What's in a name?

For our activity today we asked each of the girls to come prepared with the story behind their name. We had them question their parents about why the were given that particular name. At the activity we went around the circle and each girl told their story. Some of them were simple, like "my mom just liked it" and others were more sentimental.

Then we talked about last names. We talked about honoring those that came before you by respecting your last name and living up to it and living by the examples of our ancestors who share our last names. I told a personal story about my great-grandfather and a letter he had written to the family shortly before his death were he talked about this very thing and asked "what will you do with our name?"

We then gave each of the girls a handout with their last name that we had researched the meaning for. We talked about how some names have a simple meaning and others have a deep meaning, but that it was honoring our name that really counts.

Here are a few sites that were helpful in finding the meanings. Of course some names were more difficult to find than others, but with enough research we found every name!

Search for Ancestors
Last Name Meanings (Use the alphabet at the top)
Surname Database (Use the search box on the right)
Winslow Tree