What's in the Name? Jericho

I have had many people ask where Seth and I got the name Jericho. So because of that and to celebrate the fact that Jericho is one month old today (I can't believe it) I thought I would share the story behind her name.

The day I found out I was pregnant I was home by myself and had the TV on. As I was walking from one of the back rooms into where the TV was, the screen was black with big white letters that said, "JERICHO" as soon as I saw it I thought, "I love that name for a little girl." There is a TV show that is called Jericho and it was the advertisment for when it was on. I asked Seth what he thought of the name when he got home and he liked it but wanted to know the meaning. Well we found that it in Arabic it means "moon city" We didn't like that meaning so we put the name on the back burner.

One day when I was praying for the baby, I felt like the Lord told me that Seth and I were going to have the urge to hold on to this baby because we have already lost two, but that we needed to raise her with an open hand. We needed to totally devote her life over to the Lord and trust Him. He was instructing us to not hold on too tight. I felt like God was telling me that He had plans for this child and Seth and I were going to have to trust Him as we let our daughter go and be who she was called to be.

Later on in the pregnancy, I was reading the story of Joshua and the city of Jericho. In my bible when Joshua is talking to the Isrealites about taking over the city of Jericho he says, "Jericho and all that is in it are to be devoted to the Lord." The word devoted had an astrick (footnote) next to it and the footnote said that the Hebrew term (for devoted) refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord. This is exactly what the Lord told us to do with our daughter, devote her to the Lord. And just as Jericho is not our first child, but the first we will raise, the city of Jericho was not the first one handed over to the Isrealites, but it was the first time Joshua led them. The story felt like it lined up with the pregnancy and what the Lord was telling us.

It seemed that we would always go back to Jericho but again we had a hard time with the meaning. For awhile I wanted to spell it Gericho because Geri with a "G" looked girlie to me than with a "J" plus we have Grace and Gideon and I was really having a hard time giving up the whole "G" thing. Seth on the other hand, really didn't want another "G" name especially Gericho. He just didn't like how it looked at all and made that very clear. So if we were going to do Jericho it was going to be with a "J" period.

I was about 8 weeks from my due date, we still didn't have a name that we were both sold on and liked the meaning of, and Seth was freaking out. He wanted a name and he wanted it picked out now! I was with him but knew that it would come sooner or later. He came home from work one day and said why don't we look for a meaning that we like and maybe a name will come up. Seth wanted something that meant aroma or fragrance. He felt like the Lord told him the baby would bring an aroma or fragrance of God's presence to people. As I was looking online I stubbled across the Hebrew meaning of Jericho which is fragrance (the city of Jericho in the Bible used to be surrounded by orchards). I called Seth because I couldn't believe it. It was the name we loved with the meaning that we wanted - what a "God thing." When we found that out there was no more changing our minds. We would name our daughter Jericho!