The Numerology of Naming Your Child

Numerology is the study of the spiritual meaning of numbers. Numerology assigns a number to each letter of the alphabet in order to derive a single number for your name.  This number is your Destiny number.  The total of your birthday numbers reduced to a single number is your Life Path number.  These two numbers form the foundation of your personal numerology.  When combined, you derive your Soul Purpose number.

These three numbers guide your numerology in every aspect of your life.  This article will focus on how numbers apply to naming your unborn child. 

The Numbers of your Family

Your Destiny Number, Life Path Number, and Soul Purpose Number all interact with those same numbers for the people in your family.  Most commonly we find out our numbers “after the fact”, not before our family forms, then we spend time trying to understand how our numerology energy works in the dynamic of our relationships. 

Knowing your Numbers as Parent

I became a parent in 2005 when my daughter was born on January 30^th.  Her mother and I used astrology to guide us to one of three Suns signs we felt would be a good match for our astrology, among them: Aries, Capricorn, and Aquarius.  On the first month off birth control, her mother got pregnant, in May and my daughter was born with her Sun in Aquarius.

At the time I was doing very little with numerology, so we did not work on the numbers in the selection of her name, Maya.  If fact, we had already settled on the female and male names early in our conversation about names.  The male name would have been Marcus.

• Your Numerology as a Parent

As it turns out, my Destiny Number is 3, my Life Path Number is 4, and my Soul Purpose Number is 7.  Her mother’s maiden, birth certificate Destiny Number is 5, her Life Path Number is 8, and her Soul Purpose Number is 4.  When we were together, we never married, and she still had her previous married name (not her maiden name), and the numbers were 9, 8, and 8 respectively.  We are no longer together, and she has since married and taken the last name of her new husband; her numbers are now: 6, 8, and 5.

You can use the Destiny Number calculator provided by Ask Astrology to get your Destiny Number.  Your Life Path Number is simply the total of your birth date, added up and reduced to a single digit (unless it comes up to a master number like 11, 22, 33, 44, or 55, which you would know as 11/2, 22/4, 33/6, 44/8, and 55/1).  The Soul Purpose Number is the total of your Destiny Number and your Life Path Number.

The Numbers of your Child

If you already have a child or children, you can run the calculations for each one.  In the case of my daughter, her Destiny Number is 9, her Life Path Number is 2, and her Soul Purpose Number is a 2.  We did not use numerology to select her first or middle name, and we gave her my last name (Young).  Her Destiny Number 9 represents wisdom and knowingness.  Her Life Path and Soul Purpose Number 2 represents partnership and connecting with others.

As it turns out her numbers work well with her astrology, especially her Aquarius Sun (Aquarius as the 11^th sign of the Zodiac and thus 11/2 numerologically), and her Moon and Rising Sign are in Libra, represented by the scales (duality).

The Life Path Numbers do not change, and our family dynamic involves, my 4 (stability/structure), her mother’s 8 (power/leadership), and my daughter’s 2 (partnership/relationship).  We are fortunate that our daughter is able to see with wisdom and works hard to make healthy relationships, with us and her peers.  The even numbers also provide a clue to family alignment that remains steady and supportive.

Her Destiny Number gives her a certain fortitude that has energized her to be a mature child compared to her peers.  Her first name totals 4, which lends stability and solidity to her identity and connects her with my Life Path Number.

• The Numerology of Your Address

Naming Your Child

We live in a world that does many things haphazardly, without tapping into the esoteric tools that could really help us set up relationships and courses of interaction in thoughtful and conscious ways.  Since developing my numerology work to a professional level and connecting it with my work as an astrologer and tarot card reader, I have been working with clients over the years using these tools in a conscious way when they are deciding to start a family.

As an example, clients who worked with me after the birth of their first child decided they wanted to be a bit more conscious with regards to attempting their second pregnancy and determining a name for their child.  They gave me four names they wanted to consider once they knew the gender of the child, which turned out to be a girl.

I took each name through all the numbers that make up the name and birth date.  Beyond the Destiny Number of the full name, there are also several numbers within the full name, starting with the Active Number (first name), then the Hereditary Numbers (last name of the father and maiden last name of the mother), the Soul Urge Number (the vowels in the full name), and Personality Number (the consonants in the full name).

• Numerology 101

When I ran the various numbers 3, 4, 7, and 11/2 came up for the Destiny Number.  While it is easy to get “starry-eyed” overmaster numbers like 11, they can prove to be quite challenging to live with or up to, depending on the numbers and lives of the parents and extended family.  Once I explained both the benefits and challenges of 11/2, they decided this was not the life to raise a child with that Destiny Number.

We also quickly eliminated the 4, since one of the parents was artistically inclined and had strong 3 energy in her numerology and wanted the number 3 name in the final running.  However, when matched with the father’s numbers, the 3 presented more challenges, which left the name that totaled 7 as the strongest choice.  Both parents worked hard to explore and expand their spirituality and wanted a name that would reflect and connect that energy for them, so they settled on the number 7 name.

Years later they remain very happy they went through the conscious naming process and used numerology to help work on the name they wanted.  If you are considering numerous names for your child, you should consider having the names calculated.  You might discover that the number of one of the names proves to the deciding factor you need to settle on a name.