What's In A Name?

This is something I’ve learned recently that I think is really fun and, in some cases, pretty mind-blowing. Most people are familiar with the fact that names have meanings, but it seems like something people only look up when they are naming their child. Recently, I learned that every time a person says another’s name they are speaking the meaning of that name into the life of that person. Imagine if your parents constantly called you a bad name (or maybe you don’t have to imagine) then you would likely agree that what a person speaks into you will affect you. If you tripped and fell and your dad said, “Failure! Way to go, failure!” from the time you were very young, you will most likely grow up believing him. Likewise, if he constantly called you “champion”. You get the idea.

Did you know that every time a person calls you a name, they are speaking that into you? Whatever it is that your name means is what the person is placing on you when they call you by your name. For this reason we should also be cautious to accept a nick-name. I have done this exercise with many friends and acquaintances and it never ceases to surprise me the accuracy of this. I personally recommend you to look up not only your name, but your nick-name as well. If the meaning of either name is speaking something negative into your life, then you can ask people to stop calling you that. Or just look them up for fun. You can get insight into others as well by looking up the meaning of their names. Parents, siblings, spouses, friends. It is pretty amazing to see how what you call a person affects their life, whether they are aware of the meaning or not.

The concept of our words being powerful is not a new one, as many modern authors and motivational speakers might like us to believe. Also, please understand that I am not superstitious. This is a very old principle and just one of those spiritual laws. It was common knowledge in the Bible days. "To be called" was the same as "to be" because of the intimate connection between the name and the person. In fact, there are many instances in the Bible of a person’s name being changed by God to represent his/her new purpose. Some cases in point; Abram (meaning “high father”) was changed by God into Abraham (“father of a multitude”) after God made a promise to him that he shall father many nations, and his wife’s name was changed by God from Sarai “my princess,” to Sarah “mother of nations”. Jesus did this during His ministry. He changed Simon’s "God has heard" name to Peter "rock". Why did Jesus occasionally call Peter “Simon” after He had changed His name to Peter? Probably because Simon sometimes acted like his old self instead of the rock God called him to be.

I leave you with this, not so much a challenge this week, more a fun exercise: Look up what your name means. Do you agree with that description of you? Have people spoken positively into you or negatively into you when they called you by your name? If you don’t like the meaning of it, do you have the ability to change it? Genesis 17:3-5, Genesis 17:14-16, Proverbs 18:21, James 3:3-7

-Krystal is a blogger for The Daily Vine. Check out her bio to see where her view comes from.