The Pearl of Priest Town

I love discovering the meanings of names. Permission for man to name things was established by God in the beginning. Genesis 1:26-28 documents our dominion over the earth and all its creatures and Genesis 2:20 and 3:20 show where the naming of the animals and people started. This post is the genesis of the name of this blog.

I started this blog for a former job. It wasn’t mandatory, but I thought it would be fun and useful. I wasn’t super committed to it though, so I didn’t put too much thought into the name or its design. When I decided to resurrect it, I wanted the name to be unique and a reflection of who I am. It’s really easy to get into clichés and cheesy sounding things when you start evaluating aspects of yourself that have a general connection to groups, preferences, and organizations. I wanted to avoid that, so I decided to just look at me. That examination went all the way to my DNA.

My mom and dad are critical to my identity. They established my name and contributed to my

personality. As I thought about their many contributions to my personhood, I began to think about their names and what role they may have had in who I have become. I always knew that my mom’s name meant “pearl.” She shared that name with her two sisters, whose names also meant “pearl.” I’m not sure if my grandparents knew that when they named them. I didn’t know what my dad’s name meant until I started this process. When I realized that, I thought it was very strange that I had never researched it before. When I found out what it meant, I realized it wasn’t an accident. My dad’s name means “priest town.”

I don’t believe in coincidences and whole-heartedly feel that God orchestrates the timing of things in my life. I could have looked up the meaning to my dad’s name at any point before now, but to discover it right when I was renaming my faith-centered blog and looking at my identity was extraordinary.

So there you have it. The Pearl of Priest Town.