What's in a name *blog hop*

So, I got this from Sherri @ Still Breathing, who got this from Rachel @ A Lasting Footprint.  In recognition of her 80th post she's doing a blog hop on how did you choose your child or children's name(s) and what is/are the meaning(s) of those names...

Matthew James:

Before we found out our son was a boy, we decided on "Matthew' for a boy or "Elizabeth" for a girl. Matthew is one my husband's best friends, and Elizabeth is his aunt's name(plus, I like the character Elizabeth from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, lol.)  When we found out we were having a boy at 20 weeks, we decided on the middle name: James.  It's another name of one of my husband's close friends.  My husband likes Biblical names, also :)

Matthew means "Gift of God."  To me, that is undeniably true. Matthew was a disciple, too.
James means "Supplanter."  This is to take the place of.  He was one of the first disciples, also :)

So, when everything went to shambles and I ended up delivering him on June 30, 2010 at 21 weeks and 1 day, they asked, "Do you have a name for him?" There was no question about it: He was our gift from God; he was our Matthew James.


Joshua Peyton

My husband would not entertain girl names at all when we found out that we were expecting again.  We decided early on that if it was a boy he would be called Joshua(Daniel just "knew" lol).  I played with a few middle names, but the one I liked the most was Peyton.  It was so cute. Plus, my favorite quarterback has that name, lol.

Joshua means "God rescues."  In the Bible, my husband says he was "the man." He was a commander and fighter for the Lord.  Our Joshua was a fighter in general.  He fought until the very end.

Peyton means "fighting man's estate." But when I hear it, I think of an awesome quarterback and team leader :)

Once we found out he was a boy at 15 weeks, we always called him Joshua Peyton.  I even started reading the Book of Joshua to baby Joshua in utero.  I didn't get to finish, though :(


So, how did you choose your child or children's name(s) and what is/are the meaning(s) of the name(s)?