What's in a Name?

A lot--if you asked Coke, Kleenex, Google, Madonna or Beyonce.

These short names have defined industries or pop culture. They've shaped our vocabulary as a society (When was the last time you thought, "I need a facial tissue" or "I need to do an Internet search for..."?).

Names also meant a lot in the Bible. Think about Abraham, Sarah, Peter or Paul (or look them up if you're interested.)

But what about you? What does your name mean? (Check it out).

I started thinking about this topic again yesterday when our worship team, just for a random act of fun, decided to share our middle names with each other. And then our team leader for the day challenged us to look up the meaning of our names.

My First Name, Pre-teen Brat Phase and Meaning

So I'll rewind a bit ... when I was growing up, I didn't exactly love my first name. I thought it was simply the product of my parents' former hippie days (sorry, Mom and Dad if you ever read this--you know I love you, but it's true). If you didn't know, my first name is a combination of their two names--it's like if Brad and Angie actually named their baby Brangelina.

People mispronounced my name and couldn't spell it. In my pre-teen mini-brat phase (does everyone have one of those?), I thought about changing it. At that point, I thought it would be cool to have at least one name that people could say and spell correctly--something simple to blend in with the sea of others--like Kelly, Jessica or Jennifer. But I didn't go through with it.

I never thought my name meant anything because I always considered it my parents' crazy creative outlet. But last year out of curiosity, I looked up both of their names to find the meaning of mine. To make a long story short, my first name means "She will add beauty" or maybe (my preferred version) "He will add beauty" (as in God will add beauty--see "Speech, Silence and Beauty" for more on that).

Connecting the Dots ...

And today, I looked up my middle name--another combo. name (yes, Mom and Dad really are that creative). My middle name, Marine, is the combination of my grandmother's names, Martha and Nadine. Martha means "Lady" (or "Lady of the house") and Nadine comes from a root word meaning "Hope."

Together? "Lady of Hope." And with my first name? (My own interpretation to actually make this work some sort of sentence) "He will add beauty through a lady of hope."

Kind of cool, huh?

Hope in Beauty? Or the Beauty of Hope?

So being the artsy and analytical girl that I am, this name search made me think about hope and beauty and what the relationship between these two ideals means.

As a culture, there are so many of us that place hope in beauty. We hope we're beautiful because ... well, it just seems to make life easier. We often put hope in beautiful people--as in, "Gosh, that guy is hot ... I hope he's a Christian, nice and funny, too" and even more seriously, we select the beautiful as our leaders. Statistically, there have been studies that show that beautiful people are popular beyond high school--they often show up in executive-level positions in corporations, they're the celebrities we watch in the media, can get paid more, etc. And as a society, we go to extremes to hope that beauty lasts--we preserve fine art, old movies, classic cars ... and our bodies through the "miracle" of plastic surgery.

But when was the last time you, me and our culture at large flipped the equation and simply appreciated the beauty of hope?

Hope may not be shiny, sparkly or skinny, but it is beautiful simply because hope is what holds us together.

Hope keeps us holding onto an extraordinary God who somehow cares about our ordinary lives.

Hope keeps us connected in relationships with each other. Every friendship, family and marriage is held together by some kind of hope. You hope you can trust the other person, that something good can come out of your relationship, that your life together will be better than it would be apart.

Hope keeps us believing that our future can be better than our past.

We hope for purpose, for meaning--that our lives will matter to someone, that somehow we will be remembered for something good.

I'm not sure exactly how to end this post except by saying that I want in some way "own" my name--to be someone crazy in hope who touches this planet with even a glimpse of Heaven's beauty. (I literally JUST remembered that I wrote the "Crazy in Hope" post back in the fall before I even knew my middle name's meaning--I think I'm seriously getting goosebumps).

And instead of putting hope in beauty, let's begin to believe that hope is beautiful.