What’s in a Name?

DO YOU remember Shakespeare’s romantic love tragedy Romeo and Juliet? In a famous scene Juliet says, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet?” Juliet means that a name is an artificial and superficial convention, and that she loves Romeo regardless of the name given to him.

That verse from Shakespeare came to mind yesterday morning when I was in the Basilica in Padua and I heard a woman call her son “Sanhedrin”. Thinking that I might have misheard her, I asked her what the name of her son was, and she replied “Sanhedrin,” adding, “I wanted a Biblical name and I found this name in the Gospels. I know it is the name of the Jewish High Court which condemned Jesus, but I like it because of its exotic flavour.”



Obviously I do not agree with this lady. I believe a name is not an email handle where one can get as creative as one wants. Sure, Juliet is right when she claims that a person’s worth is not defined by that person’s name, but why give a child a ridiculous or embarrassing name?

This same question is being posed by many law makers around the world who are taking steps to curb the overly creative imagination of some parents. In New Zealand, for instance, the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages has just released a list of 77 unacceptable baby names, perhaps to discourage new parents from picking ones that might haunt their children for life. The name Justice was rejected as well as Duke, Majesty, Lucifer, Messiah and 89. Banned are also Fish and Chips for twins.

Lists of forbidden names have also been issued in Sweden (where the names Ikea and Veranda have been placed on the index) and Norway (where some years ago a young mother was sent to jail because she refused to change the name she had picked for her son: Bridge).



For us Christians, however, there is another aspect to consider. A name is not just for a birthday, but is an audible personal symbol that is meant for a lifetime, nay, for eternity. Pope Benedict XVI reminded us of this a couple of years ago when he captured international headlines for reminding Catholic parents throughout the world that they should be choosing Christian names for their children.

The choice of a name, Benedict emphasised, should not be done ‘by chance’ or whim, but should reinforce and communicate to the growing children and those around them one of the essential realities of the sacrament of baptism and the Christian life. The Christian name – in contrast to a non-Christian one – signifies that in baptism “every baptised child acquires the character of the son of God,” and is “an unmistakable sign that the Holy Spirit causes man to be born anew in the womb of the Church.”



A Christian name manifests that through baptism a child is raised to the “supernatural order” and “placed in communication with God,” who then calls that child by that given name. Naming a child after a Christian saint or a Biblical hero is a concrete reminder for the child and everyone else that God is calling that child, like her or his Christian namesake, to holiness and heaven. Moreover, a Christian name concretely indicates that there is, and is meant to be, a connection and continuity between one’s natural and supernatural life, and between earthly and eternal life.

“The name is the icon of the person” the Catechism teaches, and will accompany us into eternity “where the mysterious and unique character of each person marked with God’s name will shine forth in splendour.” (2159)

Then Shakespeare was wrong about names, wasn’t he? Well, although in Romeo and Juliet he suggests that names are theoretically arbitrary, in another play, The Tempest, he theorizes that names are used to define us and that if we don’t own our names, we risk not owning ourselves. After all, he was a poet, not a theologian.