Name of God. By this term we are to understand : 1, God himself (Psa. xx, 1) ; 2, his titles peculiar to him- self (Exod. iii, 13, 14) ; 3, his word (Psa. v, 11 ; Acts ix, 15) ; 4, his works (Psa. viii, 1) ; 5, his worship (Exod. XX, 24) ; 6, his perfections and excellences (Exod. xxxiv, 6 ; John xvii, 26). The properties or qualities of this name are these: 1, a glorious name (Psa. Ixxii, 17); 2, transcendent and incomparable (Rev. xix, 16) ; 3, pow- erfid (Phil, ii, 10) ; 4, holy and reverend (Psa. cxi, 9) ; 5, awful to the wicked ; 6, perpetual (Isa. Iv, 13). — Cru- den, Concordance ; Hanuam, Anal. Com]), p. 20.
Namer. See Leopard.
Names, CHRISTIAN. The modern practice of giving names at baptism is most probably in accord- ance with primitive usage, and might have been adopt- ed from the custom of the Jews naming their children when they circumcised them. No mention of the prac- tice is made by the writers of the New Testament, or by the Church fathers, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Origen, Cyprian, or by any other of the early ecclesiastical writ- ers. In fact, we find that many of these writers, and others, such as Constantine, Ambrose, Augustine, and Gregory, retained their original names after they had received athdt baptism. There are, however, numerous instances of persons receiving new names at their bap- tism ; and it appears that it was customary to register the names of all candidates, when they were received as catechumens, in the registers of the Church, and those of their sponsors also. The Church, grounding its practice on James ii, 7, compared with 1 Peter iv, 15, required that the name of the person to be baptized should have some reference to the Christian religion, as some Christian virtue ; and in accordance with such a purpose seems to have been the practice of the early Christians of Rome, whose names, as recorded on the marble slabs of the Catacombs, appear beautifully and designedly expressive of Christian sentiment or charac- ter (see Withrow, Catacombs of Rome, p. 454, 457). St. Chrysostora advised the Christians of his day that the names ought to refer to some holj' persons; and the Council of Trent, in its various provisions for baptism, advised that the name given to the baptized should be taken from some saint (Barnum's Romanum, p. 450). The Council of Nice forbade the use of names of licathen gods (comp. Bates's Christ. A ntiquities) ; and the Church
of England, in the 16th century, forbade all names of heathen origin (Soames, Elizabethan Religious History, p. 39). " Of old," says Hart {Eccl. Records), " the bishop used to pronounce the person's name at the time of con- firmation ; and if it was desirable that the name given at baptism should be altered, it might be done by the bishop pronouncing a new name when he administered the rite. This custom was continued in our reformed lit- urgy till the last revision in the time of king Charles II."
Names OF CHRISTIANS, in earlg ages, are mani- fold, besides those found in the N. T. Thus the Church fathers used various appellations in describing Chris- tians: Catholics, for while the Church remained one and undivided, it was properly called Catholic; Eccle- siastics, men of the Church ; Dogmatics, men of the doc- trine; Gnostics, men of knowledge. The names of re- proach and derision heaped upon Christians were almost endless. The following are of importance in illustrating the condition of the primitive Church : Jews, for at first they were regarded merely as a Jewish sect; Naz- arenes, always used in a bad sense; Galiloeans, a name used by Julian the Apostate, who died with these words on his lips, ^'Vicisti, 0 Galilcee;" Greeks, for by the ancient Romans this was a term expressive of suspicion and contempt; Magicians, Sibyllists, from their being charged with corrupting the Sibylline books; Sarmen- titii, from the fagots with which fires were kindled around martyrs at the stake ; Semaxii, from the stake to which they were bound; Parabolani, from their being exposed to wild beasts; BiaSaj'aroi, self-mur- derers, because of their fearlessness of death ; "A^f oi, atheists; tiuoTipoi, neic lights; 'S.TavpoXdrpai, irorship- j}e7-s of the cross ; Plautinw prosapice homines, pis- tores, men of the race of Plautus, bakers (Plautus is said to have hired himself to a baker to grind in his mill); Asinarii, worshippers of an ass; Abjecti, Cre- duli, Fatui, Ilebetes, Idiot(v, Impei-iti, Luciftigce, Sim- plices, Stulti, Stupidi, etc. (Farrar, Eccles. Diet. s. v.).
Nanae'a {Havaia'). The last act of Antiochus Epiphanes was his attempt to plunder the temple of Nanrea at Elymais, which had been enriched by the gifts and trophies of Alexander the Great (1 Mace, vi, 1-4; 2 Mace, i, 13-16). The Persian goddess Nausea, called also Aancetis (Avairiq, Strabo, xv, p. 733), is ap- parently the jMoon goddess, of whom the Greek Arte- mis was the nearest representative in Polybius (quoted by Josephus, Ant. xii, 9). Beyer calls her the "Eh-- maean Venus" {ad Joh. Seldeni, etc. addit. p. 345), and some have identified Nausea with Meni (q. v.), and both with the planet Venus, the star of luck, called by the Syrians Nani, and in Zend Nahid, or Anahid. See Diana. Elphinstone in 1811 found coins of the Sas- sanians with the inscription NANAIA, and on the re- verse a figure with nimbus and lotus-flower (Movers, Phon. i, 626). It is probable that Nanaea is identical with the deity named by Strabo (xi, p. 532) as the nu- men patrlum of the Persians, who was also honored by the Medes, Armenians, and in many districts of Asia Minor. Other forms of the name are 'Avaia, given by Strabo, Alv)] by Polybius, 'Avhtiq by Plutai-ch, and Tai'aiQ by Clemens Alexandrinus, with which last the variations of some MSS. of Strabo correspond. In con- sequence of a confusion between the Greek and Eastern mythologies, Nanffia has been identified with Artemis and Aphrodite, the probability being that she corre- sponds with the Tauric or Ephesian Artemis, who was invested with the attributes of Aphrodite, and represent- ed the productive power of nature. In this case some weight may be allowed to the conjecture that " the de- sire of women" mentioned in Dan. xi, 37 is the same as the goddess Nan.-ea. "This female deity," Stuart remarks, "under different names, was worshipped in Africa, Syria, Phoenicia, Cyprus, (ireece, Rome, Babylo- nia, Persia, and other countries. The Mylitta ( = Heb. ri'lVl'S, generatrix) of the East was the Venus of the West, the Neith of Egypt, the Astarte of the Syrians,