What’s in a Name?

I used to have a teacher in school who, even back then, thought the world was changing too fast, and not always for the better. One thing that particular ly upset him was the names being given to children. As far as he was concerned any good Catholic parents should name their children after either Our Lady, or one of the saints. When he got on his hobby-horse o ne of his favourite lines was “back when boys were boys, and girls were girls, and Daisy was the name of a cow!” (No offence intended to anybody called Daisy – I’m just quoting the man!) Come to think of it, I don’t know why he didn’t say “and Daisy was the name of a flower” – possibly he saw problems with Rose and Lily, very popular Irish names in those days!

Speaking of daisies – they always remind me of my father’s favourite excuse for not mowing the lawn at home . The grass was full of daisies, which he claimed to regard as being among his favourite flower s – he couldn’t find it in his heart to be cutting them off in their prime! ( I know – I wouldn’t fall for it either, but i t worked for him, because I usually ended up being the one who had to cut the grass !) But I digress. Getting back to my teacher, I never had enough nerve to ask him who did he think the saints were named after – eg. St. Bernard – if he was the first St. Bernard then clearly he wasn’t named after a saint! As I say, I never thought it was worth risking life and limb just to find out his answer.

Whether naming them after saints or flowers or whatever, choosing a name for a child is a major step – the child is most likely to carry this name through life. I recall a wise parent once telling me of a number of important considerations she kept in mind in choosing names for her children. After narrowing down the field to a relatively small number that they liked, they then went through them individually and asked three questions – what would it be shortened to; how would children accidentally mis-pronounce it; how would children maliciously mis-pronounce it? If the name passed all three tests satisfactorily, then it was a real possibility.

Our Gospel today features a little disagreement over naming a baby – in this case John, later to be known as John the Baptist. The relations and neighbours expected that they would follow custom and name him after his father, Zechariah, or some other relation. But the angel who had first appeared to Zechariah in the temple had said that the child was to be called John, a name which meant “God has shown His favour”. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could all feel that way about every child that comes into the world – that the child is a sign of God’s favour and blessing on the world, and especially on the parents and family of the baby? And even better, that we could retain that belief even after the initial joy has faded.

Our Gospels feature two Johns – John the Baptist and John the apostle. They lived very different lives – John the Baptist was to die a martyr as a relatively young man; John the apostle lived to a very old age. But it wasn’t their names that made them special, it was their commitment to living their lives in answer to God’s call to them. On meeting with Jesus they knew that i t is in His name that we are all saved! Amen to that!