PROMISE

Names--Hosea was instructed by the Lord as to what names to give his kids.  They were really strange names.  They sounded strange in Hebrew, but they were even worse in English.  I guess that's what can happen when you're a prophet and the kids' names are messages to your people.

Names have always meant something.  A lot of people named their children according to the desires they had for their lives. Some names (like Abram and Jacob) got changed in midstream because of what was happening at the time.  The church, up until recently at least, was insistent that the children be given "Christian" or biblical names.

When I was a young pastor, one of my parishioners asked my advice on naming her son.  She wanted to name him "Cain."  If you've ever read Genesis and know the story of Cain, you can probably guess the way I was leaning on that one.  It was the only time in my recollection, that anyone asked for my advice on naming a child.  I hope I didn't mess up.

When it came to naming my boys, I wanted unusual names.  I got tired early on of being one of many Daves in my classroom.  So, I wanted my boys' names to be unique, or at least different.  I wanted their names to sound good (at least to MY ears), and I wanted them to mean something positive.  David means "beloved."  And while I always assumed I WAS, I also thought the other Davids in my class were a little light in the beloved department.

We ended up naming the oldest Damon Jude (meaning, friend who is praised).  The youngest became Devon Justin (meaning, just poet...or poetic justice).  They turned out pretty well (although Devon is more of an artist than a poet...but Art Justin Zuchelli just doesn't sound very good to my ear).  We were actually going to name him Dominic (meaning, belonging to the Lord), but we wore that one out before he was born.  So, at the last minute, we decided to switch off.  We got a card in the mail shortly after he was born welcoming little Dominic into the world.  Apparently, we didn't get the word out quickly enough.

Interestingly enough, Devon changed his name just before he got married.  He legally went back to the old European spelling of our last name...Zucchelli.  My Dad dropped a "c" to make it a little easier.  Being just, Devon decided to do it the hard way again.

As a side note to that, I needed a passport to go to Israel in late 2009.  To get the passport, I had to send to Pennsylvania to get a real birth certificate.  I had never had one of those.  I only had one of those "certificates of live birth" from the hospital.  You know, kind of like President Obama.  (Sorry, I couldn't resist.) Anyway, when it arrived, I quickly discovered that I had been spelling my name incorrectly for the past sixty years.  My birth certificate says my name is Zucchelli (two "c"s, not one).  Now I'm thinking about joining Devon.  Who knew?! 

The long and short of it is this.  I'm not going to give you much advice on naming your children.  Go ahead and name them whatever you'd like.  When they get old enough, they can change their name if they want.  In fact, you can change yours too for all I care.  I wouldn't want to rain on your parade.  The Bible doesn't say so, but my guess is Hosea's kids changed their names once they got out of the house (or tent).

Actually, I DO have one piece of advice on this subject.  I would suggest that you don't name any of your boys "Lucifer."  While it flows rather nicely off the tongue, I don't think it would fly (even if you nickname him Luke).  I'm just sayin'...