What's in a Name?

Recently "some people" have inquired what my children's names mean. Quite honestly, we didn't put any thought into the meaning of our sons' names. Not an ounce. Their names could mean stinky barf bag, and I would not like them any less. I do not understand why it matters what a name means. Who is ever going to know the actual meaning? Do you introduce yourself as "Abira" and mention that it means "strong and brave?" (And, frankly, you'd better hope you are strong and brave with a name like that to defend) Now, I realize some religions put a lot of emphasis on name meaning, but since we really have no religion, this wasn't an issue for us. And, if you choose a name whose meaning is obvious, like Hope or Faith, I totally get that. If your name is Sunday (ala Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban) it makes me wonder if you were conceived or born on a Sunday. It's the supposed importance of the underlying, cryptic meanings that baffle me. For us, it was more important that our boys' names, while uncommon, sounded strong and wouldn't get them beaten up on the playground. We also wanted names with an element of prestige because statistically that matters in adulthood, even though fundamentally it shouldn't. And, we didn't want our kids to carry anyone else's names, like family members or close friends, because we want our kids to be unadorned with expectations of "living up to" their names. And, because, most of the names in our families are not really all that jazzy! They have our surnames, and that's enough.

But, I felt I should research the meaning of their names, nonetheless. What I found is there's little consistency on a given name's meaning. Here are the results:

Beckett Reese: winding stream/small body of water; enthusiastic beekeeper (perhaps this explains his love of bugs!)

Kyler Slade: church in the valley; church in the child of the valley; combination of kyle and tyler in the valley

I also researched Dana's and my names:
Chelssya Mariah: bitter chalk landing place (anyone know what a chalk landing place is?); bitter seaport; seaport mount/peak

Dana Marie: bitter aribiter (doesn't that sound lovely?!)

Now, personally, I think our family has quite nice names. I also think those names have bizarre if not awful meanings. Knowing these meanings, does it change the way I perceive any of us? Nope, and I'm not bitter about it a bit!