We all know the expression ‘what’s in a name’. Essentially it means?what something is?called can never fully capture the full meaning of what that something?is.?This saying is particularly true for people,?who are surely more complex than any one name or label that gets slapped on them. ?But there’s still a lot in a name.
While true that a person’s identity cannot be reduced to their name,?names?can?matter when it comes to expressing our hopes, dreams, aspirations and expectations. ?Just ask any parent who?has spent countless?hours?choosing a name for?their baby, or people wrestling with decisions about their names after marriage, or people who change their names in the wake of some life-altering experience, or in the effort to help?effect?the change?which?they want in their lives.
There’s a reason that naming books, websites telling people the derivations and meanings of names, not to mention attorneys, can all make money by helping people to pick or change names. ?There is a reason that most spiritual traditions attach huge importance to naming – be it at the time of birth, adoption, conversion or even at times of crises, when the hope is that by picking a new name or adding to the old one, a person can help pick or shape a new life for themselves. ?Names?do?matter.
I will never forget sitting in the hospital with my wife, the day after our third child was born. ?We had picked out a name – a perfectly lovely name?- for our daughter, and were filling out her birth certificate. ?We got to the line about her name, and I was about to write down the name we had chosen when I dropped the pen and ran over and lifted the baby out of her bassinet and looked into her eyes. ?”That’s not her name,” I said to my wife. ?To which she responded with her typical calm, “Okay, what is?”? And with all of my heart I answered, “Adina” –?hebrew?for gentle one or delicate one.
Honestly, it was more intuition than anything else that was driving me that morning. ?Though it was also being stuck by a kind of delicacy about this baby?- a delicacy that I had not felt in her sisters. ?Not a weakness, but a genuinely delicate presence which needed to be recognized and celebrated.
Happily, my wife agreed, and our new daughter had a new name. ?Did it matter? ?Of course, there is no way of knowing, but I do know?that the feeling I had that day was as deep and real as anything I have ever felt, and I know that I am not alone in having a story like that.
So what’s in a name? ?Do they really capture all of who we are, or have the power to single-handedly shape our destiny? ?Of course not. ?But names are mirrors and containers of some our most deeply held hopes and profoundly felt intuitions. ?They can even be guides, pointing us toward being the person we most want be, or connecting to a cherished part of a family history.
While we should never reduce ourselves or anyone else to their name, it pays to appreciate the power of names and naming. ?So what’s in a name? Quite a lot.
Listed for many years in Newsweek as one of America’s “50 Most Influential Rabbis” and recognized as one of our nation’s leading “Preachers and Teachers,” by Beliefnet.com, Rabbi Brad Hirschfield serves as the President of Clal–The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, a training institute, think tank, and resource center nurturing religious and intellectual pluralism within the Jewish community, and the wider world, preparing people to meet the biggest challenges we face in our increasingly polarized world.
An ordained Orthodox rabbi who studied for his PhD and taught at The Jewish Theological Seminary, he has also taught the University of Pennsylvania, where he directs an ongoing seminar, and American Jewish University. Rabbi Brad regularly teaches and consults for the US Army and United States Department of Defense, religious organizations — Jewish and Christian — including United Seminary (Methodist), Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (Modern Orthodox) Luther Seminary (Lutheran), and The Jewish Theological Seminary (Conservative) — civic organizations including No Labels, Odyssey Impact, and The Aspen Institute, numerous Jewish Federations, and a variety of communal and family foundations.
Hirschfield is the author and editor of numerous books, including You Don’t Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism, writes a column for Religion News Service, and appears regularly on TV and radio in outlets ranging from The Washington Post to Fox News Channel. He is also the founder of the Stand and See Fellowship, which brings hundreds of Christian religious leaders to Israel, preparing them to address the increasing polarization around Middle East issues — and really all currently polarizing issues at home and abroad — with six words, “It’s more complicated than we know.”