My mom saw the name in the book about the explorer
Jedediah Smith, who couldn't really spell too well and mispelled his
name, and decided on that after finding it in the Bible.  After David
lost his first child because he had committed adultery with Bathsheba
by killing off her husband, and the he was punished through the
child's death, God was merciful and gave him Jedidiah, and "because
the Lord loved him, he named him Jedidiah." 

In Hebrew it is "Yeh-ho-yah-dah"- that is what we originally called some 3,000 years
ago.  There is also a female version in the Bible, referenced only
once in a geneology, Jedidah.  With Muslim Arabs, who I spend time
with a lot, I go by abdul muhib- which means "the Lover's slave",
referring to God, as Jedidiah is hard for them to pronounce, Jed
means grandfather in Arabic, and the idea of someone "loved by God"
is huberace in Islamic thought.

I go by both Jedidiah and Jed.  When I was a baby my mom used to have
a song she sung- "He's a gift from God, beloved of the Lord, Jesus
gave him, to me."  (My middle name is Jon, meaning "gift of God".) 
One of my nicknames growing up was "Jed the Red" because I liked red
a lot.  I typically run into problems with people not understanding
my name or thinking that my name is Jed Idiah.

I grew up in a Jesus Movement commune, and am now a member of the
Society of Friends, the Quakers.  I study marine biology and Islamic
Arabic Culture.  For more about me and my life growing up, go to
www.geocities.com/abdulmuhib
 
 

Jed Palosaari