Behind the Name: Austin Mattias

"So do you have a name?"

"Have y'all decided on a name?" 

"You guys probably already have a name and aren't sharing it."

These 3 phrases are on the top of things that Brett and I heard during the time we were pregnant. We would bet on it, anytime we saw our families or friends, someone would ask that within the hour. But, we understood why, our name is who we are. 

It's kind of funny because most people know their children's names before they even meet their spouse or shortly after they do. We never talked baby names. We avoided the difficult (in our opinion) conversation because we believe names are important. We didn't talk baby names when we were dating and we avoided the subject for 40 weeks and a day. 

I knew that I wanted my son's name to have a good meaning, possibly in honor of a saint to have someone to intercede for him, and bilingual so both families could easily say it. Brett wanted his name to mean something great and impactful because that's what he wanted his sons life to be but he also wanted to meet his son and make sure it matched his face.  We threw out names here and there but we never felt like one was it. 

But once Agust rolled around, we started to talk about it and took it even more seriously as our due date got closer.

Austin was a name I had liked and of course, Brett did too. I always loved the name Matthew and it is Brett's middle name but then Brett said he didnt like it.  On the morning of September 3rd, probably around 10 am in between contractions, Brett sat on the hospital bed and started the serious conversation of choosing a name. He went through the list pairing Austin with other names from our list and then as a middle name. As soon as I heard the name Austin Mattias was our son's name. Brett agreed and we couldn't wait to meet him. He arrived 6 hours later and his name fit him perfectly. 

Austin is the English shortened version of Augustine. It means "great, magnificent, to be venerated". St. Agustine also happens to be my patron saint and one of my favorite saints for his contributions to the Church. 

Mattias is one of the Spanish versions of Matthew which means "gift of God". 

Austin Mattias: our great/magnificent gift from God. That is who he is! 

We pray that in his heart, he knows that he is a precious child of God and that he lives a life of witnessing to others of the love of Christ.

"You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. " -St. Augustine of Hippo