Identity and Name Changes*

The act of naming is as old as civilization. According to Hebrew legend, God named the first person he created Adam because he was made of adamah (earth), and Adam subsequently set up naming all the animals (Genesis 2:20). Academic psychology has dealt with the problem of names and naming primarily on an empirical basis,1-5, 7-8, 10-13, 16, 19, 21-23, 25-27, 31-33, 37 while psychoanalytic studies have been few and far between.6, 9, 18, 28-30 Lynd24 explains that the act of naming gives security and protection against feelings of being lost, confused and unconnected: thus the wood in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass in which no creature bears a name is a place of terror. We feel shame at not knowing or at forgetting a name.17 In the Old Testament literature, names bore great significance and were given various interpretations. The naming of Jacob's twelve children, for example, is given detailed clarification. The first, Reuben, was named by his mother, Leah, who had been jealous of Jacob's love for her rival Rachel and succeeded in giving Jacob a son before Rachel did, hoping to win her husband's love in this manner: Reuben means “behold—a son!” (Genesis 29:32). Remaining the hated wife, she named her next son Simon (Shim'on) and her third Levi from roots referring to “hear” and “join,” signifying her undying hope of getting Jacob to hear her and join her in love. Thus names of children were directly related to strong emotions prevailing between parents. In answering Shakespeare's famous question “What's in a name?” (Romeo and Juliet, II, ii), one might say that there may be much more in a name