What's in a Name?

Check out the picture!!  This is Drew, my five-year-old grandson wearing his brand new uniform for T-ball.  He has a little room to grow into it which is not a bad thing.  He is probably the youngest member of his team and as a newbie to baseball, he has to find out about grounders, fly balls, bunts, singles, doubles, triples, and home runs.  He has a pitch back device at home, and soon that should help him hone his throwing and catching skills.  And of course, there’s daddy.

When I saw the uniform on Saturday before he had donned it for the game, I remarked, “Drew, you’re a Giant.  And he looked at me with questioning eyes and said, “No, I not.”  In stature, he is most definitely NOT a Giant.

Drew was correct.  Where on earth do we get some of the sports names that have become fixtures in our society?  In the case of the Giants, owner Tim Mara who purchased the team in 1925 for a whopping $500, selected the name Giants because of the giant buildings in New York.  Kind of makes sense.

But then there are the Reds and the White Sox.  No, I’m not going to google them right now, but one of these days I will.

We love to name things, don’t we?  The University of Akron took the name Zips, unique in the country and probably in the world.  Named for a rubber shoe (the zipper) developed by Goodyear, it seemed like a good idea at the time, but Zip also means “nada, nothing, zero.”  So it doesn’t always help the image of teams trying to win.  Hence, the NCAA-winning soccer team a couple of years ago gave the Zips a new lease on life in a sense.  Zippy, the Kangaroo, is a great mascot and also rather unique in a land that has never seen a native species like the kangaroo.  But who doesn’t like Zippy?

In our faith we also have names.  One of my favorites is for Mary – the Morning Star.  The morning star does not shine on its own but is a reflection of the sun’s glory.  Say that again – the morning star (Mary) does not shine on her own but is a reflection of the SON’s glory.  A church in Florida is called Our Lady Star of the Sea because another one of Mary’s names is Stella Mara, Star of the Sea, named as such by sailors.  Our Lady of Perpetual Help is another name for Mary.  Catholics revere Mary to a degree that is uncomfortable sometimes for those of other Christian denominations.  There is one really good reason for that – No Mary, No Jesus.  Her willingness (completely of her own free will) to say YES allowed Jesus to come to this earth to save us.  We all have a teenager to thank for this wonderful gift beyond all telling.

So what’s in a name?  It seems like in certain instances there is plenty.