What's In a Name?

Watching the BBC production of Sherlock Holmes featuring Benedict Cumberbatch, I found myself waiting on the credits, trying to remember his name – actually his last name – when I noticed his first name and had to laugh – you just don’t see many Benedicts in the United States.   Benedict Arnold kind of ruined that for all the would-be Benedicts here.  The name is synonomous with ‘traitor’ and who wants to name their kid ‘traitor’?

Some names just seem to disappear because someone infamous changes the very meaning of the name, so that Benedict (at least in the U. S.) no longer means blessed, it’s literal meaning from the Latin benedictus, but rather, ‘traitor’.

Adolf no longer means noble anything . . . and Judas, like Benedict, refers not to the praise of God (the literal meaning: God is praised), but to the act of personal betrayal.

And on the personal level, can’t we all think of names we would never give our children because that name has become associated in our minds with some horrible trait or behavior based on someone we knew, probably in kindergarten?

Naming is a powerful thing, speaking desire into reality.  But acting is also powerful and actions can change the meaning and intention of the naming.

Shakespeare was, it turns out, just wrong . . . a rose by any other name would not smell as sweet.

But the reverse is perhaps also true . . . a horror of a name can be redeemed by the life of the one ‘wearing’ it.