It is with great excitement that we announce the [name_u]July[/name_u] birth of our little boy, [name_m]Wycliffe[/name_m], nn Wyc (pronounced “wick”).
He joins seven (yes, seven!) sisters, whom we’ve posted about previously, most recently here.^
For all the geeky details:
Wyc’s full name is [name_m]Theodore[/name_m] [name_m]John[/name_m] [name_m]Wycliffe[/name_m] [Our Surname]. [name_m]Theodore[/name_m] (“gift of God”) is a name Wyc shares with his dad, his grandfather and his great-grandfather on the [Dad’s Surname] side. [name_m]John[/name_m] (“God is gracious”) likewise goes back three generations on the [Mum’s Surname] side: Wyc’s grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather. We pray our son will be proud of the positive legacy of his two grandfathers, both of whom have worked for decades to protect little ones from exploitation.
As for the name [name_m]Wycliffe[/name_m], it honours a hero of ours, the ‘[name_f]Morning[/name_f] [name_f]Star[/name_f] of the Reformation,’ [name_m]John[/name_m] [name_m]Wycliffe[/name_m]. Wyc’s namesake was a brilliant [name_m]Oxford[/name_m] scholar from the 1300’s who first translated the Bible into [name_f]English[/name_f], devoting his life to making it accessible to the [name_f]English[/name_f] people in their common tongue, during an era when the church actively worked to suppress Bible translation. Though he lived at time of disastrous peril and social unrest (the [name_m]Black[/name_m] Death, the Peasants’ Rebellion, the Hundred Years War, and the Avignon Papacy, for starters), his dedication to the right of ordinary people to access God’s Word sparked a worldwide movement towards recognition of the dignity and worth of all people, a movement which continues to our day. Whatever our [name_m]Wycliffe[/name_m] finds to do in life, we pray he will remember this legacy.
For the Reformer, the name comes from his home town, and means “white cliff”. But the name can also be analysed as an Anglo-[name_u]Saxon[/name_u] di-thematic name, meaning variously: Battle-endurer, Home-dweller, or Holy-life.^^ We’ll take all three.
And now you’re wondering why we’re calling him Wyc but making it his third given name! Our country doesn’t even let you put the third given name on some government ID. What a scandalous decision!!!
I actually ran a poll about this on Nameberry a few years ago which gave us the confidence to run things this way. So thanks Berries!
As to the reasons, for one thing, you try stacking [name_m]Wycliffe[/name_m] first in the name. “Flow” is very subjective, but we reckon most of you will agree it just doesn’t flow the other way round.
More meaningfully, Wyc’s dad, grandad, and great-grandad have all done exactly the same thing - and used their innermost middle name as their day-to-day name. So, tradition! And you can’t argue with tradition! 
Plus this way, Wyc gets an easy name to face officialdom, and another for those who know and love him.
Frankly, also, we think [name_m]Wycliffe[/name_m] is just an awesome name, and Wyc is super awesome nickname. All those scrabble points, so much joy, in such a small package! And a solid name to take Wyc from boyhood to manhood. Yes, you are allowed to steal it! 
And now to leave you with three powerful quotes from the original [name_m]Wycliffe[/name_m]:
- “This Bible is for the Government of the People, by the People, and for the People.” — You may have noticed, a famous US [name_m]President[/name_m] pinched this one, but lost the original meaning, altering it to be about the US government rather than the Bible. [name_m]Wycliffe[/name_m]’s original quote was a radically transformative claim, especially in the era he made it.
- “By the law of [name_m]Christ[/name_m], every man is bound to love his neighbour as himself; but every servant is a neighbour of every civil lord; therefore every civil lord must love any of his servants as himself; but by natural instinct, every lord abhors slavery; therefore, by the law of charity, he is bound not to impose slavery on any brother.”
- “The true [name_u]Christian[/name_u] was intended by [name_m]Christ[/name_m] to prove all things by the Word of God: all churches, all ministers, all teaching, all preaching, all doctrines, all sermons, all writings, all opinions, all practices. These are his marching orders.”
^ During the conversion to the new Nameberry forums, it looks like the lists in my past posts were lost. Most importantly, the names of Wyc’s sisters have disappeared from some posts. Here they are again:
- [name_u]Evelyn[/name_u] [name_f]Verna[/name_f] [name_f]Mercy[/name_f], nn [name_f]Eve[/name_f]
- [name_f]Margaret[/name_f] [name_f]Katherine[/name_f] [name_f]Hope[/name_f], nn [name_f]Meg[/name_f]
- [name_f]Liliana[/name_f] [name_f]Christina[/name_f] [name_f]Joy[/name_f], nn [name_f]Lilia[/name_f]
- [name_f]Dorothea[/name_f] [name_f]Theresa[/name_f] [name_f]Grace[/name_f], nn [name_f]Dot[/name_f]
- [name_f]Elisabeth[/name_f] [name_f]Adeline[/name_f] [name_f]Glory[/name_f], nn [name_f]Bess[/name_f]
- [name_f]Mariana[/name_f] [name_f]Rosalie[/name_f] [name_f]Faith[/name_f], nn [name_u]Maria[/name_u]
- [name_f]Corinna[/name_f] [name_f]Beatrice[/name_f] [name_u]Truth[/name_u], nn [name_f]Cora[/name_f]
[name_f]Dot[/name_f] and [name_f]Bess[/name_f] are identical twins.
^^ Next time you read [name_m]Beowulf[/name_m], you’ll notice that the hero who replaces [name_m]Beowulf[/name_m] as king at the end of the epic shares one plausible variant of the name [name_m]Wycliffe[/name_m].
I adore the meaning behind your choices. The nickname Wyc is very cool and spunky.
Stay Safe