to go do. Seriously, even when I was a kid I thought that. Here's a couple fun facts about Gabriel...
- Gabriel is mentioned in the Old and New Testaments. He’s known for bearing good news of Jesus’ coming birth, but his first biblical appearance is in Daniel when he is told to explain a vision to the prophet.
- Gabriel stands in the presence of God. This is how he describes himself to Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist. The Greek word for “stands” is paristánō, which means to wait before a superior. The Septuagint uses this word to describe how Joshua served Moses.
- Gabriel is one of only two angels explicitly named in the Protestant Bible.
- Gabriel anticipates Jesus. Gabriel relays a prophecy concerning “Messiah the Prince” to Daniel. He tells Zacharias that John the Baptist will be a forerunner before the Lord. And most famously, he tells Mary that her son will be called “the Son of the Most High.” Here's the source where I found these fun facts...
I told you this was going to be a long blog post! If nothing else it was just so important for me to get it all out for my own little Louie. I look forward to meeting him and seeing just who he will be, and I hope he will understand how much thought and prayer went into his name.
