How we named our boys.

There is a story that goes with their names, or at least people inspiring them, method behind the madness, if you will.

We wanted Hugh and Leif to have special names, names that warranted a story, and a good one too. I've never told it, though I promised I would, so I am at least writing it out with the intentions of sharing it soon. 

Peter and I like odd names, strange names that are rarely heard. And if they are known, we like to give them a unique twist. And nearly always at least one part of our children's names can be linked back to some strong, inspirational person. 

Leif (as in Leif Nicholas) I simply loved, and Taylor (as in Hugh Taylor) is a family name on my dad's side (as well as his own middle name). Hugh has a story, and Nicholas is my oldest brother's name, but there's a story for that, too.

It took us nearly a week to decide names for the boys. Naming children is a daunting task-- especially when you can't see their faces. And then we resumed our reading on these two awe-inspiring men, and choosing names became not so dismaying.

It was when I was pregnant that Peter first introduced me to two of the three Oxford Martyrs, Hugh Latimer and his valiant comrade, Nicholas Ridley.

Ridley was a Bishop of London, hated for his Reformed teaching and support of Lady Jane Grey. In 1547 he became Bishop of Rochester and quickly after coming to office demanded that the altars in the churches be torn down and replaced by tables to celebrate the Lord's Supper. When Edward IV became sick, it was Ridley who fought for Jane Grey to succeed. But support from the council declined for Jane to take the throne, and upon Mary's succession, she quickly had Ridley imprisoned.

Hugh Latimer was a courageous Reformer that continued William Tyndale's fight to have the Bible translated into English. He publicly preached the need for not only the New Testament, but the entire Scriptures, to be translated, but in 1555, Bloody Mary had her way with him also and ordered Latimer, as well as Nicholas Ridley to be burnt at the stake.

While the fires consumed them, Latimer encouraged Ridley, "Be of good cheer, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, that I trust shall never be put out." 

And so these men's stories filled us with awe. I was ashamed to had never heard of them before. But we took names we liked, that we had been planning to use for those children, and knitted these faithful men into our story. 

This is one that should be told, and why I haven't before, I don't exactly know.

"It may come in my days, old as I am, or in my children's days, the saints shall be taken up to meet Christ in the air, and so shall come down with Him again." -Hugh Latimer

-A.H.