What's in a name?

Just the other day, when I picked Mataias up from school, he asked what his name meant and why we gave him that name. He was just curious because he was telling me all about all his friends and wondering where people get their names from. So, I figured I would give an explanation of each of our children's names.



Christianna Ofa Ikai Ngalo Brown ~ December 6,2001
When we were 25 weeks pregnant, we found out our baby's brain did not develop properly and there were many parts missing so she was not going to survive the entire pregnancy and to carry the pregnancy could result in an infection or other complications so I was induced at 26 weeks. When we found out she was too perfect to come to Earth, we went to the Temple to find peace and her name came from there. Christianna means "follower of Christ." It's also a combination of Eric's middle name, Christen, and Leeanna and it seemed to be the perfect name for her. Ofa Ikai Ngalo means love never ending.





Mataias Michael Maluheu Brown ~ November 27,2002
It is more commonly spelled Mathias, but we spelled it our way. We really liked the sound of it (Muh-ty-us) and I think we had decided this would be our son's name before we even got married. When we researched it, his name means "A gift of God." Mataias truly is a gift from our Heavenly Father and we are so grateful for him. After I told him what his name meant, he kept telling me all day, "Mommy, I'm glad that I could be a gift from God for you." Me too!!!





Erianna Losehina Lynn Brown ~ April 24,2004
Another name that was chosen before we got married, I loved how our names could be joined together and make a beautiful one. Erianna, if it wasn't obvious, is a combination of Eric and Leeanna. The meaning of it is "Very holy one." Losehina is my mom's and my middle name. Lynn is my sister's (Jeannie, not that I have any other sisters) and Eric's brother, David's middle name. Erianna's nickname came from when Mataias first learned how to say her name and he called her Yana so that's what we call her too.





Isaleina Josafina Suiti Brown ~ May 4,2006
When we first met and talked about songs we liked, we both really loved the song "Lia" by Fiji. (If you've never heard it, it's on our playlist at the bottom of our blog.) In the song, it says that Isa is "my treasure." It goes..."Isa...Lei...Lia," but we also wanted her name to end with a "na" like mine, Erianna's and Chrisianna's so we kinda added the ending to it. So, Isaleina(Ee-sa-lay-nah) is what we came up with. Josafina is the name of the first lady that Eric baptized on his mission in Chile and he still keeps in touch with her. Suiti is my mom's mom's (Grandma's) name. Everyone likes to call her Isa or sometimes we call her Lei.





Kealana Leeanna Alisi Brown ~ April 19,2007
With our last two pregnancies, we didn't find out what we were having. It was tough, but we already had a boy and a girl and felt that whatever the Lord blessed us with, we were excited for! We actually had a boy name ready since after Mataias was born and were running out of girl names until about a month before she was born. We wanted to follow our pattern of ending with "na" and we just liked the way it sounded, so we named her Kealana(Keh-a-lana). Keala- means "the path." Leeanna is of course, after me and Alisi is after Eric's dad's sister. The kids had a hard time saying her name, so they started calling her K-nana. So, she goes by that or by Nana from them.

It's a big responsibility to give someone a name. I mean, it's with them forever. I hope our children are happy with the names we have chosen for them because after this long, I couldn't see them as anyone else but who they are!