Naming Baby Sister

Today we registered the birth of Noelle. She now has a birth certificate and, yes, a middle name! Here is a little bit about our precious girl's full name -

Noelle Avra Tallon

Noelle: This is the French word for Christmas and has been given to babies born around Christmas since the Middle Ages. We love the sound of Noelle and would have given her this name at any time of the year. But, yes, we do like Christmas—the miracle of Emmanuel, God with us. That God, the creator of all things and Lord of Israel, would take on flesh is something worth celebrating all year. Noelle is also the feminine version of a family name (Luke’s paternal grandfather and uncle).

Avra: This is our modified transliteration of the Hebrew word meaning “wing”—long “a” in the front and short “a” in the back. It occurs at several points in the Old Testament to describe God’s care for his people.

Deuteronomy 32:10-11—In the context of a song of Moses celebrating the Lord’s care for Israel, “In a desert land the Lord found Israel, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye, as an eagle stirs up its nest, and hovers over its young; as it spreads its pinions, takes them up, and bears them aloft on its wings.”

Psalm 91:1-4—“Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. They say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust.’ Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.”

See also Isaiah 40:31. When the Old Testament was translated into Greek, the word used to translate our word was “pterux.” This is the word used in Matthew 23:37 (and Luke 13:34)—“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, …how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a gathers her chicks under her wings….” Needless to say, we like Avra better than Pteruxa. Also, there are already avian connections with Tallon as a surname as well as with Sykora (Holly's maiden name).

It is our prayer that Noelle Avra comes to know Jesus Christ as Emmanuel and to confess him as Lord. We also pray that she both experiences the comfort of finding refuge under the Lord’s wing and is used by God as his wing to give comfort and shelter to others.