{"id":12339,"date":"2016-09-30T14:38:18","date_gmt":"2016-09-30T18:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=12339"},"modified":"2016-09-30T15:29:28","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T19:29:28","slug":"baby-girl-sister-to-xola-looking-for-a-meaningful-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2016\/09\/30\/baby-girl-sister-to-xola-looking-for-a-meaningful-name\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Girl, Sister to Xola; Looking for a Meaningful Name"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are expecting another girl- due in four weeks and have NO LIST of names. YIKES. Our first daughter Xola’s name comes from Nelson Mandela’s first language meaning Bringer of peace and Marie is her middle name. The M comes from all of our grandmas with M names. My husband would like a meaningful and unique name for number #2, but we haven’t gotten very far. If you have any suggestions please send them our way.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Have you considered “Swistle”? Unusual, meaningful (“bringer of baby names”). Not entirely unique since she would share it with me, but two in 7.4 billion isn’t too bad, and I will try not to show up at the same parties.<\/p>\n

This is a good question to give to a big group like this. Even if the specific people\/things other people find meaningful are not the same things you find meaningful, there are bound to be some ideas that lead you to think of other ideas.<\/p>\n

I think if I were you I would start by making a brainstorming list. Well, first make a list of words to put you in the right mindset, words such as:<\/p>\n

meaningful
\nimportant
\ninspiring
\nimportant
\nadmirable
\nanything other word that makes your heart rise up with “YES, that is the kind of thing we want!”<\/p>\n

And then, with that list of words visible to both of you, say “1, 2, 3, GO!” and write down everything that you think of when you think of those words. Or leave a pad of paper out, where you can jot down things as you think of them over several days. Maybe you’d write down people such as Malala Yousafzai and Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama, or words such as peace and philanthropy and international and love, or organizations such as Doctors without Borders. Historical figures, scientists, Nobel Peace Prize winners, authors, poets, flowers, words from other languages. Go to your bookshelf and see whose books you have. Look at your charitable giving. Any of these things can lead you to something or someone you would like to honor with your child’s name.<\/p>\n

Well, or for some people this method is going to take what was only a slightly difficult problem and turn it into a giant overwhelming mess. If you’re reading through that paragraph above and your heart is starting to pound with anxiety instead of with happy industriousness, then let’s try something else.<\/p>\n

I have a book called Baby Names Made Easy: The Complete Reverse Dictionary of Baby Names<\/a>. Names are sorted into categories such as “Peace & Freedom,” “Happiness & Joy,” “Kindness & Goodness.” If you wanted to stick with the theme of peace, here are a few ideas from that section:<\/p>\n

Amina – peaceful, trustworthy, truthful
\nReena – peaceful
\nSelima – peace; healthy
\nTula – tranquil<\/p>\n

Or here are a couple from the Kindness & Goodness section:<\/p>\n

Alma – nourishing, kind
\nCharis – graceful, kind<\/p>\n

Or from the Intelligence & Wisdom section:<\/p>\n

Meira – enlightener
\nMinda – knowledge<\/p>\n

Or from the Dreams & Hopes section:<\/p>\n

Asha – hope
\nNadia – hope<\/p>\n

A few more, from riffling through the book at random:<\/p>\n

Adelpha – beloved sister
\nBrisa – beloved
\nCarita – charity, kindness
\nCaro – dear, beloved
\nJaia – victory
\nLiora – light
\nNira\/Nera – light
\nRona – strength
\nVela – guardian
\nYori – trustworthy<\/p>\n

And so on. There is a good assortment of names from many countries. I would, however, double-check the meanings in another book to be sure.<\/p>\n

For the middle name, my own preference would be to find another name that honors family. Or the middle name would be a good place for a name that hit all the markers of what you wanted in a meaningful name, but wasn’t something you wanted to use as a first name.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are expecting another girl- due in four weeks and have NO LIST of names. YIKES. Our first daughter Xola’s name comes from Nelson Mandela’s first language meaning Bringer of peace and Marie is her middle name. The M comes from all of our grandmas with M names. My husband would like a meaningful and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reference"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-3d1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12339"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12342,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12339\/revisions\/12342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}