Names

I will not be listing all biblical names and giving meanings here. That would make for one long post. What I did want to do was talk about a few names and what I have found interesting about them.

I taught sunday school yesterday. It was on the story of Moses freeing the children of Israel. I found it quite interesting that Moses is named Moses because Pharaohs daughter "drew him out of the water". "Moses" in the hebrew language literally means "to draw out." How fitting for Moses to be named Moses. His life mission was to "draw out" the children of Israel from their Egyptian bondage.

One thing about biblical names compared to names today is that biblical names would often change. Abram to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah, Jacob to Israel, Solomon to Jedediah to name a few. A lot of names would change because the persons purpose would change, or they would reach a milestone. According to some sources, Abram means "exalted father" and Abraham means "father of many". Considering the covenant God made with Abraham, "for a father of many nations have I made thee."( Gen. 17:5), I think it is quite fitting. Another example is Jacob, which means "supplanter" and Israel is "one who prevails(fights) with God." Jacob wrestled with an Angel before receiving his name change. Another possible meaning of Israel is "one who rules with God," and this may be the reason his name was changed because God says this " for as a prince hast thou power with God..."

Today names don't mean the same thing. We don't have our names changed when we reach milestones in our lives. Last names are different. Last names came about because given names were being repeated and the population was growing. You would have David son of Richard, which is now more commonly known as David Richardson. The tradition has been for women to take on the name of the husband, and even that is fading. The trend is now leaning toward both keeping their names and hyphenating them.

Today we are trying to be creative with names. They don't have any particular meaning other than being original. I personally think it is becoming a bit ridiculous the extent some go to be original with their names. What are your children going to think about their names when they realize that their parents just tried to get a name no one else had?

I am grateful my dad picked my names for their meanings. I have been able to look at my name and think "wow, my dad saw that in me." I have tried to do the same with my kids. Give them names that they can look at to help them realize who they are.

We all go through that phase of "who am I?" It's nice for us to be able to look at our names and think "well, my parents saw this in me when I was born, maybe I could see it in myself." It can become part of who we are; help us find our identity.

If you don't know the meaning of your name I would recommend you look it up and see what you find. I would also ask your parents why they chose that name. Maybe you are named after a relative or a very important person in your parents lives.

I hope some of you learn something really cool about yourselves this week that you didn't previously know ;)