The 'New Name'

At the time I recieved my endowments and my new name I was not too impressed with the name...I had not considered it a particularly pretty nor well known one like many of the Biblical names. It wasn't until recently that I began to appreciate it on a whole new level as I began to research different subjects for this Temple blog. One day looked up the meaning of my 'new name' online at one of the sites used for naming babies. I found out that my 'new name' meant 'light.' It was odd because for years....actually, most of my adult life, I had been collecting stories, antidotes, quotes, scriptures, general information...just about any and everything on 'light.' I have always been very intrigued at the connection of all the different types of light and any connection to the 'light of Christ.' So now this name took on a whole new meaning for me and I could now see the connection in it's meaning to my life. It was a delightful surprise and it has become even more meaningful as I strive to live up to this name. I hope to be able to take it upon me the same as we take the Savior's name upon ourselves, to be more like him in all of his attributes and perfections.

W. John Welsh explains the significance and the meaning of The New Name. In this excerpt he says:

"In connection with the Endowment ordinance, Latter-day Saints receive a new name. Elder Charles C. Rich noted:

"Joseph [Smith] tells us that this new name is a key-word, which can only be obtained through the endowments."

The concept of getting a new name is symbolic of many things including "a new identity, ...a new life, a new beginning. It's a refreshing of things..."  It can mean that you have been "extended a special call, marked by the reception of [the] new name, which in Jewish tradition 'denoted the conferring of a special divine mission.'"

Isaiah 56:5 “A Hand and a Name”
By The Monk

Isaiah 56:4-6 (particularly v. 5) NRSV

“For thus says the LORD: To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, 5 I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. 6 And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it, and hold fast my covenant…”

Verse 5 literally reads in Hebrew, “and I will give to them in my house, within my walls a hand and a name, (which is) better than (having) sons or daughters. I will give them an eternal name, that shall not be cut off.” Modern translations tend to follow something like the NRSV (“a monument and a name” instead of “a hand and a name”) on the basis of 1 Samuel 15:12 and 2 Sam. 18:18.

However, the idea of receiving a hand and an eternal name is quite familiar and comfortable to LDS. Several LDS commentators have made mention of this- Donald Parry, Victor Ludlow, and Avraham Gileadi, who gives a heavily-LDS translation “I will give a handclasp and a name within the walls of my house that is better than sons and daughters; I will endow them with an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.”

Without doubt, Hugh Nibley believed the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly. Without correct translation we have only “zeal without knowledge.” Nibley taught us to read the Greek New Testament with our LDS eyes wide open. According to the King James Version, John 17:11, in the great high priestly prayer, simply reads, “Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me”; but to Hugh Nibley, who rightly sees this as a temple text, it is better translated instrumentally, “Holy Father, test them on the name with which you endowed me,” a much different reading, for those who wish to enter into the presence of God. (Hugh Nibley’s Articles of Faith; by John W. Welch)

Also see:
Who Wants to Be Jewish?
Putting on the Names: A Jewish-Christian Legacy
Biblical Baby Names
List of Biblical Names
A Hidden Message (in the names of Genesis Chapter 5)
Christian Names - Catholic Encyclopedia