Molly Piper

Yesterday I got an email asking me where we got the name Orison. Believe me, it’s not the first time we’ve been asked this question.

In Minnesota, the land of the “Minnesota Nice,” the conversation usually goes a little something like this:

Minnesotan: Orison… [long pause]… is that …[long pause]… a family name?

Me [in my head]: No, but it is now.

What I actually say is: “It’s a word that means ‘prayer.’ An older English word that means ‘prayer.’ You can find it in books like Paradise Lost or Hamlet.”

Truth be told, Abraham found it while reading the dictionary. He used to do that a lot more than he does now.

We decided that we’d like our children to have names that are actual English words that have significant meaning. Some examples that are more common are names like Faith, Hope, etc. You get the picture. Abraham loves the English language, and he would really like to stick with this for all our children. I probably wouldn’t have had such a defined schema for child-naming on my own, but I’m excited about it, too.

So it was helpful that my favorite girl name of all time, the one that I had planned on using for a daughter since I could remember wanting to have children, worked for our second child:

She was born into the arms of Jesus, so that means that her name is true.

And we have some ideas for any more kids that come, Lord willing, but we’re not telling.

We never do.