What's in a Name? (1)

“No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations.” (Genesis 17:5)

Recently, David E. Kalist, a colleague of mine, and I coauthored a research paper entitled, “First Names and Crime: Does Unpopularity Spell Trouble?” which was published in the March 2009 issue of Social Science Quarterly . We were surprised to receive much attention from various media outlets including Time , Fox News , USA Today, Chicago Tribune, Daily Telegraph (London), and others, not to mention numerous blogs. We also received many phone calls and e-mail messages concerning the research from readers, giving us feedback on the topic. One school teacher wrote to us to say that our findings confirmed his belief about the connection between names and children’s behavior based on his experience in school over the years. Not all comments were positive. One person questioned why we spent the time for a research topic like this when the country is going through a serious economic crisis.

Many people consider economics as a field that focuses on macroeconomic topics such as GDP, inflation, unemployment, interest rates, and so on. Some even think it is about money. Economists take on a much broader view. We usually define economics as a science that studies the choices made by people, firms and governments. Whenever and wherever choices are made, we want to apply economic principles to see how good choices can be made. So topics such as getting married or divorced, having children, committing crime, and the like, have been researched by economists as they involve choices. Choosing names is one of the first things parents do for their children when they are born. Selecting a popular name or uncommon name might have an impact for the child’s life.

What’s in a name? This is the question that Shakespeare asked in his famous play, Romeo and Juliet (c. 1591). Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet meet at a masked ball and fall in love. They want to get married but the two families are feuding with each other and won’t allow them to. In the balcony scene (Act 2, Scene 2), the frustrated Juliet says to Romeo,

“O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I'll no longer be a Capulet.”

When Romeo says, “Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?” Juliet continues,

“'Tis but thy name that is my enemy.
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face. O, be some other name
Belonging to a man.
What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet.
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name;
And for thy name, which is no part of thee,
Take all myself.”

Using the mouth of Juliet, Shakespeare implied that a person’s name is nothing but an artificial and meaningless designation. But is this true? Would a rose by any other name smell just as sweet?

I have always been interested in names of people. As a student of the Bible, I learned that the name of a person represents his or her character, personality and identity. There are several name changes recorded in the Bible. God changed Abram, meaning “exalted father,” to Abraham, meaning “father of many nations.” God said to Abram, “No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations” (Genesis 17:5). After Noah’s Flood, God began his long-term redemptive plan to save the mankind from their sin. The plan would culminate when his own Son Jesus comes to die on the cross as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). For this purpose, he called a 75-year old man, Abram, to begin a new life of faith. Jesus would be born from the line of Abram. God told Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you" (Genesis 12:1-3). Abram accepted God’s purpose for his life and embarked on a new journey. He left his home town (Ur of the Chaldeans located in today’s Persian Gulf) and traveled northward, even though he still did not know where he was going. Finally, he arrived in Beersheba (located in today’s Israel) and learned that it was to be the land that God would give to him and his descendants.

Abram’s life of faith, however, was not without ups and downs. When he faced a financial crisis, he went to Egypt and tried to survive with a deceptive scheme. He was also drawn to regional conflicts because of his nephew. One thing that constantly bothered him was that he had no children of his own and his wife was past the child-bearing age. How could he become “a great nation” when he didn’t even have a son? He complained to God that one of his servants would inherit his estate because God had not given him a son. God took him out of his tent and said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them. So shall your offspring be” (Genesis 15:5). Still nothing happened. So Abram decided to have a son by getting a new wife. The result was that he did have a son (Ishmael) with an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar. For thirteen years, the Bible is silent about Abram’s life. We can only guess that he enjoyed his son Ishmael, forgetting about God’s great promise to make him a source of blessing to all peoples on earth. Finally, God appeared to him to remind him of the great promise. When Abram fell facedown, God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations” (Genesis 17:4-5). So the name change was not a reflection of who Abraham was at that point of his life, but who he could become if he followed God faithfully. It was a reflection of God’s hope and promise for Abraham. Abram wanted to be an exalted father, a family man, who cared only about his own well-being and happiness. But God wanted him to be Abraham, father of many nations, whom God could use to save all mankind.

God also changed the name of Abraham’s wife from Sarai (“princess”) to Sarah that has a similar meaning but with the promise: “I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her” (Genesis 17:16). Later, God changed Abraham’s grandson’s name from Jacob (meaning “cheater”) to Israel (“he struggles with God”) in the hope that he would become a spiritual man (Genesis 32:28). Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter which means “rock” after Peter confessed Jesus to be his Christ, that is, his personal Savior. Peter was still an impulsive man, but Jesus had a hope and vision for him to become a solid man of faith. Jesus said, “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it” (Matthew 16:18).

From these name changes in the Bible, we learn that a person’s name is not a meaningless designation. Our name is a constant reminder of who we are. We hear our name called by others everyday during our life time. In their popular book, Freakonomics, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner tell the story of a New York City man who named two of his sons Winner and Loser. Winner Lane grew up to be a criminal while his younger brother, Loser Lane, went to a good college and became a sergeant in the NYPD. This story seems to confirm that a rose by any other name smells as sweet, until you read the part that Loser Lane was rarely called Loser. He was called “from Jimmy to James… To his police colleagues, he is known as Lou.” If a name doesn’t matter, why use all these alternative names?

Personally, I believe that names do make a difference. My first name, Daniel, is not what my parents gave me; I took on the name when I became a Christian. (I was given a chance to change my name when I became a naturalized citizen of this country.) The prophet Daniel was a man of vision and prayer when his people were exiled to a foreign land. He kept his spiritual identity and prayed regularly despite the enormous pressure on his life of faith as a prisoner of war. I have a long way to go to become a man of faith like the prophet. But I want to continue to struggle to learn to be a man of vision and prayer. So, call me Daniel, not Dan, a name that is associated with idol worship if you know Israel’s history.