Some time back, I wrote about the meaning behind Harrison, our first little boy’s name. You can read that post HERE. Today, I thought I’d share the meaning behind Jonathan’s name.
Nathan and I struggle with agreeing on boys names. Girls names – no problem. We have loads of girl names we both like. In fact, if we were to ever have a girl, which doesn’t seem likely now, we already have a name for her. But instead, God has blessed us with little boys. Cute, adorable little boys that we STRUGGLE to find common ground naming them.
About a month before Jonathan was born, we got serious about figuring out a name. After all, he could have come at any minute, and I didn’t want to be trying to name him in the hospital! We eventually settled on Jonathan Brooks.
Jonathan: John is a family name on the Lane side of the family. One of my brothers-in-law is named Michael John. And while Nathan and I aren’t deeply tied to family names and needing to pass them on to the next generation, it at least seemed like a good place to start. We wanted a name that sounded more versatile to us than simply John, thus the variation ‘Jonathan.’ It just so happens that it combines the Lane family name of “John” and Nathan’s name, making it a perfect family name but unique enough for a new generation of Lanes.
My mom also reminded me that Jonathan in the Bible was the eldest son of Saul, and a good friend of David. He succeeded King Saul. I love that he was loyal to his friend, David, and saved him from his father Saul. Loyal. That’s one of those traits that means the most to me, and so important in my own life, that I kind of love that we inadvertently named him after Jonathan in the Bible.
Jonathan means God has given.
Brooks: The wild card name. While Harrison’s name was uniquely his, and has no other meaning, Brooks was that name for our second little one. We just simply liked the name, and thought it sounded versatile and unique. That Jonathan could choose whether he wanted to go by his first name or middle name, or even potentially initials, “Hey JB!” But similar to Harrison, while we initially thought we’d call him by a nickname, we’ve tended to just call him by his full first name, “Jonathan.”