Naming.

By Trish Patrick in All Sorts

thoughts about the profound significance of names

NAMING
Names have a profound significance on a number of levels.
Our given names have legal and civil significance and proclaim our identity Given to us at birth, written on our all important birth certificate and passport, our names say 'this is who I am' in the eyes of the state. Our registered name declares our citizenship and grants us rights, privileges, obligations and protections under the law of the land.
Historically, last names or 'sir' names were used only by the nobility who felt entitled to have an extra name. In the middle 1400's King Edward V of England declared that surnames be used as an additional form of identification. These names had to relate to some aspect of the persons life, eg, their occupation...butcher, baker, miller etc. Eventually, physical characteristics were included, and also the geographical location of the person eg hill, river, field. Adding 'son' to a father's name was also common. Other derivations have come into use over the centuries.
Names have social and religious significance. Names are chosen usually with a lot of thought, even with much agonising on the part of the parents. In most cultures a ritual is performed at the naming of a child, it may be religious or secular, but this significant event is honoured and has been down through the ages. Apparently the Christian church exercised enormous influence over which names were acceptable. In medieval times only children who were named after saints and martyrs were allowed to be baptised. This was designed to prevent babies being named after pagan gods. Because of peoples fear of going to hell, it proved a most effective way of growing church membership!!
Names have an emotional and psychological significance. Whether we like our names or not we become rather attached. Because our name is so integral to our identity, so enmeshed with our perception of ourselves, we almost 'are our name'. It reminds us of our humanity, that we are an individual, unique, someone to be celebrated.
At a recent Wednesday night meeting when Mohammed was showing us photos and talking about his life in Damascus under the present oppressively cruel regime, he said when people were abducted and taken prisoner, they were given a number. This was their identity. Names were forbidden.
In that one act, these prisoners had their individual humanity stripped from them. For the regime this was a permission giving act. Permission to commit atrocities on a dehumanised number rather than a named person. No responsibility need be taken. No families need be informed of the fate of their family member. No accountability is required. They were just a number after all.
The Nazis did the same thing to people in the concentration camps, tattooing the number for all time on the prisoners' arms, adults and infants alike.
It would be easy to think this could never happen in our country and god forbid it ever should. However, as the saying goes,' the price of freedom is eternal vigilance'. The way Health Boards express information gathered from statistics is interesting. They talk about 'bed nights', 'bed occupancy'.
Maybe it is just statistical jargon but, used often enough by the statisticians and politicians, it is not a big leap to becoming a de- personalising/ dehumanising tool. It's probably a lot easier closing a
ward or reducing services if one doesn't have to think about the sick, injured or disabled who would have been occupying those beds. In the work place, employees are sometimes called 'productive units'....much easier to make a 'productive unit' redundant than a person with a real name!!
On another level, the naming of places has great significance. When a country invades another, towns, cities, mountains, and rivers etc are renamed by the conquering or colonising power. Naming something creates a sense of ownership and power over. We've seen this happen in our own country...it's an act of unconstrained arrogance.
On a more positive note, if one is suffering from an unexplained condition, once a diagnosis is possible and named very often, even if it's not what one wants to hear, it is a bit easier to deal with that reality, rather than a constellation of unexplained symptoms. One sometimes feels a measure of control over the named condition.
So the naming of people and of things is profoundly significant. However, naming something or someone doesn't change the named, rather, it brings it into focus which begs the question, 'what about naming the unnameable, GOD. The poet Nicholas Bielby in his poem ''THE NAMING OF THINGS'' articulates this clearly in the last two verses. He writes......
''I AM THAT I AM'' answers no question, is an evasive idiom suggesting ''What I am is no business of yours'' ''Yaweh,'' translated, simply means ''He is''
The thousand names of God are images, graven, partial, wise or otherwise, But in the imagination still, I know, there's something nameless does not let me go.