A Pride of Lyons: Name Game

I have always been interested in names. I often wonder why people are named what they are. I think our names are very powerful forces in our lives--I think we are somehow shaped by what we are named and I believe we tend to live up to our names.

JESSICA MARY GAY LYON

The girl's name "Jessica" is pronounced JESS-a-kah (helpful, right?). Jessica comes from the Hebrew origin. In Hebrew the meaning of the name is: Rich, God beholds, foresighted, God's Grace or wealthy.

"Jessica was originally found as the name of a character in Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice, where it belongs to the daughter of Shylock. One theory of how Shakespeare created the name is that he altered Jesca, the form of the name of a daughter of Haran briefly mentioned in the book of Genesis. Though Jesca was the form of the name used in English language Bibles available to Shakespeare, the King James Version of the Bible and subsequent translations refer to this person as Iscah. [1] Jesca or Iscah is derived from the Hebrew Yiskah (יִסְכָּה), meaning "foresight" (being able to see the potential in the future). The Hebrew root sakhah (ס.כ.ה) means "to see," so the name Yiskah, with the added yud, implies foresight or clairvoyance.

"Jessica" was the most popular female baby name throughout the 1980's and 1990's in the United States. It also rose to # 1 in England and Wales in 2005, dropping to # 3 in 2006. Common abbreviations of the name Jessica include "Jess" and "Jessie."" (Source: Wikipedia)

Jessica and Shylock

If I would have been a boy, my Dad insisted (joked) that I be named "Otis". Sweet, Dad. ;) I like my name a lot - despite its popularity and the fact that I often get called "Jennifer". My given middle name is Mary, after my Dad's Mom who I never got to meet. I hear she was a beautiful woman - I'll get to meet her someday in heaven. Though my legal name is Jessica Gay Lyon - I like to think that my whole name is Jessica Mary Gay Lyon. Thanks Mom and Dad.

DAVID ROBERT LYON

The boy's name David \d(a)-vid\ is pronounced DAY-vid. It is of Hebrew origin, and its meaning is "beloved". Biblically, David is one of the most remarkable personalities in the Scriptures. David was a shepherd, musician, poet, soldier, statesman, prophet, and king. He wrote about half of the Psalms and very likely composed music for them as well. He is the only David mentioned in the Bible; his name occurs there more than a thousand times. Today there are variants of the name in almost every language group.

The Old Testament David killed the giant Goliath in 10th Century BC, then succeeded Saul as King of Israel. Jesus was a direct descendant of David and before Jesus' coming the people were looking for a King just like David to lead their people. So, you can imagine the people's surprise (and unwillingness to believe) when Jesus arrived as a sweet baby.

(This is NOT an accurate representation of my David.)

I love David's name. Like King David, my David is a man devoted to God. My David has fought and killed a great number "Goliath's" so that he could be closer to God. I love you David.

BLAINE MILLER LYON

From a Scottish surname which was derived from the given name Bláán, which meant "yellow" in Gaelic. Saint Bláán was a 6th-century missionary to the Picts. Blaine also means, "slender" or "thin". My favorite meaning however is:`Servant of St. Blaan`... The servant of a servant of God. So cool. However, we actually derived Blaine's name from "Blaise" Pascal.

Blaise Pascal was a Christian in the 17th century. Pascal's most influential theological work, referred to posthumously as the Pensées ("Thoughts"), was not completed before his death. It was to have been a sustained and coherent examination and defense of the Christian faith, with the original title Apologie de la religion Chrétienne ("Defense of the Christian Religion"). What was found upon sifting through his personal items after his death were numerous scraps of paper with isolated thoughts, grouped in a tentative, but telling, order. The first version of the detached notes appeared in print as a book in 1670 titled Pensées de M. Pascal sur la religion, et sur quelques autres sujets ("Thoughts of M. Pascal on religion, and on some other subjects") and soon thereafter became a classic. One of the Apologie's main strategies was to use the contradictory philosophies of skepticism and stoicism, personalized by Montaigne on one hand, and Epictetus on the other, in order to bring the unbeliever to such despair and confusion that he would embrace God.