What’s in a name?

At the end of each month this year, I am writing a ‘thought for the month’. This one is September’s. You will find the others here.

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When was the last time you thought about your name?

Getting ready to become a published author means it’s been forced upon me, because it was while I was writing my book that I discovered there’s an established author ‘out there’ called Jo Watson.

Keen to avoid confusion – bearing in mind she’s South African, writes romcom, and has tens of thousands of followers on social media – I quickly realised my book, “Light through the Cracks: How God Breaks In When Life Turns Tough“, would need me to use my full name, Joanna Watson, even though most of those closest to me call me Jo.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my full name, and so it seems do others. So let me tell you a story of when I found this out in a rather random location …

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It is 2016 and I am on a work trip to north-east Uganda, collecting footage for a film we’re going to use for training purposes. I’m accompanied by a South African who’s a professional film-maker, and a Ugandan who’s facilitating introductions and acting as our interpreter. My role is to be chief interviewer, and all seems to be going well.

We have been driving for a while along red rust roads, through banana plantations and maize-filled fields, when we enter a small rural town, and our driver pulls up on the side of the sleepy main street.

“We need to buy some snacks!” he declares.

The film-maker leaps out of the car, camera in hand, followed swiftly by our interpreter – and the driver indicates that he plans to stay with the car, leaving me to go searching for snacks.

Heading into a small ramshackle roadside grocery shop, I wander amongst the shelves, collecting edible goodies, and make my way to the counter – where I’m greeted warmly by a heavily pregnant Ugandan woman, who’s clearly never seen a white-skinned person in the flesh before.

“What’s your name?” she asks me, genuinely interested, her English heavily accented.

“Joanna,” I reply, retrieving my purse and pulling out cash to pay.

“What does your name mean?” she continues.

“Joanna? It means ‘God is gracious’,” I tell her, and she smiles.

“God is, indeed, gracious,” she tells me, her right hand gesturing her swollen belly. “My husband and I are expecting our first child any day now, and we are considering names.” She pauses a moment, before continuing. “I think we will call our baby, ‘Joanna’, like you.”

I am dumb-founded!

“What if your baby is a boy?” I ask with concern.

“It doesn’t matter,” she says, “God is still gracious, and that will be the meaning of his name.”

“What if your husband objects?” I query.

“He will like the name,” she responds, “because God has been gracious in giving us this baby.”

There is an air of finality about this decision, and I wonder who I am to argue with a woman whose mind is made up – and the conversation quickly moves on, as she asks me where I am from, and what I am doing in this particular rural town – and I pay for the snacks.

***

I tell you this because, as far as I’m aware, there is a Ugandan child – perhaps a boy, perhaps a girl – who is now about five years old. That child’s name is ‘Joanna’, the same as me, because his or her parents wanted their child to remind them that ‘God is gracious’.

Most of us don’t think about our names very often. They are used every day by our friends, relatives, colleagues, neighbours and many of the people with whom we interact. Yet we rarely think about their meaning, or what’s being declared into the atmosphere – in my case, ‘God is gracious‘ – each time our name is spoken.

But the Bible has a lot to say about names.

Again and again, we read of how a birth is announced, and the baby is given a name, with both the name and its meaning recorded.

You might be someone whose name has an obscure meaning. If this is you, fret not! The good news it that, if you are (or become) a Christian, God gives you new names, such as, ‘Son or Daughter of the King of Kings‘ and ‘Beloved‘.

Perhaps the most important name of all is the one recorded by the prophet Isaiah, which we find in the Bible, written hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth.

Describing what the angel Gabriel says to Joseph, about Mary, Jesus’ mother, Matthew’s Gospel tells us this:

“She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).” (Matthew 1:21-23 and Isaiah 7:14)

Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, meaning ‘the Lord saves‘ – and Immanuel means ‘God with us‘.

It means that every time we say the name of Jesus, we are declaring into the atmosphere that ‘the Lord saves‘ – and whenever we say Immanuel, we are speaking the truth that ‘God is with us‘.

How awesome is that?!

So next time you think about your name, think about its meaning – and think also of the names that God longs to give you, if you will only let him.

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As you reflect on this, I have two threads of thought for you to consider:

Firstly: When you meet someone new, how do you greet them? Here in the UK, we tend to ask, “What’s your name? What do you do?” But what would happen if we followed the example of the woman I met in Uganda, asking instead, “What’s your name? What does it mean?” How would that change the way we interact and connect?

Secondly: What names do you get called? Do these names build you up or tear you down? How would you feel about God declaring over you that you are a ‘Son or Daughter of the King of Kings‘ or ‘Beloved‘ by him?

As ever, you’re welcome to leave constructive comments below.

Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash.