Namesake

The importance of a name....it took almost nine months for David and I to choose a name for Miles. It's not that we disagreed with each other. In fact, we agreed on almost every name on our short list. It was that we wanted something a little bit unique, but not too unusual...and it had to be meaningful to us... MILES is my grandmother's maiden name. It seemed only fitting that we pay homage to such a loving and family-oriented person that has played a very central role in our lives, despite the geographic distance between us. "Miles" is German and means merciful or generous. GABRIEL was chosen because of its biblical ties, as well as the fact that it can easily be pronounced in Spanish (which is important considering David's family speaks Spanish at home). However, I like to think that we chose it mostly for its role in the literary world. One of my favorite authors is Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and I like thinking about his works everytime I see my son's name. "Gabriel" is Hebrew and means God is my strength. So, although we received several wonderful and very creative name suggestions from others (such as naming him after the Atlantic Ocean), we chose a name meaningful to us that we hope will infuse a sense of strength, identity and significance into our son's life.