Jude's Name

There are two reasons why we decided to name Jude, Jude. Chris and I always wanted to give Jude a family name that had a story or meaning behind it. Throughout my pregnancy we had lists and lists of names. Jude had been on our list and I knew it was a family name, but we didn't really think anything else of it. We eventually narrowed our list to 10 names.

Then we went to Bear Lake for our Lish Family Vacation. My dad was put in as bishop of his ward that weekend. When they put him in, some of the ward members mentioned a pioneer story my dad had shared while on trek. When we got back to Bear Lake all of the nieces and nephews gathered around my dad and asked him to share his pioneer story about his pioneer ancestor Jude Allen. After hearing the story, Chris and I both looked at each other and knew we were going to name the baby Jude. Here is the story of Jude Allen:
A few years ago when my brother was on a mission, he wrote home wanting to know who was the first pioneer member of the church in our family and also the first person to hold the priesthood. As we researched we found that Mary Camp Miner, my sixth great grandmother was baptized in 1831. Her daughter Eunice Miner Allen was baptized on 15 April 1832 and her husband Andrew Allen was baptized in May 1833. Their son Jude Allen was baptized in May 1832. My mom found a book that was written about Jude Allen. We were excited to find out that he had been a body guard to the Prophet Joseph Smith and the first member of our family to hold the priesthood. We were disappointed to find out that Andrew Allen, Jude’s father was one of the few members in the Allen clan that was not preparing to go west. Andrew had come in search of land, and he was staking a 40 acre claim on some land there in Iowa. As her family was packing and doing the chores necessary to go to Utah, Jude’s mother Eunice, tried to convince her husband, Andrew, to forget about establishing a farm in Iowa and come with his family to Utah. Eunice wanted to go on to Utah with her family and she had on several occasions begged Andrew to give up his land and go to Utah. The morning the wagons were lined up ready to start for Winter Quarters to meet the other Saints making the trip West, Eunice once again asked her husband to give up his land and make the trip to Utah. He turned to her and said, “I wish to Hell you would go to Utah and I would never hear the word Utah again.” With that she turned and went into the house where she rolled up the few clothes she had, put her shawl around her shoulders and walked out to the wagons. She Climbed into Jude’s wagon, never looking back. She went to Utah with Jude, her daughters Sarah and Nancy, and their families.


After looking up the meaning of Jude, we also found Jude was the Saint of Impossible Causes. We knew it was an even more fitting name for our baby. Our baby had an omphalocele. Baby's with omphalocele's have a large portion of their stomach in the umbilical cord, genetic defects, and heart problems. Jude's omphalocele was the smallest our doctors had seen (3 cm...that was still huge to us when we saw it!), he had no genetic defects, and signs of a very strong heart.

Jude is definitely a fitting name for our little guy and we have great stories to share with him when he is older. I can't wait when he asks why we named him Jude.