Origin of Josephine

I believe that a few people were surprised by our choice of name for the latest edition. As with our other two children, we had opted for not knowing the gender prior to birth, we like surprises. For months we had agreed on potential names. If it was a boy, we were going to him "Micah Thomas," and if it was a girl, "Abigail Grace."

As the months passed, Rachel began to have hesitations (to the point of veto) on the name Abigail. It was not for love of the name, but an aversion to the commonality of the name. The last thing we wanted was for our daughter to be in a class with 3 other Abbies (or Abbys). After a stop over at Baby Name Wizard, we realized that Abigail was the 6th most popular girl name last year (2006).

With our son, Josiah, we reached into the annuls of family history for his middle name (that is another story and post altogether). Arthur was my brother's name, and also that of my uncle. Although I had not given up on Abigail, I suggested we consider family names if we had a girl. Off-handedly, I suggested the name Josephine. Rachel grabbed it and wouldn't let go, with the stipulation of calling her Josie.

Josephine is Rachel's grandmother's name, but she goes by Jo. Jo, incidentally, is then Rachel's mother's middle name. Another trip over to Baby Name Wizard revealed that Josephine came in at 221 for 2006, and Josie at 291. Needless to say, there probably won't be many more Josies (or Josephines) that our daughter will meet along the way. Ironically, Josephine used to be a much more popular name (49:1890s, 37:1900s, 23:1910s, 33:1920s).

Josephine is the feminine form of Joseph and shares in its meaning: "God will increase." We certainly thank God for this increase in our lives, His increase of Grace. God has been good to give us Josie Mabry, may we be wise stewards of her life while it is entrusted to us. May she grow to be worthy of her name.