During a recent stint on Good Morning America, Matthew McConaughey opened up about how he decided on a name for his oldest son, Levi. In short, he and his wife Camilla Alves got it from the Bible.
“Levi’s another name for Matthew in the Bible,” McConaughey said. “We had talked about possibly Matthew Jr. if he was a boy. And my favorite [verse] in the Bible is Matthew 6:22.” (The actor even has it engraved on his wedding band.)
Matthew 6:22, part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, says that “the eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light.”
McConaughey and Alves didn’t know the sex of their baby until he was born, so they hadn’t landed a name for Levi until they met him. As it happens, Levi was born at 6:22 p.m., so the name made sense.
“We find out he’s a boy when he’s born. You’re not thinking about the name, right?” he continued. “An hour later, the doctor comes up and he hands you that card to fill out: ‘Blank was born at 6:22 p.m.’ So we went, ‘It’s Levi.'”
