Saturday, October 1, 2011

The Name

Meet Madison Edelle Low. The first name was easily decided upon as this is a name that both of us really liked and that subset is really small (only two names in it). The meaning of the name Madison, derived from its Hebrew heritage, is "Gift from the Lord" and this is the same meaning as Elijah's middle name (Chinese name). The name Madison also reflects her birth place and her mother's hometown, Madison, WI, a city named after one of the most admired founding father of America, James Madison, who was also the fourth President of the United States and is hailed as the “Father of the Constitution” for being the primary author of the United States Constitution and the author of the United States Bill of Rights.

Her middle name was really challenging because we wanted a name that means "nobel," and it has to be at least two syllables long as our last name is only one syllable. For those with a last name that is one syllable you will understand that having a one syllable middle or first name doesn't work because most people will pronounce both names as one word. For example, if we used a name like "Bee", most people will pronounce that name together with the last name and in our case, it will sound like  "Be-low." We also wanted a middle name that started with the initial "E" so that the initials of her name will be MEL. It was fantastic that we found a German name, "Edelle" meaning "nobel" and having a German name also reflects part of her heritage as Sarah is half German.

Checking on the popularity of the name suggest that it is one of the most popular names in the US and in the top 20% in Australia. However, it is very uncommon in other countries and so in a way she will have the best of both worlds. She will have a unique name globally but still have a popular name when she is in two countries - US and Australia.


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