Friday column: What’s in a name? A lot — or a little

A name is sometimes more than a moniker, a handle, a tag. It can be synonymous with character and, in the Bible, it often is. When in the 14th verse of Psalm 91, God says, “I will protect him, because he knows my name,” he’s saying he’ll take care of the person who understands his attributes, who knows what he, the Almighty, is all about.

Associated with the concept of name equaling character is the idea of name equaling reputation, as in “he had a good name in town.” This is a step down in relation, though, for reputations can be accurate or inaccurate. Furthermore, reputations can change, as can names.

Name changes are significant in Scripture. For example, in Genesis when though God’s agency Abram becomes Abraham, the new name represents more than a new sound — it represents transformation. The patriarch changes from “exalted father” to “father of many (nations).”

When “Pacman” Jones decided at the beginning of this NFL season that he wanted to be called by his birth name, Adam, he, too, meant it to indicate transformation. “Pacman” had too many unsavory connotations — arrests, violence, drinking — to be much use to a man trying to get reinstated to the league after a year’s suspension for gross misbehavior.

Jones said was no longer Pacman; he was Adam. And we were supposed to believe that, as his name was different, so, too, would be his behavior and, ultimately, his reputation.

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David Tyree’s reputation wasn’t good when he got to the New York Giants, and in the near term it didn’t get any better. There was drinking. There was drug possession. There was jail.

Then there was awakening.

The wide receiver who made what some have called a “miracle” catch in this year’s Super Bowl said the turning point for him was to accept “a certain level of surrender” to forces stronger than football or its players.

That surrender resulted in Tyree becoming a different person, one who makes different choices and is therefore perceived differently. Tyree hasn’t changed his name, but it has changed — in the reputation sense. In New York, the name used to mean “self-destructive.” Now, one thinks of different appellations: Husband. Father. Role model.

Abram’s new name was divinely bestowed; I think Tyree would say his new name — his reputation — was as well.

As for Jones — whose new name came from his own lips — Wednesday he was suspended by the league again for an alcohol-fueled brawl.

I am Adam, he insisted — yet in behavior, reputation and character, “Pacman” he remains.

Contact Jim Gordon at gjames43@msn.com.