What’s In a Name? Calling and Identity in the Bible

What is your name?

From a total stranger, this question demands something so personal of me that it takes me aback. I recall old English legends that if you give your name to a faerie, you give yourself up to its power. Even though my name is not related to my family’s history, or the events surrounding my birth, it is more than a word— in some way, it’s me.

For the people of the Bible, names held great significance, beyond the mere association of a word with a person. Ancient cultures, including Israel, believed that to know someone’s name was “to know that person’s total character and nature” (Joseph). The name of God was considered so holy that it was not spoken aloud, and still today, many practicing Jews will not pronounce or even write it.

Biblical parents, usually mothers, often chose names for their children which related to the circumstances of the child’s birth, or to the significance of the birth in the parents’ lives. For example, Rebecca (wife of the patriarch Isaac) gave birth to twin sons; the firstborn was a hairy child, and the second came out clinging to his brother’s heel, as if striving to pull him back and replace him. Rebecca named the first boy Esau, meaning “hairy,” and the second Jacob, meaning “supplanter”, which is often interpreted as one who seizes, circumvents, or usurps (Genesis 25: 24-26). In another instance, Leah—Jacob’s less favored wife—“conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben (“see, a son”), for she said, “Because the Lord has looked upon my affliction; for now my husband will love me” (Genesis 29: 32 ESV).  Her next three sons she named Simeon (“heard”) “Because the Lord has heard that I am hated,” Levi (“attached”) because “Now this time my husband will be attached to me,” and Judah (“praise”), saying “This time I will praise the Lord” (29: 33-35). The meanings of these names would follow the children forever, inescapable as the physical characteristics written in their DNA.

Some of the most interesting naming stories in the Bible are those in which God Himself, or an angel representative, instructs parents in what to name their child. The most famous of these stories are, of course, the annunciations to the Virgin Mary and to her cousin Elizabeth’s husband, Zechariah (Luke 1: 13; 26-31). There were others too, including the curious instance of the prophet Hosea, whom God instructed to name his daughter Lo-Ruhama (“not-pitied”), and his son Lo-Ammi (“not my people”), as a sign to Israel (Hosea 1: 6-8).

Most fascinating of all are the three stories—only three, in the entire Bible—in which God renames His adult children: the stories of Abraham, Israel, and Peter. (It is a common misconception that St. Paul was re-named at his conversion; Paul is simply the Greek version of the name Saul.)

Abraham was born Abram, which means “exalted father.” At age seventy-five, and still childless, he heard the Lord tell him to pack up and travel to a new place that the Lord would show him, a land which would belong to his descendants. Abram obeyed. For twenty-four years, the Lord continued to promise that Abram’s descendants would be an uncountable multitude, who would live in this land of promise. Finally, when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord said to him, “…No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham [“father of a multitude”], for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. […] And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.” (Genesis 17:5-8). Shortly after this, Abraham had a son, Isaac (“laughter”).

The second story of a changed name is less subtle. Abraham’s grandson, Jacob (“supplanter”), had a troubled life. He lived up to his name by cheating his twin brother out of his rightful inheritance, including the inheritance of God’s promise to Abraham. Fearing that his twin would murder him for this treachery, Jacob left home and fled to a distant relative in the desert. He worked there as an indentured servant for twenty years. Again he was slighted by his relatives, and again he won good fortune by means of trickery. Eventually, tensions rose to great heights, and the Lord told him to return home.

When Jacob neared his father’s house, he sent servants ahead of him to promise gifts to his brother Esau, for he was afraid of Esau’s wrath. The servants returned, saying that they had seen his brother approaching with four hundred men. Jacob was afraid.

That night, Jacob sent his family and all of his servants and possessions ahead of him, and remained alone. While he waited in fear, a man came to him and wrestled with him until daybreak; and when the man found that he was not winning, he touched Jacob’s hip socket and put it out of joint. But Jacob still would not let go, saying, “I will not let you go unless you bless me” (Genesis 32:26). So the man said to him, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel [“he strives with God”], for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed” (Genesis 32:28); and he blessed him and departed.

The third and final story is the story of St. Peter. Peter was originally named Simon, meaning “listen,” “that hears,” or “that obeys.” He received his new name when Jesus, near the end of his ministry, asked Simon and a few others, “Who do you say that I am?” Simon replied, “You are the Christ.” Then Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter [rock], and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16: 15-19).

These stories are very different, but from them we can discern much about what it means to be called by God. Firstly, each of these three men heard God calling them to leave their homes and follow His instructions, and they obeyed before they received any tangible assurance of a reward. Secondly, the new names that they were given were not utterly different from their original names; they were clarifications, expansions, glorifications of the originals. Abram lived since birth with the promise of fatherhood circling about him; but God intervened to give him a more specific and more glorious identity of fatherhood. Abraham would not only be an exalted father; he would be the father of the multitude of God’s own people. Jacob, whose whole life had been a series of struggles, was shown the meaning of his continual wrestling when God Himself blessed him, and told him that he had prevailed. God made the meaning of Jacob’s identity clear to him, and made Himself a part of Jacob’s very name. “Simon” and “Peter” are admittedly more dissimilar names, although connections can be drawn between the steady passivity of a listener and a of rock, or more accurately between the act of listening or obeying, and Peter’s future service as founder of the Church, a role that would require him to listen to and obey God devoutly.

Another connection between these three stories, and perhaps the most important, is this: each name was not only an elaboration on a theme, a glorification (rather than a complete replacement) of the original, but each was accompanied by a promise. God told each of these three chosen men what He planned to do with them: Abraham would be the father of God’s people; Jacob would prevail in the midst of strife with Man and with God; Peter would be the rock on which God would build His church. The new names were a small fulfillment of the hope that each man had borne since birth, the hope that the meanings of their names—of their very selves—would become clear and manifest. Abram lived until age ninety-nine as a childless “father”; Jacob bore a name that appeared to be a curse, until God blessed him; Peter was named a “hearer” before Christ spoke a word to him. But God clarified to each of these men the purpose that he would have in God’s epic story, purposes to which they were each specifically suited since birth.

Here in the contemporary West, we do not tend to imbue names with as much significance as the ancient Hebrews did. We sense the keen importance of names, and their implications about identity; many people change their own names in order to more clearly express their self-perceived identities, whether that be by changing their first names or by taking a different last name than the one given (that of a parent, or of a spouse). Additionally, some Christians traditions, such as Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, require that people who are receiving baptism or confirmation choose a new name for themselves, to symbolize their new identities in Christ, although they do not always use these new names in daily life. Members of religious orders, such as nuns and friars, take on new names which become the only names they use.

However, most Christians participate in the kind of name changing that God granted to Abraham, Israel and Peter without the outward and practical sign of an actual renaming, only the inward and spiritual grace of the change. God plants in us at birth an identity which is perfectly suited to His purpose, though since we are fallen, our identities must be refined. The refining process, that era of unclarity, may take decades—a century, in the case of Abraham—and it may involve great struggles, as it did for Israel. But when God steps in, He does not throw out our histories and start over; He offers meaning to our past, along with a clear and beautiful promise of how He will use our individualities to further His plan for His kingdom.

My name means “Gift of Grace.” How God intends me to serve Him as a gift of grace, I don’t yet know; but I will wait in patience for my purpose to become clear, and I will follow God’s voice even before He makes me to understand His plan. I invite you to do the same.

Joseph, Daniel Isaiah. “Naming in the Bible: The Importance and Meaning of Names.” Best Bible Commentaries, July 26, 2023. https://www.bestbiblecommentaries.com/naming-in-the-bible-meaning/. Accessed January 26, 2024.

The Holy Bible ESV: English Standard Version. Crossway Bibles, 2016.

Previous
Previous

Sin and Suffering

Next
Next

Jubilee and Justice