We welcomed our fifth child to our tribe: a son, Maccabee “Mac” Joel, born May 12, 2021.
He joins two big brothers, Evander “Van” Mark, and Gabriel Lee; and two big sisters, Eliza Mae and Aviya Joy.
Maccabee Joel has very special meaning to us. He is named after the Maccabees who are famously recorded in the books of Maccabees. Maccabee is an acronym in Hebrew for “Who is like You, oh Yehovah, among the gods?” Exodus 15:11. It was their battlecry as they victoriously fought against Hellenism. His middle name means Yehovah is God.
The hardest part about naming Mac was keeping up with my husband’s rule of using three syllable first name and one syllable middle name. As Hebrews, we only considered Hebrew names. Mac was due on Shavuot, The Feast of Weeks, so I felt Boaz was the perfect name, but my husband wouldn’t consider it because it doesn’t have 3 syllables. I guess it’s just as well because we then found out our friends named their baby boy Boaz.
The three syllable rule also eliminated Job, Jedidiah, and Obadiah.
Other names we considered were Josiah, Micaiah, Malachi, Solomon, and Jacoby (my feeble attempt to get a three syllable name to shorten down to my beloved “Job”).
Great choice all round.