What's In A Name?

This is the post where I tell you how we picked our precious baby's name.

First, you must understand that my husband is Herbert Lawrence Suereth IV. He takes a lot of pride in his name. Herb I had a son, Herb II, who died in World War II. Herb II's brother, Sherwood, wanted to honor his deceased brother, so he named his youngest son Herb III. Herb III lovingly demanded that his first son, the one born with prune belly syndrome and not expected to till his first birthday, be called Herb IV.

Herbert means "bright warrior."

When we decided to adopt, we began talking names. Was entirely appropriate to name an adopted child Herb V?  And I couldn't imagine telling a birth mother that I was going to name her baby Herbert (sorry, babe, it's a weird name!).

At our adoption education class we discussed names, and the topic of naming a child "junior" or "the Vth" came up. At that point, it became clear to us that we really MUST carry on the family name - why wouldn't we? Furthermore, Herb III (my hubby's dad) recently passed away, and we are glad we can honor his memory through the naming of our son. But this still left me with the issue of having to name a baby Herbert (that poor thing).

We compromised. If we stuck with Herbert L. Suereth V, Herb allowed me to pick a different name for the L middle initial. I know this doesn't exactly follow the "rules," but I've discovered there aren't really rules. And if you want to get particular, Herbert III wasn't really the son of Herbert II anyway.

Back to L names. We REALLY struggled with this!! Here were the ones we considered:
~ Lennon (Irish, "dear one," significant for our musical careers and Herb's dad's love of the Beatles, but didn't really want to stick a kid with being compared to John Lennon the rest of his life)
~ Leo (I had student named Leo a few years ago and he was intelligent and adorable)
~ Luke (Good strong Bible name, but a little to popular)
~ Logan, Lance, Landis (Names I liked, but Herb did not)

Now, fast forward to the first time we got "THE CALL."  We found out we were having a son, and had to decide on a name.  Where we really going to go with Lennon?  I was feeling gun shy.

Levi was actually Denise's suggestion.  I thought, "Oh that's a really solid name, no weird spellings, comes from the Bible, flows well with Herbert, and starts with an L.  It's also kind of an Amish name, giving props to my heritage. I'll look up the meaning when I get home!"

If you saw our video yesterday, then you already know what Levi means.  But that night when I looked up Levi in our baby name book, tears sprung to my eyes and I was HOOKED.

Levi (Hebrew): joined or brought together, united

Then I realized at the climax of the song, "Just Haven't Met You Yet," Buble sings, "We'll be UNITED!!"

SOLD.

And that my friends, is how we came to pick out the name Herbert Levi Suereth V.  As far as we're concerned, he will be called Levi (except for the first day of school every year).

Herbert Levi = our bright warrior with whom we were joined or brought together