Day 27: A Girl Has No Name… Or Does She?

We all have a story about where we came from. I’ve always been a big believer that last names tell us something about a person or at least where they came from a long time ago, while first names tell us about the futures that parents want for their children.

My last name is Ozbolt. As far as I’ve been able to gather, Ozbolt is a name that was pretty common in the nations formerly known as Yugoslavia. My grandma tells me that Ozbolt means “merchant” and was the name of a small village in Slovenia, and that my grandpa’s family was from what is now Slovenia. The internet tells me that Ozbolt is a Slovene form of the name Oswald.

Oswald, according to BehindTheName.com, is:

[d]erived from the Old English elements os “god” and weald “power, ruler”. Saint Oswald was a king of Northumbria who introduced Christianity to northeast England in the 7th century before being killed in battle. There was also an Old Norse cognate Ásvaldr in use in England, being borne by the 10th-century Saint Oswald of Worcester, who was of Danish ancestry. Though the name had died out by the end of the Middle Ages, it was revived in the 19th century.

This is all news to me, by the way, I’ve always just taken the name meaning as “merchant” but it’s always interesting what a 30 second Google search will turn up.

I don’t know what this says about the Ozbolts, but I’ve always been told that it’s an interesting and/or powerful name. One thing that can say that is a trait of the Ozbolts is that we are an incredibly determined (at best) or pigheaded (at our worst) group of people.

My mom’s maiden name is Hayes. Hayes is Gaelic or Irish for “fire” or if you take the Yiddish name Khaye “life.” This is completely self-explanatory if you know my mom. I get my fire and zest for life from her, I’m sure.

My wife’s maiden name is Willard. According to Ancestry.com, Willard is:

English: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements wil ‘will’, ‘desire’ + hard ‘hardy’, ‘brave’, ‘strong’. Probably an Americanized form of the German cognate Willhardt.

Resolute or brave appear in other search results for the name.

If you know anything about my wife, and just a little about me then you’ll know that she is all of these things and more, and has to be to be able to put up with me.

Deprey is Kelly’s mom’s maiden name and it is French for “from the meadow.” Sometimes, names are used as descriptors of where people came from.

My first name is Thomas, and means “twin.” My wife’s name is Kelly, which means “warrior, war, lively, aggressive” — all fitting, and yes, she wins this one.

Why do I bring this up when talking about 30 Days of Discipline?

As you know, I started this 30 Days with the end goal of building habits that will help me grow into a better husband, brother, son, friend, and man.

But the one role that I left off was parent. Father. Dad.

Sometime in the next few hours, days, or weeks, by the grace of God, a little girl, part Willard, part Ozbolt is going to be entering this world. While it may seem miniscule in comparison to the myriad other responsibilities that we will have as parents, one of the incredibly humbling things that we get to do is choose a name for her.

She is coming into families that are already established, with virtues and faults aplenty. She doesn’t have any choice about the families that she is joining, but join them she will nonetheless.

As I’ve tried to build a new culture for my life over these 30 Days, I’ve thought a lot about the culture of the family that she’s entering. The culture that Kelly and I will build for her. While she will experience in part the Ozbolt and Willard cultures of our parents, she will primarily have the family culture that we define and shape. We haven’t done this before, she’s our first child. We need wisdom, prayers, advice, and the support of the people around us to build a family culture that honors God and points this little girly in his direction so that she can find the truth and experience the love that we’ve found.

So these things have been on my mind more and more as we grow closer to the day where she joins us. Her momma and her deserve a man who’s trying to be the best he can be, the man who God intended him to be — that’s one of the reasons why I’m doing this.

Having a system and a plan has been a godsend in terms of creating changes that I wanted to see in my life. We can always improve in some way right? None of us are perfect, so we can always keep moving forward. When we have people who count on us, we can’t afford not to.

In coming days, this little girl is counting on me and Kelly to lead her in the right direction. A good start to that is a good name. Names mean something. God changed Abram which mean “exalted father” to Abraham, “father of many nations” or “father of a multitude.” In another example, Jesus gave Simon the name Peter or Cephas, which meant “rock,” and told him “on this rock will I build my church.” These names meant something, they symbolized the purpose that God intended their lives to have.

Let’s be clear, none of this is to say that Kelly or I are God-like in our ability to assign a purpose to our baby girl’s life. We live in a time where God does not directly speak to us and tell us what to name our babies. We have to make our own choices in that regard, but when we do, we want to strive for something with the name that we give her. We want her name to mean something, to stand for something. And we think that’ve we’ve found one that does.

Oh boy, so without further adieu…. her name is…

Hah, just kidding. You didn’t think we’d give it up that easy after all this time did ya?

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Quote of the Day

Honorable men seek out the highest definition of their lives, the nobler meaning granted by heritage, by their ancestors’ dreams and their parents’ hopes. Honorable men cry out to God until curses are broken and a grander purpose is achieved. Honorable men don’t settle for lives of regret.

~Stephen Mansfield

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Links to Past Episodes/Resources:

Introduction Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10

Day 11 Day 12 Day 13 Day 14 Day 15 Day 16 Day 17 Day 18 Day 19 Day 20

Day 21 Day 22 Day 23 Day 24 Day 25 Day 26

Manfield’s Book of Manly Men: An Utterly Invigorating Guide to Being Your Most Masculine Self

If you have any feedback, please send me a message or leave it on my Facebook page: Thirty Days. This is a new project and I’d love to hear your thoughts. It is a tremendous encouragement to know that someone is reading this. Encouragement, comments AND criticism are welcome.