OM
On The Holy Name
If God has a name, what would it be? asked Joan Osborne in a song which was great for a while.
Perhaps before I was even born a name had already been planned for me. I was given the names Jaime and Jesus, from my father’s name and the name of the God whom he believes in. Jimple was the other name I acquired while growing up, it is easily the combination of Jim and Paul glazed with a little sugar. In school, teachers coldly called me Jaime, and classmates depending on intimacy referred to me as either Jim or Pol.
But having three to four names is nothing compared to those which usually start with Maria. Usually when these girls are learning to write they must have required two sheets of paper: one for their name and the other for the actual writing exercise. And no matter how long their names were, they or other people somehow end up giving them/themselves a new and shorter nick.
We somehow understand that the longer the name a person has, the bigger he is or his parents are. This practice may have been a few of those feudal legacies from our colonial past.
Names are usually given to describe the individual, say Lovely or Makisig. Sometimes they identify the person’s origin like Jackson, Markson, or Johnson. Maria, Christy or Peter are commonly ripped off from scripture hoping the “named” will somehow share the virtue of the name. And some parents choose the weirdest names for their children for them to develop personality by being different, Harry Balls and Zach O’Balls are examples.
Nowadays when even the standard unique names, are slowly becoming exhausted, especially if your name is the reflection of your parent’s laziness or lack of imagination, and you find a hard time signing up to internet accounts using your typical name, we tend to name ourselves with Slick, Cool, or Pasaway depending on how we see ourselves.
So as a response to Ms. Osborne’s inquiry, first, I guess if Maria Cecilia Veronica etcetera which is an insignificant speck in the universe outside Forbes Park, can have such quantity of names, it would be a drag for the Lord of the Universe to just be simply referred to as G-O-D, second, God does have a name, and if my classmate from kinder had one that resembled a line in an iambic pentameter poem, God has something like a telephone directory of names that refers to Him. We’re talking about millions, in this particular planet alone, within this universe.
And if person is named Maria Cecilia, or Slick or Ice Cold 3000, to show opulence, personality or individuality, God is called in the same manner as:
-Jehova, Yahweh, El-shadday (God of the Mountains, Almighty), Elroi (God that sees me).
-In Islam, there’s a book called, The 99 Names of Allah, which includes such Names as Ar-rahim (the Merciful), Al-Malik (The Sovereign Lord), Al-Quddus (He who is free from all error, absent-mindedness, incapability and all kinds of defect).
-From our culture we have Kagurangnan (Oldest), Maykapal (Creator) Panginuon (Lord), Bathala.
-And in Vaisnava faith, where God’s names are regularly chanted Govinda (The origin), Krishna (All attractive), Hrshikesha (Master of the senses) are few.
