What's In A Name?

I've always had a fascination with names.  Every name has a story, a meaning, a purpose.  Some are more intentional than others, like a woman I met on the elevator at work who told me her baby boy's name is Sirod...because it is her own name spelled backwards (Doris)!  Then, I have a friend who felt so certain she was having a baby boy that she never considered a single girl's name...so when her daughter was born (surprise!), she handed the baby name book to her husband and said "pick one." Fortunately, he did a great job and selected a beautiful name.

It seems I'm not the only one fascinated with the meaning and history behind names. There are thousands of books, websites, and databases that are dedicated to categorizing, analyzing, and archiving baby names.  One of my current favorites is The Baby Name Wizard, a website with a tool called the Baby Name Voyager, which graphs the popularity of baby names over the last 100+ years as well as their meanings.  

The number one question I've been asked over the past month is "Have you chosen a name for your baby yet?" >Insert initial feeling of guilt here<  The reactions I've gotten when my answer is "No, we really haven't," has ranged from "Really?! I had my future baby's name chosen since I was 16 years old," to "Wow, you better start thinking!" and "How will I know what initials to monogram on your baby gift?!"  At first, I felt a little inadequate, unprepared, and even guilty - How could I NOT have given enough thought to my baby's name yet? What does that mean about me as a mother? But then, I started thinking back to the naming customs in Old Testament times.  Whereas many parents today choose a name that sounds good or has sentimental appeal, parents in ancient times used a more dynamic naming method.  They chose names that reflected the situation at the time of the baby's birth, often hoping their child would fulfill the meaning of the name given to them.  Sometimes a person's name was even changed later in life if they did not match the characteristics implied by their name.  One example is Jacob (which means "he grasps the heel" or "he deceives"), as God changed his name to Israel ("he struggles with God") at the point in his life when his character changed from being a deceiver to a God-fearing man.  

Names are clearly important to God.  This is obvious especially when reading any of the Old Testament chapters that are dedicated to listing the descendants and lineage of a specific family.  Oftentimes, I've skimmed over these sections of Scripture, wondering what significance it has today (besides I can't pronounce half of them.)  I once passed these wordy passages of Scripture off as simply documentation of ancestry...until I had a teacher who advised me to think carefully about these sections - if God took the time to include all of these names in Scripture, they surely must be important.  And so, I took a closer look (with the guidance of this teacher) at one of the first places in Scripture where an entire chapter is dedicated to describing a family lineage: Genesis chapter 5: "Adam's Descendants".  This is the section where it is recorded that "____ lived to be ____ years and had a son he named ____, along with many other sons and daughters." And it continues down the generations, naming one son's name for each family. I looked up the English meaning of each Hebrew name in the order it is listed, although the translation of each name is somewhat controversial to many scholars. Nevertheless, I was speechless...

Adam: Man... (okay, makes sense since he was the first man, after all)

Seth: Appointed (Eve said "God has appointed me another son in place of Abel, since Cain killed him...)

Enosh: Mortal/frail/miserable (What in the world?! Who would choose this characteristic for their child?)

Kenan: Sorrow (or some say "possession") (Again, why this intentional meaning?) 

Mahalalel: Praise of God/ The Blessed God (finally, a good meaning!)

Jared: Descent / Shall come down

Enoch: Teaching (Turns out, he was the first of 4 generations of teachers)

Methuselah: Death / To bring forth (taken from 2 different root words, thus meaning "His death shall bring"... again, seems like an odd thing to name your child...)

Lamech: To make low/ despairing

Noah: To bring relief/comfort (of course, Noah lived up to this, as he obediently built the ark and thus brought comfort to many generations to come since each species escaped the flood)

Now, read these names altogether....

Man

Appointed

Mortal

Sorrow

The Blessed God

Shall come down

Teaching

His death shall bring

Despairing

Comfort

Read it again. It's the story of God's plan for redemption of mankind, through His son Jesus!  And it was a message spelled out in the very beginning, incorporated into the names of ten different men mentioned in Scripture.  You can't tell me that this is coincidence or a result of some Jewish authors in a conspiracy to disguise the Christian gospel...it can only be explained by God's perfect plan and His story that is woven throughout the entire Bible.

So, what's in a name? Everything! From family honor to a depiction of a person's character to the Gospel message written by God himself... I am humbled and sometimes overwhelmed when I think about what really IS in a name.

I think we will take our time coming up with a name for this child. We want it to have significance and special meaning, and it's kind of a huge decision. After all, we are labeling another human with a name that she will carry the rest of her life!

What's the story behind your name? Was it chosen for it's meaning? A family name? Or was it something that your parents just simply loved? Each of our names has a story, and I would love to know yours!

Name on,

-L