The Philosophy of Names︱Philosophy
Titles, Translations, and Class
By The Psalmist
What is a name? What defines it and how does it define a person? Some might say name’s are labels. They distinguish you from one person and another.
Especially back then, names facilitated our ability to tell someone’s origin or ethnicity from another. For example, if your name was Asaph, you could easily tell that the person was Hebrew, if you didn’t know beforehand, or say your name was Agnes, someone could identify you as Greek.
Names also bring status. Ever heard someone mentioning your “namesake?” A lot of names have associations with different people. Say your name is Alexander, you immediately think of Alexander the Great, or Alexander Hamilton. These things, believe it or not,can have huge psychological and emotional tolls on a person. How other people perceive you is largely influenced by your names.
An article by the Wall Street journal writes about people with simpler and shorter names, or at least, more well known are more successful in life. People with longer, less known, and more complex names are prone to bullying, their names being butchered, and potential social crises.
Overall, names have a lot of power in life in general. Social aspects, mental, emotional, and so on. It may affect how people perceive you. Or how they perceive others with the same or similar name.