What is Your Name?
Is there more to your name than you realise?
“What is your name?”
This is a question we’ve heard and answered several times.
It’s one question that transcends boundaries like age, culture and origin. It’s one of the only questions that even a baby, with all their innocence, can attempt to answer, showing how fundamental names are to our identity. It's a seemingly simple one that almost no one finds offensive.
It’s a question that sometimes grants us more insights into the life of a person or entity. It represents an identity. This question is not one to simply gloss over or be dishonest with, like Jacob.
Jacob’s father, Isaac, was about to die — or so he thought — and he requested to have a nice meal prepared by His older son, Esau, and that he would bless him. Their mother, Rebekah, overheard this and loving Jacob, the younger son more, she told him to disguise himself as the older son and get the blessing.
As Jacob served the meal to Isaac, pretending to be Esau, we saw a man so desperate for a blessing that he risked breaking his family apart.
How often do we strive for blessings in ways that don’t align with God’s will?
When Jacob stayed before him, he was asked this simple question, “... Who art thou?...” (Genesis 27:32) — What is your identity? What is your name? The one that even babies of a few months would delightfully answer with all their might.
But Jacob answered wrongly, and this wrong answer cost him dearly.
The family was broken apart. His brother, Esau, was angry and wanted to kill him (Genesis 27:41). He suffered a painful deception from his uncle, Laban (Genesis 29). His family became torn with strife. He was exiled from his family for years.
How could so much result from a single wrong answer to the question, ‘What is your name?’
This is because, in Scripture, a name often holds deeper meaning. It reflects identity, character, or even one’s destiny—as we see in the life of Jacob.
A Name Can Show or Confirm the Untransformed Nature
In Scripture, names often carry profound meanings. Sometimes, they reveal the essence of a person’s character or their current spiritual state. While some names point to purpose or destiny, others expose flaws, weaknesses, or an unrefined nature yet to be transformed by God. Such names serve as a reflection of the person’s condition before encountering divine intervention or judgment.
Jacob’s name is derived from the Hebrew word “יַעֲקֹב” (Ya’akov), meaning heel-grabber or supplanter. This reflected his early nature as someone who used cunning and deception to get ahead in life.
At birth, Jacob grabbed onto the heel of Esau (Genesis 25:26), the older of the twins. As they grew in life, he manipulated his brother, Esau, to get his birthright (Genesis 25:31), and he deceived Isaac to get Esau’s blessings (Genesis 27:32). Jacob’s name revealed his nature as a deceiver and scoundrel. All Jacob had to do was live out his name, as that was the identity given to him.
Nabal is another example. Nabal’s name is derived from the Hebrew word “נָבָל” (Nāḇāl), which means fool. It can also mean "futile, worthless, good-for-nothing". The name — identity — given to him at birth was one of folly, and all he had to do was live it out.
Nabal was known to be a wealthy man who owned a great amount of flock, he was also described to be unfriendly and mean in his dealings. In the wilderness, David and his men had protected Nabal’s shepherds and flocks, and so he sent requests for provisions during the sheep-shearing season. Despite David’s protection of his flock, Nabal insulted David’s messengers and refused to help. This act of arrogance was especially foolish, given David’s reputation as God’s anointed leader. Nabal’s response angered David, who prepared to come down to kill them. Thankfully, Nabal’s wife, Abigail, got wind of the information and wisely came to appease David.
The stories of Jacob and Nabal illustrate how a name can mirror one’s unrefined nature or spiritual state. They also remind us of how significant names are, not merely as labels but as a reflection of character, destiny and potential.
While names like Jacob and Nabal reflect an untransformed nature, they also highlight how recognising these flaws can lead to transformation through prayers, as seen in the story of Jabez.
A Name Can Serve as a Call to Prayer
A child doesn’t choose his/her name at birth; instead, the responsibility lies with parents or guardians. This opens up a possibility for a child to be wrongly or negatively named. It’s terrifying how a child can be sentenced to a life of suffering, shame or anything negative because of who gives the name.
This is why we thank God for godly parents, who tarried in the place of prayer for us, waiting for God’s revelation concerning their yet-to-be-born children. May we be like them. Amen!
The good news is that God can transform your identity; He can change your name. Since all power belongs to God, He can bring about a transformative and permanent change in names that are unbecoming.
Jabez and Jacob were both victims of wrong names, and thankfully, they let their names instruct them to pray.
If your name or past feels like a burden, commit it to God in prayer and trust Him to rewrite your story.
Jabez’s name, derived from the Hebrew word “יַעְבֵּץ” (ya'betz), which means “he makes sorrowful" or "borne in pain", was given by his mother because of the hardship she experienced during his birth, reflecting her pain in his identity. A child who had done nothing was sentenced to a lifetime of sorrow and pain. This was a difficult reality. Thankfully, Jabez probably realised, that the cause of afflictions were not enemies or a curse. It wasn’t because he wasn’t hard-working or anything. It all led back to his name. He questioned himself to know why he was living a life of sorrow and pain. The answer was his name. Why he wasn’t blessed, his name. Why it didn’t seem like God’s hand was with him? His name. Why he was exposed to evil? His name.
Friend, reflect on your name today. Does it carry a meaning or association that influences your identity or experiences? Bring it before God and ask Him to reveal its purpose in your life.
Jabez wasn’t willing to accept a life of sorrow and pain. He knew something had to change. Have you ever felt like that, too—longing for a turning point? Please take some time to pray about it today.
Thank God, he knew the right thing to do. He responded to the call of prayers!
Similarly, Jacob’s name reflected his challenging journey and untransformed nature. At the time of his mother’s pregnancy, she felt struggles in her womb. She went to God to enquire and was told that two nations would come from her and that one would be stronger than the other. And as God said, she had twins. When the children came forth, she named the first, Esau – meaning hairy, rough or a maker, but the second? Jacob, meaning heel-grabber and supplanter. Rachel, why not name him chubby or something, since Esau was named hairy?
Jacob spent his life living out this name, but thankfully also, when he was faced with the difficult decision of going back home, he knew a change had to come to his life. The Bible doesn’t specify whether Jacob recognised how his name influenced his life, but God addressed it directly by renaming him to Israel. In his travail with the angel of God, he asked to be blessed, but he got a name change instead. “And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed (Genesis 32:28 KJV).”
And so friend, if it has happened that your name doesn’t properly capture God’s essence for you, but rather, that of an ancestral parent, please be informed that God still deals in name-changing services. Ask Abraham (formerly Abram - Genesis 17:5), Sarah (formerly Sarai - Genesis 17:15-16), Joshua (formerly Hoshea - Numbers 13:16), and Paul (formerly Saul - Acts 13:9).
Just as a name can reflect a challenge or a call to prayer, it can also signify a God-ordained purpose, revealing a unique assignment given to the bearer.
A Name Can Signify a Purpose
One of the ways God used to make his plan or purpose known is by giving a very clear name to the one who would carry out that assignment. We can find a couple of examples in scriptures of names that give insight into the purpose of their bearers. These names were not just for the bearers to respond to when called, but they were like paths for the bearers to follow.
A great and popular example is Moses, whose name is derived from the Hebrew word “משה” (Moshe), which means “to draw out” or “to pull out. In the wisdom of Pharaoh's daughter, she simply named a child according to the circumstance, “…And she called his name Moses: and she said Because I drew him out of the water” (Exodus 2:10). But according to God’s wisdom, He had just revealed the theme of an assignment that would take several years to unfold.
A cursory look would only let us know that Moses was drawn from the water, but carefully following his life reveals that Moses was God’s appointed man (Exodus 3:2), to draw out the Israelites from Egypt (Exodus 3:10), draw them through the waters (Exodus 14:21-22), draw them from the world and its practices, and then to God (Exodus 19:3-6; 24:3-8. Deu 4:1-2). All in a name, Moses!
Simon Peter was also in this category. His name, originally, Simon was derived from the Hebrew word שִׁמְעוֹן (Shimon), which means he has heard or one who hears. However, Jesus gave him the name Peter, derived from the Greek word petra, which means “rock” or “stone” (Matthew 16:18). Subsequent events would later show how this name was a purpose-given one. As the rock on which the church would be built, Christ gave him the keys to the kingdom of heaven, signifying his great authority (Matthew 16:19). After he denied Jesus, Jesus restored him by questioning his love, and then commanding him to feed the sheep, signifying his role as a shepherd.
On the day of Pentecost, after the baptism of the Holy Ghost, Peter was the first Apostle who publicly preached, and this first message of his, led to the conversion of 3000 souls, effectively laying the foundation of the early church (Acts 2). He was also the one who spearheaded the spreading of the gospel to the Gentiles starting with the family of Cornelius (Acts 10), showing that the church would expand beyond Jewish Nations and to the entire world. Again, all in a name!
Take a moment today to ask your parents about the meaning behind your name or research it yourself. Reflect on how it aligns with God’s plan for your life.
Names carry profound power and depth, shaping our identity and purpose. Take time to reflect on your name—its meaning, significance and how it aligns with God’s plan for your life. May our lives and names reflect God’s truth and glory in Jesus’ Name. Amen!
“What is your name?”
Many thanks to my friend Mary for proofreading this piece.