Samuel Denn Heiner
The meaning of Samuel is "God heard" or "requested of God." Although I didn't know this when we chose the name, how can it possibly be a coincidence that this is what his name means? Justin and I tried for two years to have Sam. He was wanted so, so much by both of us, and it wasn't an easy road. Sam really was requested of God, we whispered and begged the world for him far before he was here with us. I longed for him and cried for him to come to me.
Samuel Denn also has meaning to us specifically. One of the people Sam is named after is his Great (x6) Grandfather, Samuel Denn. He was a U.S. Marshal in Medicine Lodge, KS who lived in the late 1800s and later went on to serve as a member of Washington State Legislature.
The name Samuel also has meaning specifically to me. When I was 18, a friend of mine, an amazingly talented and incredibly smart boy named Samuel, died by his own hand. It was my first experience losing someone so close to me, and I still think about him at least once a week. I like that our Sam has his name, and that it's a little piece of the good part of him that kind of lives on in the world.
Daniel John Heiner
Daniel means "God is my judge." Thinking about that now, I kind of like it. To me, it means that no man is his judge. He will be free to be who he is, always. I hope that gives him strength.
To be honest, we had a much harder time naming Danny. With Sam, things came together and we had the name picked out before he was even conceived. But with Danny, we didn't have a starting point. Daniel is Justin's middle name, and his mother's maiden name. It came up as an option at some point and before I knew it, I was starting to think of him as Danny and we decided to go with it. I believe my exact words to Justin were "If we don't want him to be named Danny, we better pick something else, because I'm starting to call him that in my head." I found out later that it's also my Mom's husband's middle name.
John means "God is gracious."
I was never hugely interested in naming my kids after my grandparents or ancestors, other than my Mom. If we'd had a girl, her middle name would have been Edith. When we started debating names for Danny though, I realized I really wanted his middle name to be after my paternal Grandfather, John Luther Hayman. As it happens, both of my Grandfathers AND my step-Grandfathers were named John. So I gave Justin the choice of either John or Luther, and he chose John (I fully admit that part of me wanted to name him Alexander Luther, but Alexander was nixed early on). I figured since the rest of the boys names stemmed primarily from his family, it was my turn! I am happy to honor my Grandfather with the name, he was an amazing, kind, smart and wonderful man.
Where did your kid's names come from?
