Daniel's Den

The Value of a Name

What’s in a name? Is it just a harmless term, identifying a person or an entity? Some proper names have translated meanings. We attach meanings and feelings with a name. A proper name reveals the hopes and dreams of one’s parents.

A proper name does all of the above; it is not some ambivalent, neutral term to identify a person. Some names do translate: "Isaac" is derived from the Hebrew word, "to laugh," reflecting the fact that both Abraham and Sarah laughed at the prospect of being parents at ages 90 and 100! "Naming books" are available, which translate the meanings of names, as they are derived from their original languages.

Why do prospective parents buy a book of names from a bookstore? They know that a name reflects their hopes and dreams for their little one. They wish to raise that little one to reflect a noble character and trait. The parents want the life of their little one to account for something significant and important in the history of man.

Sometimes totally good names are ruined by the one(s) who have worn them. We attach feelings because of how a named person spent his/ her life. "Adolph" is a fine name in German, as is "Saddam" in Arabic, and "Josef" in Russian. What feelings do these names generate, in their contexts? Would a parent in the Western world wish to give their child any of these names? Feelings and hopes are probably the reasons why parents don’t usually name their daughters "Jezebel!"

Do you think that there will ever be another company named "Enron?" Because of this company’s greed and lies, the name has come to mean distrust. Nobody would ever invest in such a company!

When God identified His Name to Moses, He used a Hebrew word, which roughly translates as "The Living One." (Ex. 3:14) He had earlier identified Himself as the One who has worked in the broad span of human history ("the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob"). God tied His name into His deeds. Those deeds, faithfully done, constituted God’s reputation.