What's in a name?

A friend once suggested, "You should have a cooler pen name like Joe L, it's short and catchy". At first I was convinced on what he suggested and started using Joe L in this blog as a pen name. I felt fine with it, after all what's in a name right? But when I attended a seminar titled PastForward where one of the speakers was Cito Beltran and one of the points that he shared to the attendees was the value of our names. He maintained that our names has significant clues for our destiny and purpose in life and so we should not be using nicknames because to nick is to steal or trick, thus the phrase, "You nick me". In a nutshell using nicknames means to stealing from our destiny.

In my case, my name is Joseph and if you Google the name Joseph right now you will see that this name is used to describe people of destiny. You can find famous Joseph's here -People known as Joseph and you will see that Joseph's are people who made a dent in our history. The Josephs are made for great purpose. In contrary my nicknames are Jojo, or Jo, or Joe. What do these names mean? Nothing. Joe, for example, means average or regular thus the phrase "I'm just an average Joe". So you see the difference? One means special, destined, and distinct while the other means average. Do I want to be average? Definitely not! Isn't it clear that I am being nick just by using my nick name?

Another example would be about a guy I met in a fellowship. He told me his name is Gidz but when I asked him his real name he said it's Gideon.Gidz is not Gideon. Gidz does not make any sense but Gideon is a mighty man of valor. One name has a destiny the other cuts or steals that destiny (nick =cut).

So what's in a name? Apparently a lot.:) The clue to your destiny could be in your name.

How about you what does your name means and what clue can it give you about your destiny?