davidleong.info

a few people have asked about jonas’ name, and if there’s a story behind it or not… well, there’s not really a story per se, but we did have our reasons. when choosing a name, our first preference was to avoid any name of anyone we knew, including acquaintances, friends’ children, pets, etc. so that ruled out most names right off the bat. but we were also concerned that a “unique” name could easily become weird, and we didn’t want our son to get beat up on the playground because we gave him a strange name.

so yes, while it was initially the weezer song that triggered the idea, that didn’t seem like reason enough to name a kid after it (even though the song rocks and has a substantive message). but after looking into it further and discovering that jonas is a variant of the hebrew name jonah, meaning “dove” or “peace,” i was reminded of how much i love the biblical story of jonah and its surprising message about who is “in” and who is “out.” jonah’s prophetic witness turns the tables on our expectations of who is blessed and reminds us of god’s great mercy on those we would often rather dismiss as outsiders.

as for his middle name, chris actually chose cornel- after the scholar and public intellectual cornel west- and i concurred as we both enjoy his provocative voice for justice and equality (not to mention his lyrical skills as a part of black men who mean business). so that’s the “story” behind jonas cornel- we hope he’ll live up to his name!