Time to talk about a name... that I love so much!
When we decided on the name ZIVA ESTHER JOEL ... I thought it sounded very pseudo ... very unlike Suresh and me. I thought I would take one look at 'her' and revert back to some other name we had talked about. I was reluctant to even tell people when they asked me what we were planning to name the baby. Finally Suresh took it upon himself to reveal the name. Now time to talk about how we came to this name.
Starting with the easy part. JOEL. Well we wanted to keep the last names similar for the siblings and share it with dad. So ... JOEL
ESTHER. This is Suresh's mom's name when she took baptism. Esther always makes me associate with a very brave woman. A very strong name. Very old one too.
ZIVA. Now coming to the first name. I wanted the first name to be of Hebrew origin because Isaac (laughter) was of Hebrew origin. Something I felt that brother and sister can have in common. I also wanted 'anna' in the name somewhere since it is my mother's church name. We spent a few months bouncing off names such as Petra ... Hosanna ... Joanna and other similar ones. Nothing seemed to click! Both me and Suresh never seemed to agree on a name.
Now for the crazy part. For those of you who do not know Suresh and I are big fans of criminal and detective shows. We love Law and order...House ... Cold case and other such shows. I normally watch them till I get nightmares and then quit watching them cold turkey. One show that was a favorite was NCIS. In the show is a Israeli mossad agent called 'Ziva David' (pronounced Daaveed). I absolutely love her character. She has a way of mis-saying American idioms ... that makes her character a little funny too
(Ziva: I would hate to be misunderstood.
Fornell: Does that happen often?
Ziva: Once in a blue lagoon.)
One evening the TV was switched on and NCIS was going on and I looked over to Suresh and said ... how about Ziva. He paused. I was waiting for him to make fun of the name and all he said was 'hmmmm'.
Couple of weeks later we were driving somewhere and I said ' We need a name you know'. And Suresh goes ' I thought Ziva was pretty good'. Me ... a little surprised.
A few weeks later Suresh and I are chatting over gmail about an article about TV viewing for kids and revisiting some of our rules for Isaac ( some of which have gone out off the window) ... when he says 'Well with Ziva we can try ...' It seemed like he had set his heart on the name.
When we told our Israeli neighbors Mitel the name, she said 'Ziva .. that is such an old name' ... I thought perfect matches with Esther.
One of the episodes in NCIS has another mossad agent teasing Ziva that only grandmothers in Israel are named Ziva. I guess none of the Indians who call her that are going to know!
ZIVA means brilliance or splendor of God.
I remember once a long time ago Suresh saying ... 'We cannot even imagine what heaven is going to be like. We will be so amazed at His splendor'. When I looked at my tiny little 6 lb 14 oz Ziva - I was filled with amazement... That God would trust me with this precious thing. Big responsibility.
3 You will be a crown of splendor in the LORD’s hand,
a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
PS: Looks like I won the battle again and got my way with naming my second child!
When we decided on the name ZIVA ESTHER JOEL ... I thought it sounded very pseudo ... very unlike Suresh and me. I thought I would take one look at 'her' and revert back to some other name we had talked about. I was reluctant to even tell people when they asked me what we were planning to name the baby. Finally Suresh took it upon himself to reveal the name. Now time to talk about how we came to this name.
Starting with the easy part. JOEL. Well we wanted to keep the last names similar for the siblings and share it with dad. So ... JOEL
ESTHER. This is Suresh's mom's name when she took baptism. Esther always makes me associate with a very brave woman. A very strong name. Very old one too.
ZIVA. Now coming to the first name. I wanted the first name to be of Hebrew origin because Isaac (laughter) was of Hebrew origin. Something I felt that brother and sister can have in common. I also wanted 'anna' in the name somewhere since it is my mother's church name. We spent a few months bouncing off names such as Petra ... Hosanna ... Joanna and other similar ones. Nothing seemed to click! Both me and Suresh never seemed to agree on a name.
Now for the crazy part. For those of you who do not know Suresh and I are big fans of criminal and detective shows. We love Law and order...House ... Cold case and other such shows. I normally watch them till I get nightmares and then quit watching them cold turkey. One show that was a favorite was NCIS. In the show is a Israeli mossad agent called 'Ziva David' (pronounced Daaveed). I absolutely love her character. She has a way of mis-saying American idioms ... that makes her character a little funny too
(Ziva: I would hate to be misunderstood.
Fornell: Does that happen often?
Ziva: Once in a blue lagoon.)
One evening the TV was switched on and NCIS was going on and I looked over to Suresh and said ... how about Ziva. He paused. I was waiting for him to make fun of the name and all he said was 'hmmmm'.
Couple of weeks later we were driving somewhere and I said ' We need a name you know'. And Suresh goes ' I thought Ziva was pretty good'. Me ... a little surprised.
A few weeks later Suresh and I are chatting over gmail about an article about TV viewing for kids and revisiting some of our rules for Isaac ( some of which have gone out off the window) ... when he says 'Well with Ziva we can try ...' It seemed like he had set his heart on the name.
When we told our Israeli neighbors Mitel the name, she said 'Ziva .. that is such an old name' ... I thought perfect matches with Esther.
One of the episodes in NCIS has another mossad agent teasing Ziva that only grandmothers in Israel are named Ziva. I guess none of the Indians who call her that are going to know!
ZIVA means brilliance or splendor of God.
I remember once a long time ago Suresh saying ... 'We cannot even imagine what heaven is going to be like. We will be so amazed at His splendor'. When I looked at my tiny little 6 lb 14 oz Ziva - I was filled with amazement... That God would trust me with this precious thing. Big responsibility.
Isaiah 62:3
New International Version (NIV)
3 You will be a crown of splendor in the LORD’s hand,
a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
PS: Looks like I won the battle again and got my way with naming my second child!
