By Greg Jones
What’s in a name? In yours? In mine? Sounds. Meaning. Identity. These are in a name.
When we named our children, we considered how the names would sound. We considered the flow – the rhythm – the number of syllables, the way the names fit together. We considered, “What will people shorten it to?”
Sound is in a name. After all, and before all, language trips off the tongue before it is ever written down. Language is sound, and names are meant to be said, cried and whispered. In love, in friendship, in tears and laughter, in prayers. Names are to be spoken in the relationships which make up the fullness of human living. Names recall for us the essence of a person.
Jesus. Joseph. Mary. A single sounded word – a name – conjures to mind the whole person. Does it not?
What’s in a name? In yours? In mine?
Meaning’s in a name.
In ancient times, among ancient peoples, and among those intentional about understanding their own traditions, people are usually given names that plainly mean something. What’s your last name for instance? Jones? It means son of John in Welsh. Cooper? It’s English for barrel maker. And so forth.
My middle name ‘Gregory’ means watchful in Greek. What about yours?
I’ve always identified with the story of the young boy Samuel hearing his name called in the precincts of the holy place. I’ve always identified with it not only because my mother named me Samuel Gregory, but because like Samuel, it was my mother who first dedicated me to God. She gave me over to God in baptism, in worship attendance, in Sunday School, in Youth Group, in mission work with the poor and forgotten, in all the things the Episcopal Church does.
She gave me a first name of Samuel – gave me to God in the Church – and so I guess it’s no stretch for me to find myself in the story of First Samuel.
It’s fascinating to consider Samuel and his mother Hannah. She named him ‘Samuel’ which means in Hebrew ‘His Name is God.’ Which is to say that she gave her son a name which points away from him and toward God – toward YHWH. Samuel’s very name points to God’s name, and how befitting a one called before he was born to be a prophet. A prophet who did what God asked, even the hard parts.
How fitting that Samuel’s very name implies an attentive and obedient servant – given that he was that by choice as well. “Here I am, Lord,” said the boy Samuel.
What’s your name? What’s it mean?
Some of Jesus’ followers had Hebrew names which point to God – such as Nathaniel which means ‘God has given.’ Many of his disciples had Greek names, such as Philip which means ‘horse lover.’ What is clear is that beyond their names given to them by their families, the disciples had to take on identity in Christ by their own choice and obedience – and as such they all got new names and identities added to their birth names.
Beyond your name, and mine, which may or may not plainly speak to your identity in Baptism – how much of your true identity, of who you think you are, of what you call yourself, is bound up in your response to God’s calling you by name.
Samuel said, “Here I am Lord, your servant is listening.”
Is that true of you and me as well?
The Rev. Samuel Gregory Jones (‘Greg’) is rector of St. Michael’s in Raleigh, N.C. and the bass player in indie-rock band The Balsa Gliders – whose fourth studio release is available on iTunes. He blogs at Anglican Centrist.