A couple of posts ago, I talked about how the Christ event changes your life entirely, and a short, but good discussion was had there, but it got me thinking... and so, here is a post about names.
In American culture, it is well known that a person is given a name before, or shortly after they are born, and they are saddled with that name for the rest of their life (barring legal changes).
But there are other cultures that derive their names from the things that a person has accomplished, or what he or she is known for. The name of a person changes after a major life-event to describe who that person is, or what that person is like. I think that is a fascinating idea, that one can simply know a person's name, and immediately know something about that person.
There is something powerful about names, even in our culture, they hold some power... have you ever met someone and thought "he doesn't look like a 'Ned' to me" That is because the name Ned gives of a certain feeling about a person. If you are like me, when you think of the name "Ned" you think of a pencil-necked geek, clean, probably rich, but still quite odd.
Now I am not suggesting that when we become Christians, that we start calling ourselves Phil-follower-of-Jesus or anything like that, but wouldn't it be interesting if we put more significance on our names, and what they mean, to the point where we would have to change them to reflect the radical change that occurs when one steps into the community of God?
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I agree. Names matter. It's the whole Naomi/Mara thing. It's only about 10% a joke.
There are certain names that I cannot like, and generally don't like people with those names. Surely it's partially self-fulfilling prophecy. But really, I think that names just sort of define you. I always like Katie's, for example.
Other thoughts on names, which I am too lazy to retype: http://naomirachel.blogspot.com/2006/12/identity-and-name.html
I think names matter.
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