Choosing a "Good" Name

Administror Notice

^{We pray that all is well for you in your local communities. The USA's economy is currently receading at 6-8%, in excess of that of the depression in 1931, but we are still not calling it a depression. I wanted to post a note on this not relating to prophecy, but to our own situation. The costs of operating this and other sites over the years have been born primarily out of my personal income with little to no support from the community. Due to my own finances, I am in a situation where I may have to take the sites off line for an extended period. My income provides support for over 20 people, several who are disabled. My ministry to them is in danger of failing as we are 60 days behind in our mortgage. My personal take-home income has been cut this year by nearly $800 per month. My wife lost $400 in hers. While we struggled through last year, barely keeping afloat, this year we are running with $1200 less personal income than last year.}^{Although we have embedded advertising into the sites to produce a revenue stream, the income is amounts to pennies a day. We do not intend to bring the site down permenantly, but may need to shut our servers down for a period of time to save on electricity and cut our commercial internet connection. Please pray that Elohim provides the resources necessary to sustain our home as there are a dozen children and others that will have no home if we lose ours.}

^Shalom,

^{Rabbi Netzar ben Yaacov
UNJS, INBD}

Choosing a "Good" Name

Written by Netzair ben Yaacov

Wednesday, 10 November 2010 09:25

A local Messianic rabbi from Israel questioned me as to why so many Messianic believers choose for themselves new Hebrew names. He pointed out that, for the many of them, they already have a Hebrew name. I pointed out that that most consider their current names to be of Greek context and are wanting to embrace a more Hebraic approach to life - starting with their name. They want to get rid of the Greek baggage that they have been carrying around. Also, there is a passage in scripture that says to choose a good name:

Proverbs 22:1 A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold.

There is a limiting factor in the above verse that most people miss and this miss is the very reason that they are choosing new names and even changing them legally.

Most people do not have the option of "choosing" a loving father. They have a father from birth, or a new one from their mother's remarriage, or an adoption.

There is an idiomatic phrasing here. What this verse is actually doing is linking our name to our reputation. How do you choose a good name and a loving father? By doing the right things. Your good name is the same as we have seen referenced in stories for years, it is a statement of reputation. We have also been impressed upon for years by our mothers to "not disappoint our father", and "to impress our father". These are also expressions of reputation. When our name is mentioned our father on Earth should light up with pride for the good name we have brought upon our family through our actions and reputation in community.

In another sense, bringing shame on the family and a bad reputation in the community is likely to dim the love of our father. Also, the community will look upon all those who are of the same family name as being part of bad behavior. I have actually seen families persecuted in small towns because one son did something bad, despite all the good things the other sons had done for the community. Thast family had to eventually leave that town just to buy food.

So we see that meaning of the verse is not to choose a new icon by which we are called but to develop a good reputation.

Before truly understanding this verse I took on an additional Hebrew name for myself. My drive was a little different than some. I knew that my great-grandfather had changed out family name form Jacobson (Hebrew - ben Yaacov) to Sandquist when he left Sweden and came to the United States. The reason why he changed it died with him. My father suspected he was trying to conceal his past. I suspect he is correct, but for different reasons. I think he was attempting to mask his Jewish heritage and protect the family from persecution that was going on in Europe in the first part of this century. One of the things that I had sought to do was to restore that name. So for a family name I chose BenYaacov. For my first name, I chose Netzair - meaning branch. So my new name would carry the meaning of "Branch of Yaacov". I write under this pen name today for most religious articles.

However, what I did not know was that I already had a Hebrew name given to me by my parents. It appears on my birth certificate. My given name was Hebrew after all.

My given first name is Eric, a little research reveals the following:

ARIK (אָרִיק): Variant spelling of English Eric, meaning "ever-ruler." Compare with Hebrew Arik.

Last name is Sandquist, a little more research reveals the following:

This surname of SANDQUIST is a Danish/Norwegian and Swedish surname for someone who lived on a patch of sandy soil. The name was derived from the Old Norman word SANDRE. It is also an Ashkenazic Jewish ornamental name adopted in reference to God's promise to the Jewish people that they would be as many as the grains of sand upon the shore of the sea. Other spellings of the name include SANDGREN (sand branch), SANDMARK (sand territory), ZANDBERG (sand hill), SANDHAUS (sand house), SAND, SANDE, SANDSTEIN and ZANDSZTAJN (Polish). The Swedes have in recent times combined two words together to manufacture family names to take the place of their common patronymics, terminating in BERG (mountain), STROM (stream), ALM (elm), BLAD (leaf), HED (meadow), LUND (grove), SKOG (forest) and WAHL (field), to name but a few. These words are not just any words, but are usually nature words combined for easy pronunciation. This custom has been actively encouraged by the Swedish government and there are some 56,000 combinations of the variants. Most Swedes did not adopt hereditary surnames until late, and the patronymic system was still in use in rural areas until late in the 19th century. In the absence of evidence to the contrary it is thought that people may have adopted their surname from the area in which they lived. A notable member of the name was Carl SANDBURG (1878-1967) the American poet, born in Galesburg, Illinois, of Swedish stock. After trying various jobs, fighting in the Spanish-American war, and studying at Lombard College, he became a journalist in Chicago and started to write for 'Poetry'. His 'Complete Poems' gained him the Pulitzer prize in 1950. Interested in American folk-songs and ballads, he published a collection in 'The American Songbag' (1927). He also wrote a vast 'Life of Abraham Lincoln' (1926-39).

So, as my rabbi friend has said, I already have a Hebrew name - and a good one at that. Why am I seeking another?

At the time it seemed a good idea. I was trying to restore my family's name. But as it turns out, my name as it stands still links us to our people and I didn't even know it until a few weeks ago. So now I have a pen name, and my given name. I can only pray that my reputation precedes me in a good way and that I have invoked the love of my father on Earth and in Heaven by my deeds.

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