Tuesday 4: Names

Names

Welcome to Tuesday 4 kept up for Toni Taddeo our dear friend who was taken home to God on December 14, 2019. She would be pleased to know you all join in.

Note from Pam (me)
I did not realize that this Tuesday, December 14th, would be the anniversary of Toni's passing.  I am so glad we are keeping up this meme in memory of her. (Thanks to our friend Annie). Toni was such an inspiration to all of us who "knew" her, even if we only knew her through her blogs...that's how most of us know each other, and I feel like we are a pretty close family.

Speaking of our blogging family, most of you have heard by now of the sudden passing of the beloved son of our friend Linda Conley at Just Simply Linda.  Please keep Linda and her husband Dave in your thoughts and prayers as they grieve the tragic loss of their precious son Liam, their only child. 

"Blessed are those who mourn,

For they shall be comforted."

Matthew 5:4

Now on to today's topic:  

This week let's talk about your name!

1. What name would you take if you had to change your name?

 I don't think I would want to change my name. I can't imagine myself being anyone else. It was hard enough to change from my maiden name to my married name...I had to get used to being called Mrs. John Steiner instead of just plain Pam Mursch. I went through a little bit of an identity crisis at that time, but that was over 52 years ago, and I've been Pamela Mursch Steiner ever since, and now I wouldn't want to change that ever again. It's who I am.  BTW, most people who know me just call me "Pam". But I like the name "Pamela", and have often said that name is my "alter ego"...the old fashioned, more "victorian"  feminine form of me...rather than the more modern, rather outdoorsy active  "Pam" side of me.

By the way, did you see my last post, where I showed you this picture of the three "Pamela's" in our church:

It seems rather strange that for such a small church there should be three of us in one place! But also in my school class grades 1-12, there were two of us Pam's.  We always thought we were pretty special. LOL. (there were only 50 students in our graduating class). 

2. What is the meaning of your name.. how about your last name, do you know it's meaning?

"The name Pamela is primarily a female name of English origin that means All Honey, Sweetness. The name was invented by Sir Philip Sidney for a poem titled "Arcadia" in the 1580s; used by Samuel Richardson for his novel Pamela in the 1740s."  

I just looked up my last name (Maiden) Mursch: According to Ancestry.com

Mursch Name Meaning: German: nickname for a frail person, from Middle High German mursch ‘brittle’.

I really don't agree with that description. I have not met any of the Mursch family who I would consider to be "frail" or "brittle".  Of course, none of us are totally what our maiden name was. We are a combination of both parents.  

3. Do you think you fit your name and it's meaning? Yes, I am surprised by the description  of Pamela above, and somewhat humbled and blessed at the same time, but I do believe that I possess many of those attributes, although I'm not too sure about the ingenious ideas part....LOL.

4. Were you named after anyone or given your name for a specific reason? How about your kids?

I know I've told this story before...Here's ONE link, but there are others.  My birth name is Pamela Anne...Anne with an "e", like Anne of Green Gables.  Because I was born a redhead, my mother wanted to name me after her favorite heroine, Anne of Avonlea or Anne of Green Gables.  I'm not sure why my parents chose the Pamela part of my name, but I definitely know why they chose Anne for my middle name. 

As far as our kids are concerned, our oldest son is named after several people. His first name is William, which is after both of his grandfathers and one of this Great-Grandfathers. (as well as a couple of great-great grandfathers)

This is his paternal grandfather: (William G. Steiner)

This is his maternal grandfather. William F. Mursch: (my dad and mom on their wedding day)

And this is his great-grandpa William H. Mursch, my paternal grandfather:

His middle name is Benton, which is what we call him, and that is after my maternal grandfather: Benton Tedlie:

Our other two sons were named a little differently: Matthew Everette wasn't really named after anyone, but his name "Matthew" means "Gift of God", and that he was. Matthew is now with God in heaven, but he was God's gift to us for the 41 years we enjoyed him here. His middle name of Everette we picked at random because it just seemed to sound good with Matthew. I added the extra "e" to the end of it because I thought that looked extra nice, kind of like my middle name with the "e" on it.

Our youngest son is named John Scott. We call him Scott.  He is named after his daddy, my hubby John, (who, incidentally was named John Frank for his two grandfathers),  but the name Scott was chosen by our two older sons.  We asked them what they wanted to name their new baby brother, (because I really didn't have any boy names picked out, thinking for sure that the third child would surely be a girl and we didn't have "gender reveal" tests back then)  and they said "Scotty", after the little boy who lived across the street from us.  And so we named him John Scott, and then learned afterwards that the little boy across the street was also named "John Scott". So...there you have it. We have no clue where that little boy is today (of course he'd be probably in his late 50's by now).

This is a favorite picture of what I call "My Three Sons", taken way back before they all went their separate ways of college, marriage, work, etc....while they were still just that, "Our three sons".  Of course they always belonged to Jesus too. Our children are a gift to us, on loan from God.  

It is our job to:

  "Train up a child in the way he should go, 

And when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6

Matthew, Benton, Scott

No matter what name we may give our children, or what name we are called ourselves, the most important name we have is that our name is written down in the "Lamb's Book of Life" in heaven. There can be no more important name than that.

Except for this one:

The Names of Jesus:

The One whose Birth we will soon be celebrating:

Merry CHRISTmas!!

Note from Annie regarding this Tuesday 4 Meme: "As always thank you so much for joining in and making this a success. It just means the world to me. And, remember I am always looking for topics and questions so leave a comment if you have any!"