My Name is Boaz, B-O-A-Z

All I can do is thank my parents for giving me the name Boaz.

"Hello, my name is Boaz. It rhymes with topaz."

"Hello, I'm Boaz. That's spelled B-O-A-Z."

"How do you say your name? Bose?" 

My name is probably one of the best conversation starters when I meet people for the first time. For those of you reading this blog, you probably have one of a few initial reactions (not limited to these, but these are the most common):

• Is that a family name?
• *A confused face*
• Are you Jewish?
• Wow, what an awesome name!
• Is your wife named Ruth?
• Boaz, that's a Spanish name right?
• Boaz? Is that your last name?
• Oh Boaz...like the snake?
• Like the anthropologist Boaz?

 And the list continues, but I'll leave it at that for now. Probably the most memorable reaction to my name was by one of my freshmen high school teachers, Mr. Miller, who said:

"Boaz? That sounds like a lumberjack name. If your name is Boaz you should have a really deep voice."

Just to give some clarity on the background for my name, my parents chose to call me Boaz because of the biblical story found in the Old Testament in the book of Ruth. Also, Boaz either means "swiftness" or "In Him is strength", with Him referring to God. My parents are both Christians who saw Boaz as a very positive character and someone who represented a godly man. Although not a common biblical name in the United States like Jacob or Matthew, they decided to go with it.

The simplified version of the story of Boaz and Ruth is this: Ruth, a recent widow, moves to Israel with her widowed mother-in-law Naomi to live in poverty. Ruth picks up the grains that harvesters leave behind, and one day she happens to be doing it in Boaz's field. Boaz has favor on her and generously allows her to have more grain for herself and her mother-in-law. Ultimately, Boaz ends up marrying Ruth in fulfilling biblical laws.

Here's an artistic rendition of the biblical account of Boaz and Ruth (see Wikipedia for more details).

If you can't tell by this point, I am very glad my name is Boaz. It's unique at least in the United States (it's apparently a fairly common name in Israel) and I highly doubt there's another Boaz Witbeck in the world today. Even though spell check doesn't think my name is correct, I'm happy to be me. Hopefully this explanation gives a little background to my name and maybe you've gotten to know me a little better.

My life wouldn't be the same if my name wasn't Boaz.