For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the greatness of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
will accomplish this.
Isaiah 9:6-7 NIV
A Child’s Name
Great news for Canadian name lovers: the most popular names in Canada were made available for the first time in 2023. Until then, each province and territory published its own baby name data, which were hard to pull together. Each place had its own rules about how to tally up the names, like whether to group spelling variations together, and how much of the list (if any) to release each year. Last year the top two girls names were Olivia and Emma. For boys – Noah and Liam.
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Canadians choose baby names for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the name is a familiar family name. Others are the name of a well-loved friend, or a popular character or actor from a movie or series. Back in Bible times, names were chosen very carefully to represent the nature of God, or an event that had just taken place, or something that represented something about that person. Names were even changed when something about that person had changed. Isaiah must have wondered what the Lord had revealed to him, when in Isaiah 9:6-7 God breathed into him in prophetic revelation: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and for ever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.” What a name.
These have been words from the heart.
Bob Beasley