This is the second post in a series I'm writing on choosing names of significance for our seedlings. To read the first post, click here.

My firstborn was easy to name. By the time I was 8 weeks pregnant, we knew that, if our baby were a boy, Asher Joseph would be his name.

Had I been a boy, my name would have been Austin Joseph. August was my great-grandfather on my dads side of the family, and Joseph was my maternal great-grandfather. My parents, however, thought that "August" sounded a little too grandpa-ish for the late 70's, and Austin was considered a more "modern" equivalent.

Having had only one sibling, a younger sister, my parent never had the chance to use the name, and so as a girl, I always imagined that my firstborn son would be Austin Joseph. But by the time my turn to name a real baby came along in 2004, I found that Austin was not only perpetually overused, but also riddled with the baggage of several less-than-desirable namesakes.

Besides, we had come to the conviction that we wanted to give our child an name with a strong spiritual antecedent, so I found a book of biblical baby names, and headed straight for the "A's".

Aaron? No.

Adam? No.

Amos? Um...no.

Asher? Yes. Definitely Yes.

Not only was it an attractive Bible name that is not commonly heard, it also had a deeply profound, personal meaning.


After going through a year of infertility, I definitely felt happy and blessed to be having a baby!

Joseph still made sense as a great middle name. It reminds us of not just one, but two great men of the Bible, and it also honors my great-grandfather.


I didn't really think about it at the time, but Joseph also means "may He add".


Asher Joseph is now six years old and has two loose teeth. I love the name now more than ever, but I have to confess that I am a bit disappointed that it seems to have caught on and become popular, having made the list of "cool Bible names" at nameberry.com, as well as being mentioned numerous times in the latest version of Rosencratz and Satran's best-selling book, Beyond Ava and Aiden: The Enlightened Guide to Naming Your Baby.

Maybe I'm a trend-setter?

In Genesis 49, at the end of Jacob's life, he pronounced blessings upon his twelve sons. At first, I wasn't too impressed with the blessing given to Asher,