The name accompanies a person throughout his life. This forces parents to take very seriously the choice of names for children, focusing not only on their sound, but also on their meaning.
The meaning of the name can be considered from both a secular and a church point of view. Which of these aspects is more important, everyone decides for himself.
Worldly meaning
Any proper name before becoming such was a household name and had a lexical meaning. There is no shortage of books and websites where you can find out that Ksenia means "wanderer, guest", Alexey means "defender", and Georgy and his derivatives, Yuri and Egor, "farmer". Sometimes they are guided by such a value.
Of course, parents can call Nadezhda their daughter, on whom they pin great hopes, and their son, Ivan, if his birth is “God's grace” for them. But the meaning of some names is far from so romantic: the name Yakov (Jacob) is translated from the Hebrew language as "heel", and Ignatius is "unborn" in Latin. On the other hand, there are names with excellent meanings, but it is not recommended to give them to children because of dissonance, for example, Pavsikaki - "stopping evil."
To become a name, a word must lose its lexical meaning, otherwise the following phrases would sound very absurd: “You cannot hope for hope” or “Love does not love him”. And if the lexical meaning is lost, you should not put it at the forefront.
Another aspect of the worldly meaning of a name is its possible perception by others, and this can and should be guided by. Because of the pretentious, ugly name, the child may have problems in relationships with peers. One should not forget about the historical or literary associations with which names grow, especially rare: the name Adolf is associated with Hitler, Titus is associated with a lazy folk joke, and Fyodor is associated with a slob from the tale of K. Chukovsky.
The subject of such associations can be not only the name as such, but also its combination with the patronymic and surname. If a girl bears the surname Kovalevskaya, you should not call her Sophia: this can become the subject of ridicule from classmates and even teachers if mathematics is difficult for her. Ambiguous associations can evoke among modern Russians such combinations as Vladimir Ilyich, Nikita Sergeevich, Boris Nikolaevich.
Ecclesiastical significance
The ecclesiastical meaning of the name is the connection with the saint who bore it. A Christian should not only celebrate the name day on the day of remembrance of this saint, but also pray to him every day, know his life - when he lived, what feat he accomplished in the name of God.
Superstitions even permeate the Church, and some of them concern the choice of names. For example, there is a belief: if you give a person the name of a saint-martyr, he will suffer all his life. If you take such a position, it is better not to give any name at all, because life for all the saints was not easy.
Such superstitions should not affect Christians. The connection with the heavenly patron should be different - the saint becomes a moral guideline for a person. This does not mean that a woman named Cyrus should withdraw from the world, like the Monk Cyrus of Beria, and a man named after St. Dmitry Solunsky, will definitely become a military man. Hopefully, none of today's Christians named after martyrs will have to suffer and die for their faith. But it is possible and necessary to put spiritual values above worldly ones, to be courageous, to remain faithful to the Christian faith under any circumstances, as the saints did. This should be the orientation towards the ecclesiastical meaning of the name.
