Spiritual Baby Names and Naming Babies Spiritually: Moses, Siddhartha and Mercy
by Lael
A colleague of mine while pregnant with her first child dreamed of a dark-haired infant named Isabelle. Taking her dream to be prescriptive, she and her husband went on to name their firstborn Isabelle. Thankfully, like the baby in the dream, their Isabelle was a girl.
Some cultures have naming traditions. Jews, for instance, often name children to honor loved ones who have passed. Hence the number of Jewish women named Maxine in honor of a beloved grandfather or uncle Max.
Mira Nair's lovely film The Namesake
, like the Jhumpa Lahiri novel of the same name on which the movie is based, is a study both in different cultural approaches to naming and in the power and importance of names. In the story, an American OB-GYN is taken aback when his patients newly immigrated from Calcutta explain their plan to let a grandparent name their child, a process that could take as long as six years.
While to American ears six years may sound a bit exaggerated, generally speaking, parents everywhere invest time and energy into the search for the right or perfect name. Given the profound power of the word, that everything we say and do constitutes a living communication with the divine, this care in naming seems altogether wise. Surely the name that one's child will associate with himself or herself and hear continually is of the utmost importance.
Going right for the big guns, many Catholic and Christian Spanish speakers name sons Jesus, while Italians have been know to use the name Salvatore which means savior. I once met an expectant Indian wife and Jewish husband who were going back and forth between Siddhartha and Abraham. If I'm not mistaken, they eventually chose the former as the first name and the latter as the middle name: Siddhartha Abraham, certainly a distinguished and venerable mouthful. Many give actress Gwyneth Paltrow a hard time for naming a son Moses. I disagree with these haters. What's not to love, I wonder, about most Hebrew prophet names including not only Moses but also Isaiah, Elijah, Aaron and Samuel.
Even if it didn't once belong to an enlightened or deeply spiritual being, a name can still have special spiritual significance. Did my Great Aunt Grace live an especially grace-filled life? If so, then her charming, slightly antiquated name was surely a good choice. And then there's the popular Hindu name Maya meaning illusion that reminds one of the dream-like nature of the world.
Pagans or anyone else wishing to move beyond well-worn biblical and classical standbys will find Phoenix McFarland's New Book Of Magical Names a handy resource. Pagans aren't the only ones acutely conscious of the magical energy within names, however. The oddball but no doubt entirely earnest monikers that Puritans sometimes gave their children attest to a similar awareness. Some of the strangest Puritan names include "If-Christ-had- not-died-for- thee-thou-hadst- been-damned" (nickname "Damned") and "Fly-fornication." While these are probably best left to the dustbin of history along with the Puritan name "Dust," other Puritan appellations such as Mercy, Joy and Verity retain their beauty and surely their power as well.
More important even than anyone's particular name is how that name is spoken and thought. May we all utter one another's names, and our own as well, with kindness in our hearts and on our lips. And regardless of what we name our young ones, may terms of endearment like sweetheart and dearie become universal and prevail.
| 02/15/08
|
Book Club
