Hezekiah James: His Name

Hezekiah James Hines.

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Oh, the comments I’ve already gotten on our little dude’s name 😉

I know, I know…it’s a mouthful. And it’s pretty much unheard of. But we absolutely love it and I hope that whatever your opinion is on the matter, you will be respectful. As with any other name you hear that makes you go “whaaat?”

First off…where did we get such a name?

2 Kings 18, Hezekiah, King of Judah.

Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. He was 25 years old and reigned in Jerusalem 29 years. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done. He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that point, the Israelite’s had been burning incense to it. Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He held fast to the Lord and did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. And the Lord was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook.

S0ooo…why this name?

Well, why not? We love the name Hezekiah and we love the man that he represented in Scripture. Was he perfect? Absolutely not! He made grave mistakes and was indeed the father of one of the most evil kings. But then again, people name their sons David all the time, and he was an adulterous murderer!

2 Chronicles 28-31 details more of what Hezekiah did for the nation of Israel, turning them towards God. But not only did King Hezekiah turn the people towards God (many other Kings did this), he also worked hard to eliminate anything that was turning the people’s attention away from God.

In everything that he undertook in the service of God’s temple and in obedience to the law and the commands, he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly.

We hope and pray that our son, Hezekiah will live up to the biblical King Hezekiah. We hope and pray that he will be a man of great leadership and that he will not only follow God, but lead others to do the same. We pray that he will live up to this verse:

Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He held fast to the Lord and did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses.” (2 Kings 18:5-6)

Hezekiah means “God is my Strength”, which I also love so, so much.

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Hezekiah’s middle name is James, and that is after Theo’s Dad, James Hines. We wanted to honor Theo’s legacy and Theo’s side of the family by naming our first son after Theo’s Dad.

And if you are concerned about the weight of this name for this little guy, we have nicknamed him “Kiah” and will call him that pretty regularly. When he grows up, if he feels that Hezekiah is too much to spell or say or explain, he can just be “Kiah”. We did discuss this beforehand and agreed that we would be fine with that.

And that is why we chose “Hezekiah James Hines” for our little dude.

 

What about you? How did you pick your kids names? Do they have special meaning or significance to you?

 

You can read the meaning behind Tera Evelynne’s name by clicking here.

 

 

24 comments

  1. Sheila says:

    I love his name! And especially the meaning! We struggled with picking a boys name but finally agreed on one we love and chose an old family name for his middle name.

  2. Pam O says:

    You don’t know me – I am a friend of your inlaws and I think it is a BEAUTIFUL name and that he is just precious! We are friends of B. and Eryn, also, and all I can say is what a wonderful family to be born into 🙂

    • sdevalve@cedarville.edu says:

      Thanks for stopping by! I love hearing from people who stop by to read my blog!
      We have been joking about Hezekiah’s strong name, and we just figured that with a Dad named Theophilus, he HAS to have a strong name!

  3. Rachel Osborn says:

    I love the nickname, how cute! Very fitting for one so small. 🙂 I like the meaning behind his name too, and love the reasons you picked it! There’s nothing wrong with picking unique, yet strong solid Biblical names. 🙂

    • sdevalve@cedarville.edu says:

      I love it! I agree…I can see why people might be confused, but it’s not a swear word or something inappropriate, so I don’t think anyone else should care! Haha!

  4. Rebekah says:

    🙂 I always love hearing about names. We don’t really choose names for any reason other than we like them so I always find this an interesting thing.

  5. Mandie L says:

    Our eldest three have names that were chosen partly for their meaning, and partly because we liked them. Meaning was always an important component. Gareth was harder – we both liked the name, and I like the story of Sir Gareth from the King Arthur stories. But it means “gentle & meek” and we were wanting something a little more theological. So we ended up discarding the name, only to get into labour without a boy name chosen! When he was born, we just knew that of all the names we’d discussed, Gareth was the right one for him. And it suits him perfectly – my sweet, laid-back boy.

    • sdevalve@cedarville.edu says:

      It does suit him perfectly! Sometimes I feel like God gives us the names for our children because he knows them better than we do. I always wonder how that worked throughout Scripture, where every child’s name seems to mean what they lived for. So cool!

  6. Heather says:

    We chose semi unusual, but definitely on the end of trendy names for 2/3 boys. I have found – as long as you and the boys love their names nothing else matters. When I try to give the boys a nickname, they correct me and say I love my name (Milo and Bode). That’s all that matters, I guess!

  7. Malessa says:

    My youngest son is also called Hezekiah James 🙂 I googled it randomly now and came across your site 🙂 When people first see/hear the name they seem to fear it because of the spelling looks hard to pronounce. But as you know it is not. Everyone I know now loves it – and it is my favourite out of all my kids names because of the uniqueness (well, mostly 😉 We also call him Kiah and sometimes Kai for short. James for us is my husband’s father’s middle name and his brother’s middle name, and just had a great ring to it when said together 😉

    • sdevalve@cedarville.edu says:

      Hi Malessa! That is so crazy! I’m so glad that you left this comment! My husband and I both got a kick out of it- what are the chances that our sons would have the same names? James in our case is also after my husbands father! I hope you will stick around!

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