Naming Luke

I am very indecisive. I take forever to make a decision and then, once I do, I question it for just as long. The way we were forced to choose a name for Clara in a matter of two days was probably the perfect scenario for me. No time to think about it. I knew that if I was ever blessed with a pregnancy that I'd take the whole nine months, and I did (although, I should add, I loved every minute of it).

Luke was Kolbe, for a really long time.

In fact, we first discussed Kolbe while we were at the March for Life weekend in Washington, D.C., back in 2006. It was at a booth about the saint that we first discovered he was the patron saint of journalists. I felt a connection to him immediately and, despite the fact that he wasn't yet Catholic, Ryan did as well.

In March of 2010 I discovered I was pregnant and immediately the name Kolbe was our top choice for a boy. As we waited to find out the gender I spent days upon days looking for a girl's name we could agree on and even remarked several times that I wanted it to be a boy because at least we had that figured out.

Soon after we found out we were, in fact, having a boy, our friends and family began referring to the baby as Kolbe. Ryan and I usually called him Baby #2, but I did often ask for St. Maximilian Kolbe's intercession for my Kolbe, calling him by that name.

Yet, the more I heard it out loud, the more I was no longer so sure. Ryan put up with me questioning over and over if Kolbe was right. Would he forever be correcting the pronunciation and spelling of it? Did it go with our last name? Was it the name God intended him to have?

We also told my father we were naming the middle name after him - John. Put those two names together, though, and I was worried he'd get picked on for being named after cheese (hint - you have to convert John to the nickname Jack. Okay, it's a stretch and everyone told me I was nuts, but those are the things that went through my mind!)

I searched for another name - just to have a back-up I said - but couldn't settle on anything. I scoured the internet. I spent way too much time on baby-naming websites.

Yet the whole time I felt a bit guilty separating our baby completely from St. Maximilian.

One day in October I was, again, looking for a name. I had started praying that God would reveal the baby's name to us and I was hoping for a sign. But - and I'm not kidding here - I had considered every boy's name ever created and nothing resonated with me. I knew I'd have to consider a name I'd already rejected, in a new light.

That's when I came upon a baby name blog I'd never seen before. I'm pretty sure the author was Catholic, or at the very least had a penchant for saints names (she even discussed Kolbe as a first name in one post).

There it was - Luke. Hmmm, I thought. It had never stuck out to me like it was now. I even asked Ryan what he thought of it. Luke Nobles. He really liked it, he told me.

That afternoon I checked my email and saw a new message in my inbox. My heart skipped a beat when I saw the subject line: Luke.

Here's what I read:

"AYWH",

I know you mentioned in a recent blog post that you are still torn about boy names. I was thinking about you last night, and the name Luke kept popping into my head... I was thinking of how last year, when we were all assigned a patron Saint for 2010, you got the Gospel Luke, and you were disappointed because you seemed like such a small humble creature for such an awesome Saint to "take on" as his own. But I really think (as I'm sure you do) that St Luke came through for you in so many ways this year, and has been praying for you a lot.
Not to mention the name is pretty awesome ;)

So, just a suggestion obviously. But I thought I'd throw it out there.

"TCIE"

I couldn't believe it. On the very same day that the name Luke had moved onto our (very) short list, my friend "TCIE" had reached out to me, randomly, suggesting the same name. And reminded me that it was my patron saint for that year. She was right - what a year it had been.

I googled the saint and quickly discovered another sign - it was his feast day that very day. October 18.

And yet another sign - October 18 also happened to be my father's birthday.

From that moment on, it was between Luke and Kolbe. To my surprise, though, our friends and relatives expressed regret over the possibility of us not using Kolbe. I hadn't even know anyone had liked it! But they all really liked Luke too and agreed that our new story of finding the name Luke definitely seemed meant to be.

We weren't sure what we were going with right up until he was born and it took a couple more signs for us to choose for sure. While I was in labor, the doctor on call, who was starting my induction, asked what we were naming him and when I told him the two names we were deciding between he shared that Luke was his confirmation name. Interesting.

Then while making small talk with my nurse, my mother asked her, since she's around for a lot of babies being born, what some of her favorite names have been lately. She stood there, thinking and thinking, and after a few minutes said, "Luke. Luke is a name I've heard lately that I really like." No way, I thought. We couldn't believe it.

So Luke it was. But my dad's name just didn't sound right with it. Luke John was a tad too "gospely", I thought. I hated going back on our promise to name our son after his grandfather, but everyone assured us it was okay. And I still felt as if Luke was also for him, since he shares a birthday with the saint's feast.

But then what would the middle name be? It suddenly occurred to me - Luke Kolbe. A combination of the two names we were deciding between. After months of indecisiveness, I was finally settled.

Or was I? Immediately after he was born I wondered if I had made the right choice and I even called Luke "Kolbe" a few times in the hospital (it did happen a few times at home, too, but I'm happy to say I haven't done it in over a month!). But I quickly started to absolutely love his name and, of course, now we couldn't imagine him as anything else.

So that's how we chose the name Luke Kolbe. Or, rather, how two amazing saints chose our baby (that's how I like to think of it). I'm sure these two powerful intercessors will go before God for our Lukie throughout his whole life. What a lucky little boy he is.

St. Luke, pray for us! St. Maximilian, pray for us!