What's in a name?

So I was recently asked the question . . . what do your kids' names mean. I did a post on this before but I couldn't remember when and I just love talking about their names. I also don't think that I went into very much detail then. So now is my time to just sit down and contemplate how very special each one of my children are and why they were given the names that they have.

My eldest was given his first name by Piko's papa. He told us that when we went to visit him we spent so much time at the beach (I was pregnant with Kanalu at the time) that it only seemed appropriate to name him "the surf".
I thought we were done with his name until one morning Piko wakes up and says. . . I dreamed that his middle name should mean. . . "the eternal guiding light of righteousness". I was like oh hello that's a lot to live up to hun and it's going to be long! He was determined to give him that name so I just busted out the Hawaiian dictionary and put the name together (the literal translation is " eternal sacred light of righteousness"). Piko called his good friend Hoku who was a Hawaiian language instructor at UH-Hilo to kosher it. He said the translation was correct and good luck with such a strong name. Let me tell you that's our Kanalu, he is constantly reminding us of the things we need to be doing. . . of course he still acts his age and does fumble sometimes. . .the reminders come mostly after he's been taught the proper actions by us.

Then there is our little Kolu. In Hawaiian e'kolu means 3. Now most of you are wondering why would you give your second child the nickname 3. Well he is #3. . . He's the third to be given his full name. Kolu's first name means "wagon maker". . . he's the only one of our kids that has an English first name. His middle name means literally. . . "the peak of the mountain". . . that part that you can actually walk along. The kauna or figurative-poetic meaning (most Hawaiian names have double meanings so you need to be careful) is "one with much life". We definitely gave the right child this name. From the day Kolu was born he was so animated. . . he has a facial expression for every feeling he has. . . he always seems one step ahead (physically and mental) of the rest of us. He was given this name because his father is just so vain. . . and he always "thinks this song is about him"!!!!

Then our little princess was conceived and my aunty Chiyoko had passed away and I love her so much. I wanted to give our princess her name but just felt all wrong about it so I remembered that when I was in the kindergarten I thought that this little Japanese girl in my class named Keiko was the sweetest person and vowed that I'd name one of my daughters Keiko too. But Keiko is a very common Japanese name and has literally hundreds of meanings depending on the way you write the kanji. . . we were at Piko's aunty Dora's house one day and a bunch of our friends came over and one of them just so happens to have a sister named Keiko and I told her that's what I wanted to name our princess and she was happy to share with me the meaning of her sister's name and there was the answer to my prayer. . . "Blessed Child". Then I tossed and turned for weeks about her Hawaiian name. It had to be just as special as Keiko. I then remembered my best friend from BYU-H. . . Mernette, who told me I had to name my first daughter after her. . . Pualani. Well Pualani wasn't enough for me. There needed to be more. . . I really don't know how her name came to be. . . I can't quite remember how it all happened but it means literally, "Beautiful adornment of heavenly flowers." My meaning for it is. . . the kauna of the word lei is child. . . "beautiful virtuous child". Pualani means heavenly flowers and to me heavenly flowers are not like the flowers by the roadside that every traveler has touched but are the flowers that are growing on the mountainside that a climber must work hard to get to. I think it was Bruce R. McConkie who wrote that little parable about the flowers by the roadside that a friend of mine gave to us when we were in YW for a lesson on holding fast to your virtues. And now I pass that lesson learned on to my daughter in her name.

Last but not least. . . on to our little pumpkin who is driving me crazy because some days I think she'll be here and then the contractions just stop. Her name is to feed my ego! She has part of my first name in hers. I think my first name is boring so I added on to it. Then I looked it up online and learned that it is an actual flower that grows in the mountains of Europe as well as in the mountains of the west coast of the great U.S. of A. That just seems to go with the parable of the flowers by the roadside again. . . hmmmm I didn't mean to do that, how wonderful. Now for her Hawaiian name. . . I've posted about this one before but it makes me feel so wonderful to repeat myself because this name is so perfect to me. . . literally the name means "My Rainbow Adornment". Being that the rainbow is God's symbol to Noah or Noe in the New Testament (heehee, Noe is also my nickname, that's why I giggle) that He promises that He'll never flood the earth again. . . having pumpkin is the fulfillment of my promise to Heavenly Father that if he'd bless me with a girl I'd have one more child; I had Keiko and now I'm fulfilling my promise by having pumpkin. . .therefore the kauna of pumpkin's name is. . . remember lei figuratively means child. . . "My child of promise".

There you go. . . the meanings of my children's names. Hope you had a fun read! I just love learning about names. . . if you feel inclined post about your children's names. . . I'd love to read about it! Have a happy day!

Hawaiian lesson of the day is. . . Lei figuratively means child because when you carry your child on your shoulders his/her legs dangle around your neck like a lei.