When a new baby is born, the parents’ first important task is to assign him or her a name. After that, short of an expensive court procedure, that decision will stand, all the way to the grave. Because the choice is up to mommy and daddy not baby, it’s an important job and should be approached with careful thought.

In biblical days, parents named their children after character qualities or mission descriptions. Once in a while they named them negatively. The Jabez of Old Testament fame, for example, was named “pain” because his birth was excruciating for his mother.

People who name their babies positive things hope they’ll grow up to be what they’ve been named: Charity, August, Grace, Noble, Joy. When named after a respected relative or friend, parents hope their child will emulate their namesake.

A name choice is important to a child but also to God. The names he chose for Jesus were descriptive of his life purpose: “Jesus” meant “Savior,” “Christ” meant “Messiah,” and “Emmanuel” meant “God with us.” Since God demonstrated how to name a baby, we ought to follow suit.

Nate and I named our seven children less meticulously than God did, but we did discuss each one thoroughly. None of our children’s names have negative meanings, and some honor family members. All came off a Swedish calendar, which we thought was clever, since we were both Swedish: Nelson Hamilton, Lars Kristian, Linnea Marta, Klaus Fredrik, Hans Tomas, Louisa Viktoria and Birgitta Mary.

Our daughter Linnea and her husband Adam have just gone through the process of naming their new baby, Autumn Faith. Wrapped up in her pretty name are several important things.

They named her Autumn because most of the momentous events of their lives together have happened in the fall: they committed to each other as boyfriend/girlfriend then, had a September wedding, learned they were going to become parents in the fall after experts said “never,” Linnea’s father’s illness and death occurred in the autumn with all 13 of us together, and nature dresses herself in extreme beauty during Linnea’s favorite season, fall.

Autumn’s middle name, Faith, will be a continual reminder to Linnea and Adam to live focused on all God can do, originating with his gift of faith to them and anyone else who desires it. As Linnea said, “We come to him with our hands open having nothing to offer, and he fills them.”

As we all get used to using Autumn Faith’s new name, we’ll be steadily praying she grows up to have the same strong faith in God that her name represents, not just in the autumn but in every season of every year.

Jesus Christ is… “a name far beyond any name that could ever be used in this world or the world to come.” (Ephesians 1:21)