Friday, March 13, 2015

DEVOTION: Significant Names ~ Shirley Corder


It's crazy the amount of time and effort we authors can spend trying to come up with a suitable name for our Work In Progress, especially when we know it will almost certainly undergo a name change if it is bought by a publisher. 

For example, my book with the working title of Rise and Soar above the Cancer Valley, has as its key Scripture, Isaiah 40:31: They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up on wings as eagles. The beautiful cover portrays a woman with her arms outstretched, apparently preparing to rise and soar, and there are a number of meditations that refer to eagles. Yet the publishers changed its name to Strength Renewed, Meditations for Your Journey through Breast Cancer, still based on the same Scripture, but emphasizing a different part of the verse. That’s how it works in the publishing world.

As parents, we agonize over names for our babies when they are still in the womb. In our case, this was before the days of scans where you could learn the baby’s sex (which of course gives away my age) and so we had to be prepared with a boy’s name as well as a girl’s. A number of the young women in my family have given their unborn babies cutsie names, knowing they would change them after the baby’s birth. So we have had a Rosebud, a Sweetie Pie, a Strawberry, and even a Frog. In these cases I was more than a little relieved when their names were changed after birth.

Have you ever gone on a road trip or studied a map, and wondered why towns are named as they are? Here in South Africa, we have a small town in the Northern Cape called Pofadder, the Afrikaans translation of Puff Adder, which is one of our most venomous snakes. Did someone get bitten by a Puff Adder there? Who knows?

Klein Mier Nommer Een is a tiny town, also in the Northern Cape, which translated from Afrikaans means Little Ant Number One. Now where did that come from? It’s hard to believe there were so few little ants in that dusty little town, they started to number them!

On the West Coast, we find Tietiesbaai, which literally translated would be something like Boobies Bay, probably named after the many round smooth boulders dotted on its beautiful beach.

75 km from Cape Town we have a quaint farming town fittingly called Darling. Then in the North West province, some 200 km west of Pretoria, we have a dot on the map with the incredible name of Tweebuffelsmeteenskootmorsdoodgeskietfontein. Translated into English this means Two- buffalo-shot-dead-in-one-shot Spring. Really? 

Traveling through the Small Karoo Desert, you may stop at the little town which is a popular pit-stop for heavy trucks and holiday makers, called Leeu-Gamka. This is obviously so named because this is where the Leeu (Lion) River joins the Gamka River.

Then we have Ogies, which translates into Little Eyes, an old coal mining town in Mpumalanga, This apparently derived its name from a nearby farm, Oogiesfontein, or a fountain with many eyes (or springs).

If we turn to Scripture we see a similar pattern, where places were named after actual events, such as Jehovah-Jirah, meaning Jehovah will provide, the place where God provided Abraham with a ram for sacrifice in the place of his son, Isaac. Then there’s Beth-El, meaning House of God, at the place where Jacob dreamed of angels ascending and descending a ladder to Heaven. There are also places named after emotions such as Esek (meaning contention) and Sitnah (Enmity) where the Philistines fought with Isaac for the use of watering holes.

Dene Ward, in her devotional guide, Flight Paths, asks what we would call our homes. 

It's a good question. Would we name them after an emotion? Or after an event? What would be a good name for your home? Could you call it Beth-El, House of God? Or would it be more aptly called, Esek, because of the emotions that fly throughout the day?

If you were to give the place you live a new name today, what would it be? What title could you hang on the door that would give visitors an idea of what to expect when they entered into your home, whether it is a beautiful mansion or a one-roomed apartment? I dare you to share it as a comment below. Maybe your home already has a name. Please share it with us, and tell us how it got its name.

SHIRLEY CORDER lives on the coast in South Africa with her husband, Rob. Her book, Strength Renewed: Meditations for your Journey through Breast Cancer contains 90 meditations based on her time in the cancer valley.

Sign up here to receive a short devotional message from Shirley in your inbox once a week.

Please visit Shirley through ShirleyCorder.com, where she encourages writers, or at  RiseAndSoar.com, where she encourages those in the cancer valley. You can also meet with her on Twitter or FaceBook 

13 comments:

  1. When we moved in, I called the house Maple House because we were surrounded by soft maple trees. Unfortunately, the maples are long gone having succumbed to age and the power saw before the wind felled them into house. Heritage house would be the more appropriate name now because it has assimilated much of the heritage of our families in furniture, pictures, books, memories.

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    1. Thanks for sharing these two beautiful names, Judith. I love Maple House, as this is a way of preserving the memories of what the house once looked like; something you may have forgotten over the years! And I love the idea of Heritage house for the reasons you give!

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  2. Naming towns and characters can take me a long time in my writing. They have to be just right, seeing as we tend to judge people, places, and books by their names/titles, as well as by their covers!

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    1. Yes, me too Sara. It was some time after Strength Renewed was published that I registered, "Wait! That picture would have gone better with my original title!" Funny.

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  3. Good thoughts, Shirley. I have only had one title changed by a publisher. My Change of Pace became Trusting Dr Scott. Because there was no way I could see trusting my hero was a main theme, I queried this with another multi-published author by the same publisher. It was in the medical romance sub-gene and she simply told me that any book with "Dr" in the title always sold extra well. She was right. It taught me that marketing gurus know best. And God knew what the use of His names in scripture could teach us more about His nature and works.

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    1. Wow, that's interesting. Thanks for sharing this, Mary. I admit the title "Trusting Dr. Scott" immediately attracts my attention.

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  4. When Blueberry Eve changed to Helsinki Sunrise, I was disappointed initially, but I could see the Publishers reasons for doing so with the naming in the series taking on the trend of using the city in the name along with an alliteration (or slight alliteration in my case). I'm glad now that the city is in the title and I've learnt to ensure the city's in the title in my subsequent submissions.

    What would I call my home? Names like 'Rush' or 'Whirlwind' come to mind, but I like to think I could name it something like 'Sweet Memories' (now that the house is empty or all but me, my hubby and the dog).

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    1. Thanks for your contribution here, Marion. I was with you on Blueberry Eve. I loved that title, but it obviously had to fit in with the rest of the series. LOL to the Rush or Whirlwind home titles. I admit to identifying with them as well!

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  5. Wow, that's interesting. Thanks for sharing this, Mary. I admit the title "Trusting Dr. Scott" immediately attracts my attention.

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  6. When my granddaughter was undergoing critical surgery, I bought her a plaque for her hospital wall that said KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON. I think a play on those words would best suit my home. Like Marion, the children have left and my husband and I share the home with a friendly budgerigar and a cute Jack Russel terrier. We thought retirement from fulltime ministry would be quiet to a point of boring, but at times it threatens to become hectic - so something to remind me to KEEP CALM would be relevant! Not sure how to turn that thought into a title but I like the motto!

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  7. Your post made me laugh! Oh I love fun names! Well, we HAVE named our new home and I knew it the moment we stood on its glorious land. There is a moment in Pride and Prejudice (the BBC movie) when Mr. Darcy asks Ms. Bennett what she thinks of his Pemberley. And she replies, "I like it very much." And that is exactly how I feel.

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  8. Shirl, I've been pondering on what I'd call my house since you posted this days ago! First reaction - Organised Chaos! But the more I've mulled it over, I seem to be drawn to something along the lines of The House of Love and Laughter, or just Love Lives Here.

    We purposed to name our children significantly, names and their meanings are so important. Yet my second daughter was still nameless as I walked the halls of the hospital about to give birth to her. We settled on Nikita, not knowing the meaning at all, just loving the name. She was born desperately ill (long story - not for here :) ) and spent the first 9 days of her life in hospital. For a while, it was touch and go whether she'd live or not. My friend found out that her name meant 'unconquered one' and she lived!

    Loved your post!

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  9. I''m renovating my house right now.My goal is that when you walk in my home you feel love and peace. When I'm done I think I'll name it, but will have to think on it.

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