To an extent beyond the appreciation of modern and western minds the people of Biblical times and lands valued the name of the person. They always gave to it symbolical or character meaning.
While our modern names are almost exclusively designatory, and intended merely for identification, the Biblical names were also descriptive, and often prophetic. Religious significance nearly always inhered in the name, a parent relating his child to the Deity, or declaring its consecration to the Deity, by joining the name of the Deity with the service which the child should render, or perhaps commemorating in a name the favor of God in the gracious gift of the child, e.g. Nathaniel (“gift of God”); Samuel (“heard of God”); Adonijah (“Yahweh is my Lord”), etc. It seems to us strange that at its birth, the life and character of a child should be forecast by its parents in a name; and this unique custom has been regarded by an unsympathetic criticism as evidence of the origin of such names and their attendant narratives long subsequent to the completed life itself; such names, for example, as Abraham, Sarah, etc. But that this was actually done, and that it was regarded as a matter of course, is proved by the name given to Our Lord at His birth: “Thou shalt call his name Jesus; for it is he that shall save his people” (Matthew 1:21). It is not unlikely that the giving of a character name represented the parents’ purpose and fidelity in the child’s training, resulting necessarily in giving to the child’s life that very direction, which the name indicated. A child’s name, therefore, became both a prayer and a consecration, and its realization in character became often a necessary psychological effect. Great honor or dishonor was attached to a name. The Old Testament writings contain many and varied instances of this. Sometimes contempt for certain reprobate men would be most expressively indicated by a change of name, e.g. the change of Esh-baal, “man of Baal,” to Ish-bosheth, “man of shame” (2 Samuel 2:8), and the omission of Yahweh from the name of the apostate king, Ahaz (2 Kings 15:38, etc.). The name of the last king of Judah was most expressively changed by Nebuchadnezzar from Mattaniah to Zedekiah, to assure his fidelity to his overlord who made him king (2 Kings 24:17). See NAMES, PROPER.
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Author: International Std. Bible Encyclopedia
Keywords: God Names of, Names of God, God's names, Elohim, Eloah, El, Adonai, Adhonaia, Adon, Adhon, Adhonay, Jehovah, Yahweh, YHWH, Shadday, Shaddai, El Shaddai, Most high, Gibbor, El Gibbor, name of the lord, Theos, tetragrammaton, tetragrammatron, tetragramaton, tetragramaton
Bible reference(s): Genesis 4:26, Genesis 12:8, Genesis 13:4, Genesis 16:13, Genesis 21:33, Genesis 26:25, Exodus 3:13, Exodus 3:14, Exodus 20:7, Exodus 34:5, Leviticus 18:21, Leviticus 19:12, Leviticus 24:16, Deuteronomy 5:11, Deuteronomy 18:5, Deuteronomy 18:7, Deuteronomy 18:22, Deuteronomy 21:5, Deuteronomy 28:10, Deuteronomy 32:3, Deu 32:4, Deu 32:15, Deu 32:18, Deu 32:30, Deu 32:31, Joshua 9:9, 1 Samuel 17:45, 1 Samuel 20:42, 2 Samuel 6:2, 2 Samuel 6:18, 1 Kings 3:2, 1 Kings 5:3, 1 Kings 5:5, 1 Kings 8:17, 1 Kings 8:20, 1 Kings 10:1, 1 Kings 18:24, 1 Kings 18:32, 1 Kings 22:16, 2 Kings 2:24, 2 Kings 5:11, 1 Chronicles 13:6, 1 Chronicles 16:2, 1 Chronicles 21:19, 1 Chronicles 22:7, 1 Chronicles 22:19, 2 Chronicles 2:1, 2 Chronicles 2:4, 2 Chronicles 6:7, 2 Chronicles 6:10, 2 Chronicles 18:15, 2 Chronicles 33:18, Job 1:21, Psalms 7:17, Psalms 20:7, Psalms 54:6, Psalms 83:16, Psalms 102:15, Psalms 102:21, Psalms 113:1, Psalms 113:2, Psalms 113:3, Psalms 116:4, Psalms 116:13, Psalms 116:17, Psalms 118:10, Psalms 118:11, Psalms 118:12, Psalms 118:26, Psalms 122:4, Psalms 124:8, Psalms 129:8, Psalms 135:1, Psalms 135:13, Psalms 148:5, Psalms 148:13, Proverbs 18:10, Isaiah 18:7, Isaiah 24:15, Isaiah 30:27, Isaiah 48:1, Isaiah 50:10, Isaiah 56:6, Isaiah 59:19, Isaiah 60:9, Jeremiah 11:21, Jeremiah 15:16, Jeremiah 26:9, Jeremiah 26:16, Jeremiah 26:20, Jeremiah 44:16, Lamentations 3:55, Joel 2:26, Joel 2:32, Amos 6:10, Micah 4:5, Micah 5:4, Zephaniah 3:9, Zephaniah 3:12, Zechariah 13:3, Matthew 21:9, Matthew 23:39, Mark 11:9, Luke 13:35, Luke 19:38, John 12:13, Acts 2:21, Acts 8:16, Acts 9:29, Acts 19:5, Acts 19:13, Acts 19:17, Acts 21:13, Romans 10:13, 1 Corinthians 5:4, 1 Corinthians 6:11, Colossians 3:17, 2 Timothy 2:19, James 5:10, James 5:14, Revelation 15:4, Tobit 13:11, Sirach/Ecclesiasticus 39:35, Sirach/Ecclesiasticus 47:18, Sirach/Ecclesiasticus 51:12, 1 Esdras 1:48, 1 Esdras 6:1, 2 Esdras 2:47
Source: James Orr (editor), The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, 5 volume set.
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