RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Nairne Names
changes his name after a serious illness so that the spirit which caused the attack may not find him to afflict him a second time. Names are changed under other circumstances also, as at the crises of life, at puberty, at initiation into the secrets or tribal mysteries. Occasionally the ultimate proof of friendship is exchange of names — each of the friends is thus thoroughly in the power of the other, or, according to another interpretation, each protects the other by assuming his name. Some Polynesian parents change their names at the birth of the first child, others at each addition to the family, all of this to avoid recognition by the spirits and the use of the name to do harm to them or their progeny. Malays of some tribes will not utter their own names aloud, and the same is true of the Banks Islanders; yet to them a nameless person is unthinkable, a nonentity. Similarly Australian blacks believe that their lives may be taken by the use of their name, and with other peoples to write a name is to use sorcery. Among many tribes of India, of Mongolia, and of Africa, the wife never utters the husband's name, while the males of the Solomon and Pelew Islands will not pronounce the women's names, and the husbands in some Indian tribes of California never call their wives by name or divulge their own names. Australians never impart to others the name given an initiate in the tribal mysteries. Indeed, the taboos of the name are almost numberless. The case of the divine name Yahweh, which later Jews came to avoid in the reading of the Old Testament (see Jehovah; Yahweh), is a case of reentrance of the idea of taboo. Among some Australian tribes the name of Damaralun, a chief deity, is either utterly avoided or spoken only in a whisper, is often a secret known only to initiates in the mysteries. On the other hand, many peoples regarded the name of a god, used as an element in a man's name, in the light of a blessing. So the Hebrews sometimes employed the name of God (see below), and other Semites did the same. In particular Phenician names were compounded with the names of deities — Abibaal, Baaleazer, Abdastart, Deleastart, Methusastart, Ithobaal (cf. Hebr. Ishbaal), Baalezor, Baalator, Merbaal are a few examples (Menander of Ephesus, in Josephus, Apion, i. 18, 21), with which may be compared Adoni-bezek (Judges i. 4- 7), Adonizedek (Josh. x. 1 sqq.), compounded with Adon, cf. Adonai, one of the titles by which God was addressed. With something of the same thought, still reminiscent of the fact that the name is also an expression of the power of the person, the divine name was variously used on seals, charms, and rings (see Abrasax, and cf. the medieval legend of Solomon's ring which bore the divine name Yahweh). The power of deity was thus magically employed and the results desired were confidently expected.
Geo. W Gilmore. II. Hebrew Names: The early Hebrews were not wont to name a child without considering the significance of the name; even when this was a family possession, its meaning did not escape the attention. But new names were oontinually formed to express special characteristics of the person, and the formation of the language owes much to the creation of personal names. Indeed, in the giving of the name,
one of the aims was to express some outstanding and particularly marked individuality. This principle was extended even to the naming i. Names as of places, the nomenclature often carry- Significant, ing with it the reminiscence of some occurrence (cf. Mizpeh, Ramah, Shechem, and note Gen. xxvi. 20, 33, and many passages). Many places bore a name derived either from the pre-Hebraic deity worshiped there or from some appearance of the God of Israel (Beth-shemesh, Beth Dagon, Bethel, Penuel). Personal names sometimes expressed the circumstances of the family when the child was born (Ex. xviii. 3 sqq.). Prophets gave to their children names which were living testimonies to the content of their utterances (Isa. vii. 3, viii. 3). But the general principle was to characterize the child's own individuality by the name bestowed. So in earliest times and among the neighbors of Israel the names of animals were given, as Jael, " mountain goat," Shaphan, " coney," Rachel, " ewe," Deborah, " bee," Huldah, " weasel." The explanation of such names on the basis of totemism (see Comparative Religion, VI., 1 b) is not satisfactory; it is better to think of them as indicating a detection of the characteristic quality of the animal in the person — cf. the animal symbolism in the blessing of Jacob, Gen. xlix. Oreb (" raven ") and Zeeb (" wolf ") resembled in characteristics the bird and beast of prey the names of which they bore. Names of the exilic period like Parosh, " flea," are easily understood if passages like I Sam. xxiv. 14- 15 are recalled, while such a name as Tolah (" worm ") may have had its origin in actual events. The names of plants were given also, such as Tamar (" date palm "), Eshcol (" cluster "), and Coz (" thorn "). Still other suggestive appellations are Barak (" lightning "), David (" darling ").
But among the Hebrews religious affairs and circumstances influenced much the formation of names, though the creation of names having as an element a divine name is by no means confined to them, such formations being common among Arabs, and similar early Canaanitic and Hebrew names 2. Religious are found, such as Abimelech, Abiezer. Influence Such formations may throw light upon upon religious conditions and conceptions, Names, as when the names given by Ahab to Ahaziah and Joram show that Ahab did not purpose to renounce Yahweh. In the numerous cases in which a definite attribute of deity or some close relationship is expressed in the name, the idea intended is that of invocation of a blessing, and it is generally found that the mother has the most influence in the choice of the name (Gen. xxix.-xxx.). These theophoric personal names are of high value in the history of religion. They indicate what deity was especially honored at a given period, what divine names were in most common use, and not seldom they show what were the relations between a deity and his people. In the earliest period the divine name in most common use was the simple El— cf. Israel, Ishmael— and this is true as well of the Arabs as of the Hebrews. Frequently the idea expressed is that of relationship, as when words indicating fatherhood, brotherhood, and the like are employed— the Semitic ab, " father," ahi, " brother,"
Names Nana