My family loves to travel. As a kid in the 90s with no phone or digital camera to capture my memories, I learned that souvenirs were a great way to prove I had been to a place. I would find my way to the racks of keychains and magnets, cups, and other knickknacks in search of an item with my name on it. Because what better way to say, “I was here” than with a cheap keychain? But some names don't frequent the souvenir racks, and mine is one of them.  

In the early days of the internet, it became common to look up the meaning of names, and I remember the first time I looked up my name. It read “Carissa meaning graceful one”. As a young girl with only a brother and some tomboyish preferences, I did not love that. Graceful? Barely. I felt drawn to hip-hop over ballet, cars over Barbies, and strength over softness. The name program offered a second option of “artful one,” so I stuck with that explanation for many years, because at least art could be edgy. 

What's in a name? Our midwestern culture does not have as many traditions around names as some cultures do, and how much does it matter anyway? Or as a satirical comedy once said, “a nose by any other name would still smell...” (Read that again.) 

The internet has come a long way, and today’s search for the meaning of my name will send you over one million results agreeing that Carissa does in fact come from the Greek word, charis, meaning grace. 

Grace – one of the most endearing ideas in Scripture. God loved us and chose us, but we were separated from Him by our sin, so He extended us grace, glorious grace through Jesus Christ. “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace” (Eph. 1:4-7, NIV, emphasis mine). We need grace to even begin to understand all of that. 

Suddenly my name has a weight to it. Graceful one. Not just graceful like a ballerina, but grace-filled as one who understands the sacrifice of Jesus and claims the freedom from it. Grace that was given by someone else. Grace that is strong. Grace where a great high priest sits and we can approach with confidence so “we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Heb. 4:16, NIV, emphasis mine). The more I consider grace, the more I appreciate it and the more I realize I do not fully understand it. 

But I still react with some of that little girl who knows all too well that I am not graceful. I am not always grace-filled, and I wonder if I’ll ever grow into my name. 

Yet every day, I hear it spoken over me. Carissa. Caris. Graceful one. You are not given your name once you’ve lived a little life and ‘earned it.’ My parents picked my name two years before I was born (but they had a boy first). I was named with a little reminder of God’s love in action – God's grace. Maybe I needed the daily reminder. 

What does your name mean? Have you found new meaning in it over time?