What's in a Name?

After reducing the possibility of the baby’s gender by 50%, the next logical decision is the name to bestow upon him.  This is a paramount decision, because it’s not only the thing that defines his existence to everyone around him, but it’s something he’s stuck with for the rest of his life.  Screw it up, and he’ll resent you (just ask my brother)…nail it, and he’ll applaud you (just ask me). 

I have been toying with names since I was in high school.  Every time I came up with a name that I was confident about, someone else in my family named their child that.  Since I am determined for my child to have a unique name that has not been used in my family before, I immediately threw out the “used” name and went back to the drawing board.  And now that we are finally having a baby, I can rest assured that his name will be unique…or at least the first in the family.

The last hurdle was to get it past my wife.  She has very definite ideas about names, her culture, and her family’s legacy.  So, I decided to focus on adding a Greek aspect to the naming process as a tribute to her heritage.  But I also wanted God to be a part of it in some way, since He has been a part of it in every way.  Using all of this as my criteria, I proposed, and magically managed to get accepted, the name of Troy Aegis. 

Troy was the fabled city in the Illiad where Achilles (my favorite Greek hero) met his untimely demise at the hands of Paris.  At the time, it represented an impenetrable fortress with strong walls that had never been breached.  I wanted that strength to flow into my son.  Consequently, the name also means “curly-haired,” which seems entirely possibly based on his mother.

Aegis means the shield of God.  It is commonly used to describe a protector or guardian.  I want my son to know that God’s protection will always be upon him.  In addition, Ephesians 6:16 describes the aegis with these words, “In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.”  I always had faith that God would bless us with a child, and I want faith to be the core of my son’s life as well.  I want to teach him how to have faith, and I want to be an example of putting it into practice.  Consequently, the name also means “thunderstorm,” which let’s just be honest is…awesome!