What's In A Name?

Lil Bit, Big Boy, Too Tall, Shorty, Red are all monikers you probably heard on the playground. You yourself may have inherited one of these nicknames or bestowed one of these titles to a friend or relative. I can recall several people I only knew by their nickname. There was one such person in our neighborhood called Baby Junior. When he became an adult, he was Mr. Baby Junior.

What is in a name? Your identity, your purpose, possibly your destiny lies in your name. Proverbs 22: 1 states: A good name is to be more desired than great wealth, favor is better than silver and gold.


Would you name your daughter Rahab? I can hear some of the Biblical scholars gasp and reply, of course not she was a prostitute.
Yes, she was, but she was part of the lineage of Christ. Rahab was the woman that saved the men sent by Joshua to spy out the land. When ordered by the King of Jericho to send the men out she hid them and by lying to the king saved their lives. No matter how great her feat or her lineage she is identified as Rahab the prostitute.

My husband calls me honey even during times of intense fellowship. His nickname for me indicates I should present myself as a sweet and loving person. In my profession of working with children, I often call them names like angel, sweetness, sweetheart, sugar, genius and other encouraging names. The positive responses to these names set the tone for their attitudes for the rest of the day.

Therefore, what do the names like fat, stupid, ugly, crazy, lazy, slut, ignorant, klutz, inspire? For some it may motivate a change for the better but more often the names are interred within and that person struggles their entire life with depression, acceptance, insecurities, and low self-esteem. In these cases, I emphatically say that someone’s opinion of you should not be your reality.

For Christians you are bought with the blood shed on Calvary, you undergo a name change because all of the old is wiped away. You now have new birth and an opportunity to start over.

After Saul met Jesus on the Damascus Road, he was a new man with a new heart. The old man with the old beliefs was a thing of the past. He was renamed Paul and Jesus believed that this new man with a new heart required a new name.

I have a friend that will call me Woman of GOD; I am inspired to live up to the name. Praise God and change your name from Unloved to Beloved of the Lord. Change from Never - Amount to Anything to Highly Favored Woman of God. Accelerate from Hopeless to Woman of Faith. Step up from Loser to Woman of Victory. Emerge from Despised to Woman of Worth, adopt the name Holy Woman, and insure that your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

--Gail Smith