What's in a Name?

The birth of our second child was just over two weeks ago. There was much anticipation on our child's name, as we would not share any of our ideas. Going into the birth we were expecting to have a boy though we could not get quite settled on what our boy's name ought to be. We were, however, settled on a girl's name... which, coincidentally enough was what was born to us on November 4th. Her name is Kalliope Rose Marie Brillinger. Kalliope, not being a common name, has provoked many questions. First of which is pronunciation: ka-LYE-o-pee. Second being the meaning & origin. Kalliope comes from the Greek meaning Beautiful Voice. As we prayed for our daughter we were impressed with an overwhelming sense that she is to be a voice to the voiceless & a voice for the voiceless.

In our Post Modern, irrelevant society, meaning and purpose of all - including language - is being lost. And as such the naming of our children has been reduced picking names that sound "cool". Of course this is not all pervasive and this is also not to say that I deny the value of a good sounding name. What I am saying is that we say things and name people things that we really do not know what we are saying, and we don't even care that it is important.

You cannot deny the value of meaning of names given to children in the Biblical account. No name was every squandered. Intuitively this makes sense as well, if we allow ourselves to use the not-so-common-common-sense. Names do have meaning, whether we wish do deny or ignore this fact. Your name is the word that is most consistently spoken over you. The spoken word is more powerful than we could ever imagine. God spoke into existence all that exists (Gen 1, Rom 4:17) and Jesus is the Logos, or Word that was with and is God (John 1). One may propose that one's name in essence is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I am reminded to comment on our first child's name, Israel. Many have said to us, "Why would you name your child Isreal?". Implied in this question is the current political climate around the country of Israel. And there is also a built in negative connotation as it is becoming increasingly cool to be anti-Israel in Pop American Culture, much to their demise. I shouldn't have to explain the fact that Israel is a name that transcends any current affair and in essence does itself have a meaning: Prince with God. This is our son's name. His name was not selected at random, like many believe the essential nature of the universe is, it was chosen. In fact, it and he was given to us.