Names occupy a central role in the Bible. The prophet Joel assures us that “all who call upon the name of the LORD shall be delivered” (2:32).

In the Book of Proverbs, we are reminded that “[t]he name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe” (Prov 18:10).

Meanwhile, the Second Commandment instructs us not to misuse the divine name: You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

It is no surprise, then, that the Catechism highlights for us the overall importance of names: “God calls each one by name. Everyone’s name is sacred. The name is the icon of the person. It demands respect as a sign of the dignity of the one who bears it” (2158).

What’s In a Name?

In their book A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament, John Bergsma and Brant Pitre explain why names matter so much from a biblical perspective:

In biblical thought, the concept of a “name” is so much more significant than phonetics. To know the “name” is to know the essence, character, or nature of a person. If a person has different names, they represent different aspects of his nature. When there is a substantial change in a person’s identity, there is also a change of name (Gen 17:5; 32:28). (ch 7, “Exodus,” p. 171)

You don’t have to go very far into Sacred Scripture to see that names are a big deal. In the Book of Genesis, God brings the animals to Adam so that Adam can name them:

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” So out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper fit for him. (2:18-20)

In this passage, we observe man’s role as steward over creation. To name a thing is to exert a certain authority over it, and God delegates to Adam the authority to name all the beasts of the earth.

On other occasions in Scripture, God changes a person’s name in order to signify a serious shift in their life’s mission. Abram, whose name means “exalted father,” is renamed Abraham, which means “father of many nations,” after God calls him to be the father of his people (see Gen 17:5). Jacob, whose name means “supplanter,” is renamed Israel, which means “he who wrestles with God” (see Gen 32:22-28). In the New Testament, Simon is renamed Peter, referring to the “rock” on which the Church will be built (see Matt 16:18).

One famous but often misunderstood name change is that of Saul in the Acts of the Apostles. Technically speaking, Saul’s name did not change to Paul (see Acts 13:9). Rather, he had two names: the Hebrew name given to him because of his Jewish upbringing (Saul), and the Roman name given to him because of his citizenship (Paul). Since he grew up and worked among the Pharisees, Saul was the name he usually went by for the first part of his life. But following his conversion to Christianity, he began embracing his other name, Paul, as part of his efforts to reach out to the Gentiles.

There are also rare occasions in Scripture when God cares so much about the name of a new child that He overrides the naming authority of the human parents. Notable examples of biblical persons who were named directly by God include Isaac (Gen 17:19), John the Baptist (Luke 1:13), and Jesus (Matt 1:21; Luke 1:31).

The Divine Names

Speaking through the prophet Malachi, God reminds us of the greatness of His name:

From the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts. (Mal 1:11)

But what is this name, exactly? The answer comes in one of the most famous passages in the whole Bible, when God reveals Himself to Moses:

13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’: this is my name for ever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. (3:13-15)

Bergsma and Pitre point out that in this exchange God actually provides two names for Himself, both of which point to His eternal, self-existent nature. The first of these, given in verse 14, is “I Am Who I Am” (Hebrew Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh), which can also be translated “I Am What I Am” or “I Will Be What I Will Be.”

The second divine name comes in verse 15. Although in our English translation God identifies Himself as “the LORD,” the actual Hebrew is Yhwh, which comes from the Hebrew verb “to be” (hayah) and is best translated as “He Is.” The name YHWH—typically capitalized as a sign of respect—is also known as the tetragrammaton (Greek for “four letters”).

Because of the holiness of this name, Jewish tradition developed such that it was only spoken once per year by the high priest when he entered the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur. This reticence about speaking the divine name, combined with the fact that Hebrew writing didn’t employ vowels until the Middle Ages, means that scholars are not certain how YHWH would have been pronounced. (The name “Jehovah” is an example of an erroneous pronunciation which arose among sixteenth century Protestants who didn’t understand how the Hebrew system of vowels had developed over time.)

Over time, the Jewish people tended to use the Hebrew word adonai (“Lord”) in place of the divine name when speaking aloud. The Greek Septuagint translation of the Old Testament imitated this custom by rendering the divine name as kyrios, which again means “Lord.” The New Testament writers followed suit, and to this day the Catholic tradition generally refrains from needless utterances of the divine name.

Another important term is Elohim, which is the generic Hebrew word for God. In most cases, when English Bibles mention “God” in the Old Testament, the original Hebrew is Elohim or some variation of it (for example, El Shaddai, meaning “God Almighty”). When English Bibles mention “Lord” in lower case, the original Hebrew is adonai. By contrast, when English Bibles mention “LORD” in all caps, the original Hebrew is YHWH. Finally, when English Bibles need to translate the combined title adonai YHWH, they typically render it as “Lord GOD.” Consider Psalm 69:6:

Let not those who hope in thee be put to shame through me,

    O Lord [Hebrew, adonai; Greek, kyrios] GOD [Hebrew, YHWH; Greek, kyrios] of hosts;

let not those who seek thee be brought to dishonor through me,

    O God [Hebrew, elohim; Greek, theos] of Israel.

The Name of Jesus

The Catechism helpfully summarizes the importance of God’s name, and the reverence we owe to it:

Among all the words of Revelation, there is one which is unique: the revealed name of God. God confides his name to those who believe in him; he reveals himself to them in his personal mystery. The gift of a name belongs to the order of trust and intimacy. “The Lord’s name is holy.” For this reason man must not abuse it. He must keep it in mind in silent, loving adoration. He will not introduce it into his own speech except to bless, praise, and glorify it. (2143)

But what about the name which God took on when He became man? The English name “Jesus” comes from the Greek Iēsous (Ἰησοῦς; Latin, Iesus), which is a transliteration of the Hebrew name Yeshua. The name means something like “The LORD is salvation,” and it’s where we get the English name Joshua.

The reason we use the name Jesus today, rather than Yeshua or Joshua, is simply because the Scriptures have been handed down to us through Greek translations. In Philippians 2, St. Paul reminds us that the name of Jesus has been exalted for all times and places:

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil 2:9-11; cf. Eph 1:15-23)

What is the name which is above every name? St. Thomas Aquinas explains that this can be none other than the divine name: “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” (Psa 8:1). St. Paul is reminding us that, from all eternity, the Father has shared the divine name together with the Son and with the Holy Spirit.

A New Name

There’s one last point to make about names in Scripture, and it has to do with the new name we will each receive at the end of time.

It seems that, without losing our current name, we will somehow come to share in God’s name and receive a special name from Him. The Catechism explains:

The name one receives is a name for eternity. In the kingdom, the mysterious and unique character of each person marked with God’s name will shine forth in splendor. “To him who conquers ... I will give a white stone, with a new name written on the stone which no one knows except him who receives it.” [Rev 2:17] “Then I looked, and Lo, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.” [Rev 14:1] (2159) (cf. Isa 56:5; 62:2; 65;15; Rev 3:12)

In the final chapter of his book The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis speculates on what this reception of a new name might involve:

What can be more a man’s own than this new name which even in eternity remains a secret between God and him? And what shall we take this secrecy to mean? Surely, that each of the redeemed shall forever know and praise some one aspect of the divine beauty better than any other creature can. Why else were individuals created but that God, loving all infinitely, should love each differently? (ch 10, “Heaven”)

The new name we will receive—to be used between God and us alone—will be an everlasting sign of the immense love He has for each one of us personally. After all, it was not for some generic “humanity” that the Son of God bled and died, but rather for you and me: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine” (Isa 43:1; cf. John 10:3; 20:16).

Further Reading

John Bergsma and Brant Pitre, A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament (Ignatius Press, 2018)

Scott Hahn, Holy Is His Name: The Transforming Power of God’s Holiness in Scripture (Emmaus Road Publishing, 2022)

About Clement Harrold

Clement Harrold earned his master’s degree in theology from the University of Notre Dame in 2024, and his bachelor’s from Franciscan University of Steubenville in 2021. His writings have appeared in First Things, Church Life Journal, Crisis Magazine, and the Washington Examiner.