An Angel Will Whisper the Name

When I was six months pregnant with my first child, a friend approached my husband Daniel and I and told us that her four-year-old son Cameron had an interesting dream the previous night.

“Cameron dreamt you’re having a girl, and her name is going to be Sophia,” she said.

Daniel and I didn’t know the gender of our child. We had a boy’s name picked out, but couldn’t come up with a girl’s name. 

“Sophia,” I said. “That’s beautiful.” Daniel agreed.

I learned that when it comes time to name a child, an angel will whisper their name in your ear. So when I gave birth to a baby girl, Daniel and I knew that Sophia, or Tzofia, was her name. In Hebrew, it means “watcher” or “wisdom of God.” 

Our rabbi pointed out that the word tzofiya is in “Eishet Chayil,” the song for women we sing every Friday night. Starting when Tzofia was a newborn, whenever we reached that part of the song, we joyfully yelled her name. Nowadays, Tzofia, who is two, loves our Friday night ritual.

This wasn’t the first time that a name came to me in a fateful way. When I was converting to Judaism, I was having trouble picking out a Hebrew name. Then, our friend Seth Glass told me one day, “Your name should be ‘Ora,’ because it means ‘light,’ and you are full of light.” 

I loved it. Plus, Seth is not only a gifted musician, he’s also very spiritual. I knew he was onto something.

“The names we are given at birth aren’t accidental. They are to some extent prophetic. They capture our essence. They are the keys to our soul.” – Rabbi Benjamin Blech

When I got pregnant, again, this past spring, Daniel and I chose not to find out the gender of our baby. His wonderful grandmother Elaine had just passed away, and we decided we wanted a name that was spiritually significant and also honored her memory. We picked Ella if we were having a girl. Also, we know only one woman named Ella, and she is incredibly sweet. 

The story doesn’t end there, though. 

When I was seven months pregnant, our friends Sam and Jordan and their five-year-old daughter Batya, Tzofia’s best friend, came to visit us for the High Holy Days. We were walking to shul when Jordan said, “Batya woke up this morning and said that if you have a girl, you should name her ‘Ella.’” 

Daniel and I literally gasped. 

“Are you kidding me?” I said. “That’s the name we picked out!” 

When I had our baby girl on December 28, we named her Ella, of course. But we couldn’t figure out a middle name. 

“What about Batya?” Daniel said.

It only made sense. Batya, our little “angel,” predicted the name, and we love her and her name, too. The parsha the week that Ella was born was Shemot, where Pharaoh’s daughter Batya rescued baby Moshe. It all clicked. 

After Daniel went to shul for the official baby naming, I called my mom, who is a nurse, to tell her our daughter’s name. 

She replied, “Ella? That’s what I wanted you to name her.” 

“Huh?” I said.

“Yeah, I always liked that name. I had a patient once named Ella, and she was a very nice woman.”

“Did I tell you I liked the name Ella?”

“No, you never mentioned it,” my mom said.

Two weeks after this happened, I was having another conversation with my mom when the name Ella came up again.

As we were getting off the phone, my mom said, “Oh yeah, I wanted to confirm this with your aunt before I told you, but it turns out, your great-grandmother’s middle name was Ella.”

Once again, I couldn’t believe it. 

In Judaism, a name is very powerful. Neshama is the Hebrew word for “soul,” and the middle two letters, shin and mem, form the word “shem.” This means “name” in Hebrew.

“The names we are given at birth aren’t accidental,” writes Rabbi Benjamin Blech. “They are to some extent prophetic. They capture our essence. They are the keys to our soul.”

I’m grateful to God for giving us wonderful daughters with meaningful names. Our daughters are the biggest blessings in our life. If God gives us a third child, I’m confident another “angel” will whisper his or her name. And I can’t wait to hear what it will be.

Kylie Ora Lobell is the Community and Arts Editor for the Jewish Journal.