Namesake

With the birth of our youngest son, and with the onslaught of new relationships in the past year, we’ve received questions about the origins of our sons’ names. With most people, it’s a quick one-line explanation. But with others, we have to give an entire historical lesson just to explain the origin, not to mention the significance behind the names.

Most people reading our blog probably already know how and why we chose the names for our sons, but we rarely go into depth. I’m a horrible story-teller, so I usually give a cursory explanation and move on. We thought we would share a little bit about the significance of their namesakes and why they are important to us.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon and Haddon

Haddon Noble Dowon Yuuta Han

Haddon is the middle name of Charles Spurgeon, a.k.a. C.H. Spurgeon. I first discovered Spurgeon’s teachings in college. At that time, I was a relatively young believer and was in the middle of learning how to study the word. I remember searching for a reliable devotional to help me in my disciplines when I stumbled upon Morning and Evening. Something about this set of devotionals spoke to me. Maybe it was the depth and detail, or perhaps the way he was able to relate to the common sinner on such an intimate level. Being a young believer, I didn’t know who the author was, or whether or not he was a reliable source. That weekend, I asked my pastor if he had heard of C.H. Spurgeon and if he was legit. To my delight, he was! Morning and Evening became a welcome addition to my daily routine; I have the app on my iPad and still read it from time to time.

When it came time to choose potential names for our first son, I was first set on a different name from the Bible. I had been set on that name for some time, but came up with a few other choices as back-ups. Arriving at the name Haddon was actually a happy accident. I jokingly mentioned to Alex the idea of naming him Spurgeon, but we both agreed that would be cruel. I had never bothered to look up what the “H” in his name stood for, and was pleasantly surprised that it seemed normal. We looked up the etymology for “Haddon”. It is old English for either hill of heather, or from the heath. Alex wasn’t too pleased with the floral reference, but we agreed that it would be a privilege to honor my favorite, nineteenth century preacher in this way.

Noble comes from Phil. 4:8 (NIV): Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. I had heard the name used on a radio program during my morning commute one day and thought it was fitting to identify our son with a biblical virtue. Not because he was virtuous or would necessarily be virtuous, but because we want our children to model JC and the virtues he deems are worthy.

J.C. Ryle and Ryle

Ryle Victor Rawon Taisei Han

Because I got to honor my favorite, nineteenth century preacher, Alex wanted to do the same with our second son. A few years ago, Alex had mentioned how impacted he was by J.C. Ryle’s Holiness. Since then, he’s mentioned it a few more times, so his admiration for Ryle was pretty obvious.

We wanted to keep the theme going with our naming convention, so Ryle was a solid choice. He was even a contemporary of Spurgeon, which made him the perfect namesake. We had considered either his first or middle name, but they were so common we knew no one would make the connection. Apparently Charles was a very popular name back then; go figure.

We struggled in choosing a middle name. There aren’t too many virtues that sound good as names, especially for men. I can’t remember exactly what passage I was reading, but I loved the idea of highlighting JC as victorious. He was victorious over death and gave us victory over our sins. At the time, I was feeling really burdened with life here. I remember being especially challenged by relationships and min work, specifically how to deal with people and how to love them. In the midst of adjusting to life here and trying to manage our family, I was overwhelmed by unanticipated conflicts. It was really stressful and I felt guilty that my poor, unborn child had to endure the affects of stress and anxiety. So when victory revealed itself to me, I knew we had found the perfect virtue to highlight. God had already given us victory over our circumstances (not to mention morning sickness and all the unfortunate symptoms of pregnancy), and we wanted our son to be a living reminder. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. – 1 Cor. 15:57

Side note: This post is already long enough, so I won’t get into the Korean and Japanese names. Our families chose those names, and use them exclusively when referring to our children. We already knew their English names would be difficult to pronounce, so we now juggle four names depending on which environment we’re in. We also haven’t decided yet which name to use for their Chinese names. We’ll need to consult our friends to determine which names sound best.