Symbolic names for children

I'm not sure I will ever get married, let alone have children, but I still like to plan for these things. I like looking at wedding dresses and engagement rings, and thinking about which hymns I would have during my wedding ceremony. I also like picking out names for my children. At the moment I like Adelaide Grace for a girl and maybe Aidan for a boy, but I'm a bit concerned about the recurring 'A'.

However, I know that I would not choose the kinds of names Hosea and Isaiah gave to their children (unless, of course, God told me to...) For example, Isaiah had sons named Shear-jashub - 'a remnant will return' - and Maher-shalal-hashbaz - 'The spoil speeds, the prey hastens'. The latter of these predicted the Assyrian invasion of Israel, while the former was God's promise that he would not allow his people to be completely destroyed.

Hosea is told to call his daughter 'No Mercy', because God says 'I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all', and to call his son 'Not My People', 'for you are not my people, and I am not your God.' But then later God says 'I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, "You are my people"; and he shall say, "You are my God".'

I learnt all this in my first subject of the Moore College Diploma of Biblical Studies. The subject was on Old Testament prophets and it was so amazing to see how the prophecies were fulfilled and how, in spite of the coming judgment, God upheld his promise to restore his people.

I was just looking at 1 Peter 2:9 because it relates to my thesis (you are a holy priesthood => priesthood of all believers => natural philosophers as priests of nature => legitimation of vocation of scientist etc), and the next verse refers back to Hosea:

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had no received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Anyway, I just thought that was rather cool! Back to writing my first chapter now...