My name is James Elwin Kerns.  I value my name because "James" and "Elwin" are the given names of my grandfathers.  I consider it an honor to bear those names.

Where do names come from?  My oldest brother, Tom McCornack Kerns, got our father's name, and the maiden name of our mother.  My other brother, Tim Lorance Kerns, got a name that our parents liked, plus our father's middle name, Lorance.  "Lorance" was given to our dad by his mother, whose name was Lora.  Our youngest sister, Ellen Lora Kerns, got the name Lora, plus the name of our illustrious and honored great grandmother, Ellen Condon McCornack.  The middle name of our eldest sister, Jean Bernice Kerns, was our mother's middle name which in turn was the first name of our mother's mother.  Our grandmother's name was pronounced "Bur'-nuss," but our mother's middle name, though spelled the same, was pronounced "Bur-neese' ."

Names thus often come from family members.  Other times a name is simply one that sounds good, and that the parents like.  I recently visited with Dave Richards, a counselor in our stake presidency.  Their daughter had just had a baby which the parents had intended to name "Kate."  But when they saw the baby for the first time, she "didn't look like a Kate."  What to name her?  Dave got out the stake roster and began going through the female names in the stake looking for names to suggest.  His eyes came to rest on the name Ivy Waite (our daughter).  Ivy now has a namesake, because that name resonated with the parents.

We had a baby girl in 1976, our nation's bicentennial year.  Marjorie came up with the idea of naming the baby "Amy Erica," which is "America" with a "y"inserted.  Our Amy has one, or possibly two, namesakes whose parents copied the idea.

I'm quite sure that the Holy Ghost sometimes plays a part in the naming of a baby.  It probably happens more often than we imagine.  Evidence of this is the fact that numerous people are mentioned by name in the scriptures long before they were born.  That is the case, of course, with Jesus, and also with His mother, Mary (Alma 7:10).  The third chapter of 2 Nephi contains a long quotation by Joseph, who was sold into Egypt.  There he mentions Moses (vs. 9, 10, 16, 17), Joseph Smith Jr., and Joseph Smith Sr. (vs. 14-15).  Isaiah called Cyrus, the conqueror of Babylon, by name 150 years before he was born (Isaiah 44:28, 45:1).  Both John the Beloved and John the Baptist were mentioned by name hundreds of years before they were born.  (1 Nephi 14:27 and Luke 1:13).

An angel told Mary what to name her baby.  The same angel told Zacharias and Elizabeth to name their baby "John."  In the other cases it could only have been the Holy Ghost or direct revelation that implanted the names into the minds of the parents.

When we were expecting Eli a venerable red-haired sister stopped me in the foyer at the stake center in La Grande.  I was in the stake presidency.  She said, "How are you, President Kerns?"  I replied that I was fine.

Lila Mae Marshall fixed her eyes upon me, looked deep into my soul (I can still see this event in my mind's eye), and said with emphasis, "No, how are you really?"  I was caught off guard.  "Well," I replied, "if you must know, we haven't told anyone this, but we're expecting a baby!  It's thrown my wife for a loop.  She's 46 years old."

"Oh," Sister Marshall breathed, "this baby is going to be special!"  She repeated it, and I believed her.  She looked, and felt like, a prophetess.

She then said, "Let me tell you a story."  She told about a little girl who appeared at her bedside on several successive nights.  At her last appearance Sister Marshall asked, "What is your name, little girl?"

The girl answered, "Sissy, and you're going to be my grandma."

Lila Mae called her daughter the next day and asked, "Are you pregnant?"  The reply was, "No."  The daughter and her husband had wanted a baby for years, but had not been able to have one.  Lila Mae did not tell her daughter what had prompted the question.

Two more years passed before the couple had a baby.  It was a girl.  "What are you going to name her?" Lila Mae asked.

"Sissy," they replied in unison.

There is more to the story, but it brings up the question, "Where do names come from?"  Sissy is such an unusual name that there is obviously more involved here than mere coincidence.  Lila Mae had never told them of her experience.

Interestingly, I just now remembered that I gave a patriarchal blessing a couple of years ago to a girl who I believe was Sissy's daughter.  I recall digging the story out of my journals and sending a copy to the girl.

What's in a name?  I used that question as the title to a previous article which can be found on page 93 of my book Selected Sermons.

Where did my names come from?  I'd like to think that this was planned out well before I came to earth.  I'm quite sure that I had a close relationship there with my progenitors, and that the plan was for me to do temple work for them.  I can imagine that my names were implanted in my parents' minds because of that connection, and because of the work that I was sent here to do.