What is in a name?

I have wanted to post more about Kyper's name, since he was born. But, I just haven't gotten to it. Since, I am too lazy to get the camera and download pictures I figured this would be a good time to write about it.

Many people have asked us where we got the name Kyper from. I really don't mind people asking, because it allows us to share with people what we believe. Kyper is an uncommon name, and I really didn't want it at first, but the more I heard it when Joel and I used it for a boy's name while I was pregnant and the more I thought about how we came up with the name the more it grew on me. I know I posted a little about it when he was first born, but you may not remember. We got the name Kyper from the Dutch Theologian Abraham Kuyper. (We decided to drop the "u" because we wanted it to be easier to pronounce, especially if we moved to a non-Dutch community. Kuyper is a pretty common Dutch last name.)

I don't want to write too much about Abraham Kupyer, because someone already did that for me. In the Christian Reformed Church, we have a magazine called The Banner. Here is a link to one of the articles that talks about Abraham Kuyper: http://www.thebanner.org/magazine/article.cfm?article_id=321. He was a pretty important figure in the Christian Reformed Denomination.

The one thing I want to focus on is the saying by him that Joel and I both love--I'd say it is probably our favorite quote as a couple. It is on the sidebar and we used it for our 2008 Christmas card. The saying goes like this, "There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!'" With this Kuyper means that God is involved and in charge of all parts of creation--we call this sphere sovereignty in our Reformed Tradition. I love it. This means a lot to me in regards to how I interact with other people and the world around me.

Therefore, Kyper was named after a theologian, but moreover we named him after the idea of sphere sovereignty, which Kuyper was famous for. What does this mean to us? Well, to us it means that Kyper is God's child. Jesus Christ cries "Mine!" when he sees Kyper. I love that and I pray that Kyper appreciates his name someday as much as we do.

It has been very interesting for Joel who goes out on different rotations and talks to lots of different people. Because, they will ask where we got the name Kyper from and Joel gets to share this with them. (I've had it too a few times, but I don't go out as much as Joel does.) So, another bonus to his name is that we get to be witnesses of sorts to our faith.

There you have it our reasons we choose the name Kyper. It wasn't just because we liked uncommon names. We liked the sound of it and then we also really liked what it signified to us.

(Just a note on the middle name: we choose Simon, because it is my grandfather's name. And, he is a strong man of faith and is a very important person to the Koning family. So, Simon was not just a name we liked either it also was very meaningful to us, especially Julie.)