What's In a Name?

We humans seem to have the need to name things.


In the second creation account in Genesis, the man (Adam) is asked by God to give names to all of the animals.


Some of us dither for 9 months over the name of an expected baby.  Even worse, I've had friends who obsess over what their grandchild will call them!


Most of us recognize the Shakespearean line "A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet", concluding Juliet's soliloquy that begins "Romeo...wherefore art thou Romeo."


At our wedding, some seventeen years ago, a little toddler niece went around to everyone asking "What yo name?".  It was so important to her that she knew everyone's name.


There was a time when a name was more than the current fad or the cute (or manly) sounding name.  Names had meanings.  You can search the internet for the derivation and meaning of your name.  Throughout the Bible, you will find references to names and their meanings.  St. Peter had his name changed from Simon.  "Petra"--Latin for rock.  God changes Abram's name to Abraham and Sarai's name to Sarah as part of the first covenant God made with his people.  Perhaps the most dramatic name change came when Saul experienced his encounter with God and was named Paul thereafter.  


In my case, my mother, a lifelong devout Catholic, and father decided that I should be named after each of my grandfathers:  James and Philip.  Not coincidentally, those happen to be the names of two of Jesus' apostles.  James is a derivative of Jacob, as in Esau and Jacob.  Jacob means "supplanter"; Jacob supplanted Esau in obtaining his birthright.  Philip is from the Greek and means lover of horses.  I think neither the Jacob and Esau story nor the meaning of Philip played much of a role in the choice.  I was the firstborn.  I never was much of a horseman.  


Sometimes we do our children a disservice by using a middle name as a primary appellation.  I named my first child Margaret Claire but we always intended to call her Claire.  So she spent a lifetime having to respond to Margaret and explaining that she goes by Claire.  Think of all the forms we fill in that ask only for a middle initial.  For all intents and purposes, in that circumstance, the middle albeit primary name disappears.


Wouldn't things get interesting if we named our children based upon the dreams we have for them, based on the meaning of the name?