“His name is John.”

It’s been months already since we first found out about my pregnancy but we have not yet decided on the name of our baby. We’ve listed names starting with the letters “G,” “T,” and “H” but we could not yet agree.

One night, my husband and I were discussing again how we would name our son. “Let’s ask the Lord,” he said. We had our common prayer time and after that he said, “His name is John.” “But our names do not start with the letter ‘J’,” I said. “Why don’t we search for more names of Saints which start with the letters ‘G’ and ‘T’?” I suggested.

In the next weeks and months that followed, my husband searched the internet for potential baby names – looking for names of Saints beginning with the letters “G” and “T” and the meanings of the names we’ve listed earlier.

One Sunday morning after hearing Holy Mass, we reviewed our list and finally decided that we will name our son, Gian Timothy. We chose these names because of their meanings. Gian means “God is gracious”; while Timothy means “to honor God.” Among the names starting with the letter “G,” we liked the name Gian the most because of its meaning. We have experienced God’s graciousness tremendously as individuals and as a couple and becoming pregnant at this time is also a favor, a miracle from God. It’s just fitting that we name our son Gian to remind us and our son of God’s graciousness. I was already biased towards naming our son Timothy because it’s the name of one of the Lord’s faithful disciples. That’s why when I learned what this name’s meaning is, I was very glad and I felt God’s approval. We found it perfect for our son’s second name. We surely want to honor God because of His graciousness to us and that it also our hope as parents that our son would grow up to be holy and would honor God with his life. We were very happy with our choice. Finally, we have a name for our baby.

Around a couple of weeks later, George was inspired to look up the name of our son again in the internet. He found out that Gian is Italian for the name “John.” He was so amazed. He eagerly shared what he discovered with me when he got home from work one evening. He said, “It was really God’s will that our son be named John. It may not be spelled with the letter ‘J’ but we still ended naming our son ‘John’ just as God initially told us when we first prayed about it.” Our hearts were filled with praise and wonder once more.

As the day for my delivery draws near, we excitedly checked which Saints would be celebrating their feast days on the week that I’m due to give birth. We found out that St. John’s feast day is on October 23, which is one of the expected due dates based on the ultrasound results. Well, whether I give birth exactly on that date or not, we’re happy and confident that God is pleased with the name we’ve chosen for our baby. But we would not be surprised also if He chooses that our baby be born on St. John’s feast day. We believe that God always makes a way for His perfect will to be realized.


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