Presenting... RUBEUS IAKOB CAMITAN AREVALO (Yakee)

Yakee's grandfather is named Ruben and his father's second name is Reuben. We didn't want to make him a junior, a third, or the fourth of any previous Arevalo (Pappie Jojo is already the third for the name Jesus) but we wanted a sort of continuity to the names and chose Rubeus instead (so yeah, it's really not because we're Potterheads).

It fit perfectly since my engagement ring was a ruby ring (the stone of which I lost a week after finding out I was pregnant). The name "ruby" comes from the Latin RUBEUS meaning "red". The ruby is usually considered a stone of power and passion. It is supposed to bestow energy and willpower, counteracting lethargy. It has sometimes been associated with the sun.

Ruby was also associated with health and long life. The alchemists adopted the "perfect ruby" as a symbol of the philosopher's stone or elixir of life (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone is J.K. Rowling's first book and baby...).

Iakob is the Greek name for Jacob (Hebrew) meaning "he who supplants" (supplant meaning 'to supersede another especially by force or treachery; to take the place of and serve as a substitute for especially by reason of superior excellence or power').

The name sounds negative when you look at it that way, but God chose Jacob after all.

And we chose Jacob not really because of the meaning of the name, but because Jojo's second name is REUBEN (Jacob's first son) and decided we'd flip the names and have Jacob (Iakob) be Reuben's first son in this lifetime.

So in some weird way, Yakee's name is really fitting when you think that he has supplanted with himself the ruby ring that his father once gave me... the ring that promised me passionate love.

And maybe... hopefully... Yakee is the replacement God intended for Pyro (not that a person can ever be replaced, but am sure you get what I mean), one who will be blessed with a long and healthy life.

*~*

He was born last 07 October 2007 at 9:59 AM, 7.4 lbs. heavy and 51 cms. long. Life hasn't yet settled into some sort of new normalcy for us... but HAPPY and BLESSED cannot even begin to describe how we feel about being parents to someone so beautiful and perfect.