What’s in a name?

Joy Roxborough delves into the importance of names, how they shape identity and a person’s sense of self, and why a name change can make a major difference.

It’s becoming more fashionable these days for people to change their names. Sometimes, people opt for such changes as they are become more conscious of their Black heritage. It is well known that slaves customarily had their names changed – in biblical times, as well as in more recent times, such as under the Transatlantic Slave Trade. I imagine it must be quite liberating for people to be able to change their names today to more culturally traditional names that are more meaningful to them.

Names are actually very important personal collateral. A name often signifies who a person is; it speaks to identity. I imagine this is part of the reason that, oftentimes, children who are adopted eventually seek out their birth parents to settle that question of “Who am I?”

To have one’s name stripped away and to be forced to go by another name is, in essence, an assault on an individual. Think of Daniel and the three Hebrew boys in the Old Testament story. Their names that honoured Jehovah God were changed from Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah to names that honoured Babylonian gods, i.e. Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, respectively. And while Jehovah God was more than able, as the story shows, to use them despite the negative name changes, I believe the legacy of their true names was more for their own benefit than for God’s. Imagine, if you are referred to by your God-honouring name every day, you hear it every day, it gets into your psyche every day…, are you not more likely to live up to it than if you don’t hear it and it doesn’t become a part of you?

Equally, having one’s name stripped away and changed to something else can be a good thing. Here, Sarai changed to Sarah; Abram changed to Abraham; Jacob changed to Israel; and Simon changed to Peter come to mind. In each case, the new name amplifies the individual’s purpose and calling in life.

Even more importantly, think of your own name change when you became a Christian. Your name and identity were changed from ‘sons of disobedience’ (Ephesians 2:2) and ‘children of the devil’ (1 John 3:10) to children of God (1 John 3:1) or sons and daughters of God (2 Corinthians 6:18). Your identity as a slave to sin was stripped away (Romans 6:6) and you became an heir with Jesus (Romans 8:17). Your identity as someone of weakness was transformed to someone who possess strength (2 Corinthians 12:10). We could go on…

We often hear these days, too, about the increasing prevalence of mental health problems in our society, especially but not exclusively among younger people. There are many reasons for these problems in an increasingly complex world, and the solution(s) is(are) therefore by no means simple. However, I do believe that if people can grasp, early on, a firm sense of their identity as valuable human beings, this would help to protect them against many of the onslaughts in society that tend to tear down people’s self-esteem, sense of identity and value as individuals.

I believe that within family, church and even work settings, parents, guardians and leaders have an important role of setting the tone for fostering that sense of value among those they lead and are responsible for. Also, as individuals, we each have a God-given role to ensure that people feel valued in our friendships and other relationships. Wouldn’t that be fulfilling God’s mandate to esteem others more highly than ourselves (Philippians 2:3)? In an ideal world, if everyone subscribed to this, it would mean that no one would be excluded, since every individual would have someone else valuing them highly.

While none of these actions would involve physical name changes, voluntarily or otherwise, they would encourage cumulative shifts in identities for the better. People would be transformed, healed mentally, and would perceive themselves differently simply because someone else sees the importance of bestowing upon them reasons for walking in a new and better identity.

JOY ROXBOROUGH
Creative industry professional, writer and entrepreneur
joyroxborough@yahoo.com

NB: The image contains AI generated models