Creams are suggested when shaving, on one hand, to moisturize the skin, and on the other hand, to serve as a tracking in order not to miss a spot. Street are divided into marked lanes, primarily to point to the number of available lanes, yet they serve to keep drivers from encroaching on each other, and you may label this as rudimentary and elementary.
It is quite obvious that naming and surnaming take roots in our limited ability and fundamental need for guidelines to recognize and address our fellow man.
Naming is that particular distinctiveness of an individual, be it in its generic or definite sense and characterization, to recognize and acknowledge, while addressing or pointing to or referring to that individual.
A name may hold the individual’s essential self, personality, traits, worth, character, inclinations, reputation, affluence, authority, will, ownership and ethnicity, through meaning and/or numerology.
Names , once invoked, can generate happiness or sadness, can provoke tears or fears, can draw cheers or jeers, can bestow honor or dishonor, can denote fame or shame, and can cause life or death.
Naming customs vary, some uses the names of the departed, some chooses names of the living, while other naming are chosen by parents, because of their sweet musical sounding (euphony), or because of old flames, or because of a great religious or secular personages, or because of ancestral and lineal or ceremonial traditions.
A name has its socio-political as well as socio-religious implication, weight and impact, it does not only ascertain the identity of the person, but also dictates one’s eponym, eumonym and pseudonym together with one’s positive or negative credentials, signature, seal and characteristics.
From a theological standpoint, we are commended to pray: ‘In the Name of a deity”, which means by his authority and sovereignty. From a worldly standpoint, when a police officer says: “Stop in the name of the law”, all it means he is representing that law, acting in its authority and carrying out its ordinances.
How important a name is can be found in this Alexander the Great’s story:
“After one of Alexander The Great’s victories, a soldier was brought into his presence allegedly accused of treason, with recommendation that the captive soldier be court marshaled and put to death. The story states that Alexander the Great, ignored the recommendation of his counselors, and instead, he eyed the shaking and trembling genuflected soldier, heavily chained prostrating before him, the Greatest of the greats, as if to delve into this soldier’s inner soul in scrutiny ... after a while, he asked him : What is your name ? The soldier sotto voce muttered: A .. Ah.. Alexander. After a long pause, Alexander the Great asked once again with much commanding voice: What is your name ? The frightened soldier, exceedingly shaking, raised his voice and uttered : A... Alexander ... Now impatient and dismayed, Alexander the Great yelled : I asked you what is your name ? The horrified soldier mumbled : Ah...Ah... Alexander. Alexander the Great, searing with rage and fury, shouted thunderously: Then be an Alexander or better change your name !”.
What will your name be: an alexander or an Alexander the Great ? Will you honor your name so that posterity can mirror its attributes and echo its peculiarity?
