929/Isaiah 7-11: What's in a Name?

Rabbi Yirmeya ben Elazar said: From the day that the Temple was destroyed, the world is limited to just two letters of the Tetragrammaton, yod and heh, as it is stated: “Let everything that has breath praise [Yah]. Halleluya” (Psalms 150:6).

And Rabbi Yoḥanan said in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai: From the day the Holy One, Blessed be He, created the world, no one thanked the Holy One, Blessed be He, until Leah came and thanked Him, as it is stated: “And she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, and she said, ‘This time I will give thanks to God,’ and thus he was called Judah” (Genesis 29:35). ... What is the meaning of the name Ruth? Rabbi Yoḥanan said: That she had the privilege that David, who inundated the Holy One, Blessed be He, with songs and praises, would descend from her. From where do we derive that the name affects one’s life? Rabbi Eliezer said the verse says: “Go, see the works of the Lord, who has made shamot upon the earth” (Psalms 46:9). Do not read the word as shamot (desolations), rather as shemot, names.

R. Meir, R. Yehuda and R. Yosi were traveling Rabbi Meir would analyze names and discern one’s nature from his name, while R. Yehuda and R. Yosei would not analyze names. When they arrived at a place, they looked for lodging and asked the innkeeper: What is your name? Kidor, he said. R. Meir thought he might be wicked, since it states: “For they are a generation [ki dor] of upheavals” (Deut. 32:20). R. Yehuda and R. Yosi entrusted their purses to the innkeeper, but R. Meir instead placed his purse at the grave of the innkeeper’s father...

You find that a man is known by three names: the name by which his father and mother call him, the name by which other men call him, and the one he earns for himself; the most important name is the one he earns for himself.

(1) Remember the days of yore; understand the years of each generation (Deut 32:7): A person should always examine names to call a child to ensure that it is a fitting name for the child to be righteous - as sometimes the name causes good or causes bad, as we found by the scouts (Numbers 13:4-15): Shamua son of Zakur, since he did not listen (shama) to the words of the Omnipresent, and it was as if he asked his male (zikhuro) organ (a type of divination), ...