July 29, 2026 | Kim Adam
I’ve always been fascinated by names and why people choose the ones they bestow on their children. This fascination may have partially stemmed from the fact that some of my ancestors have carried around interesting names. For instance, my great-great-grandmother’s name was Buda Beatrice, pronounced BYU-dah Bee-AT-rice, as she was quick to tell you. Her daughter, my great-grandmother, was named Jemima Clementine. In a strange circumstance her first cousin was ALSO named Jemima Clementine so they called one girl Tiny and one girl Tunie so they could tell them apart. My Grandma Tunie even used to get mail from well-meaning strangers addressed to “Tuna” because they assumed that Tunie was short for Tuna. My Grandma Tunie proceeded to name all four of her children with first and middle names that started with the same letter, like Brewster Bridges and Wanda Willanell (my grandmother). And then you have my mother, Mary Sue, named by her father after one of his old girlfriends, though he insisted it was just because he liked the name.
I’ve never really liked the name my own mother gave me because I shared it with so many of my classmates and the meaning (“from the royal fortress meadow”) just never felt very…well, meaningful. I was never the only Kim in any of my classes, ever, so my name was never just Kim – it was always Kim M. My mother said she took the name from one of my relatives who was expecting a child and had a boy name and a girl name picked out. She had a boy so my mother took the girl name for me.
When it was time to name my children I took the responsibility seriously. I wanted them to have names that were distinctive without being too weird or hard to spell or pronounce. I also wanted them to have names that were versatile enough that they could have choices if they later decided to use their middle name or a nickname. And finally, I wanted them to have some meaning to their names. I have one daughter with a name that means “consecrated to God”, one with a name that means “grace”, and one with a name that means “the Lord answers”.
Your name is powerful. It’s the thing that others say to get your attention. It’s personal. When you become a parent you get a new name: Mommy or Daddy. Or maybe “bruh” if you have a teenager. And then when God calls you to follow Him, He calls you by a new name: Mine. And more: forgiven, redeemed, worthy, saved, holy, blessed, righteous. I could go on and on.
Whatever name you were given as a child, when you take on the name of Believer or Christian or Christ-follower, you are carrying into the world the very representation of Christ. After all, Christian literally means “little Christ”. This is not a name to be taken lightly but a name to keep in mind in everything you do. Am I showing reverence for the name I carry? Am I honoring the name? Am I living up to the name? We will never be perfect but we need to be mindful of the names that we carry. I’m so glad God gave me a new name way back in 1982 at Madison Avenue Baptist Church in Maryville, Tennessee, and I am so thankful to be called His child.
