Why is everyone named the same in the New Testament?

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No doubt they do. But why blame atheism for that?

Not true. Many people in the Bible had two or more names to distinguish families from one another. Jesus would have been commonly known as "Jesus son of Joseph." You could extend that to tribal names, like, say, "Jesus son of Joseph son of Judah." You'd have been known according to your father's name, clan name, tribe name, and so on.

"Mary" comes from the same Hebrew root word "mara," also "Miriam." The Latin transliterated equivalent does mean "sea," but in Hebrew it means "bitter."

Thats just it. Those arent quite "names". They are unwieldy phrases stuck on to your first name that function the way a modern last name does to identify your linneage.

Hmmm. Why would you name you daughter "bitter" I wonder?

This never gets old to who again?

But thats how names come to be.

If you lived in medieval England and your father was a baker, chances are you would apprentice to him, and you might be Tom Baker. Incidentally the female version is Baxter. However, if you were a farmer with a rather large nose, you might be Dick Nose. Basically anyone who was a specialist such as a smith, a baker, or a miller would get it for a name. Cooper is another, referring to someone that works with copper.

The nordic countries do something similar in that they take the fathers first name and append a suffix based on the sex of the child. So you might have someone named Ana Grimsdottir. See how dottir sounds like Daughter? Your cousin might be named Kasper Petersen. In english you see the use of -son as well, though not the feminine version for some reason(as far as I know). By this way, people who know who you were associated with.

German is like that too. Heard of the American General Norman Schwarzkopf? His Germanic last name means black or dark head (probably referring to some ancestors hair),If I am not mistaken.

In my lineage(also German) we lived in a small village where other people had the last same name, so the word "klatte" was prefixed to our surname to differentiate two families. It means neat(as in well groomed). It never stuck as we left for North America before it could be ingrained.

In fact thats how all languages create names. The native Americans used natural phenomenon to name their kids, and that happened to a lesser extent in Europe too. If you happened to move away from your home village, and people asked where you were from, you might say you lived by the Meuse river, and they might call you Alain from Meuse, and eventually, just Alain Meuse.

These are not unwieldy things: you can tell all sorts of interesting things about a person from their name.

Last edited by Fuzzy on 02 Feb 2011, 10:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Yeah. So? lol

Why "bitter"? I'm not entirely sure. But apparently it was a very common name.

The only thing I can think of has to do with the Passover tradition of eating bitter herbs and salt as a reminder of the bitterness of the Egyptian slavery period and the tears of their forefathers. Given the parallels between Egypt and Roman occupation, I suppose it makes sense that one would call her daughter "bitter" as an expression of the times.

The word for "bitter" can also be translated "salty." Salt is a valuable commodity, so it also makes sense that "mara" could be used to imply great worth. That's the best guess I can come up with, anyway.

Yeah, I have been trying to remember a more modern womans name which has a negative meaning to it. Its not uncommon, and people think it sounds nice, little suspecting(or caring) about its origins.

Think of it as turning a negative into a positive. Like I said, mara could either be "salty" or "bitter," both of which considering ancient Israelite history could be terms of honor.

Not necessarily ALWAYS the case, I'm sure.

But in modern times, you're right--people think it "sounds nice."

Some names just blow my mind--like girls named Madison or Allison. Um, you know the suffix "son" means, well, "son"?

"Mary" is an anglicized version of the Hebrew, which a lot of people confuse with the Latin word for "sea." I used to work with a woman named "Lamar," which DOES mean "the sea." She preferred people call her "Lolly," though. She was a sweet lady, but I found her somewhat odd.

Personally, I think names have to be EARNED. My wife's name is "Amanda," which she strictly forbids anyone to say in reference to her. It's a pretty name, I think, which means "Lovable." She goes by "Mandi," though, and I've given her a different name which, though a slight variant, means something that probably only we can know and which defies other words and definitions: "Manda"

My daughter's name is "Hannah Claire," which comes from the Hebrew word that translates "Grace" and a French word meaning, roughly, "clear" or "bright." But I just call her "Nugget."

Thanks for reiterating all of the very points I already made about how last names evolved.
But the point is when you read a book about people in the Bronze Age ( like the BIble) you dont assume they have last names that were omited, you assume that they didnt have last names (especially if they were commoners) because last names (as we know them today) took some centuries to evolve.

I didnt say such monikers didnt evolve into last names.

Calling someone "Joshua Bar Joseph" is like calling the artist Leonardo "Leonardo DaVinci".
His name was "Leonardo"- like most non-kings of that time he had no last name.

That "DaVinci" part was not a "name". It was just a moniker stuck on so they wouldnt confuse him with all the other Lennies around. It just means "of Vinci". The famous artist/inventor did not come from a family named "DaVinci". His folks lived in the town of Vinci but they didnt have any last name.

However family names were starting to spread to commoners shortly after that in Renaissance Europe.
Had Leonardo married and had sons. They might well have adopted the "DaVinci" moniker as a family name that wouldve then been passed on as a modern type last name.

+++++++
But you remind of something that puzzles me about the Scandanavians.

English and Hebrew both acknowlede who your ancestor was "the son of".
Probably most languages do. But the Scandanavians seem to be unique in acknowledging someone being the "daughter of" someone.

The Icelandic pop singer Bjork has a long unpronounceable last name that ends with the syllable "dottir".

But I what I wonder is how she, or anyone, could inherit "daughter of" as a family name?

Say a viking named Eric has a son and a daughter.
His son comes to be known as "Ericson", and his daughter as "Ericsdottir".

The son marries and his family adopts the Ericson name as a family name.
A thousand years later, you, an american of norse descent, have the last name of Ericson.

But if the daughter marries she would adopt her husbands name and become Ericsdottir Smith ( or the norwejian equivalent of smith) say. Her children would adopt the name smith and all of her modern descendants centuries later would also be named smith, and not 'Ericsdottir". Last names go through the father's line. So how is it possible to inherit any "daughter of" name?

James and Jesus did not have the same names. What are you talking about?

ruveyn

I'm going to snip it short, ok?

Patronymics persist in our society, while matronymic names do not... generally. I mentioned the English Baxter as being an exception, and there are others, escaping me at the moment.

Matronymics can persist if the woman was a widow with kids, or perhaps a separation or the kids disassociating themselves with their father. Sometimes kids take the moms name over the dads. Point is, it happens, though its not as apparent today.

"dottir": The Scandinavian practice gets even stranger at times. I worked with a man who was of Swedish/Norwegian decent, but he had a very English last name. What had happened is that they came to Canada and took over the farm of a man who died. In the traditions of his family, you assumed a last name based on the land you lived on, so his Grandfather took the dead mans last name.

Robert(whom I worked with) explained that the practice was done as a short hand association. Its an "Oh you live on the old Potter farmstead" sort of thing. Might as well call yourself Potter, right?

I've direct experience with that sort of small town attitude. Where I spend part of my youth there was a Texaco gas station. It closed right after I moved. Despite nearly 30 years of different incarnations, I heard one of my 10 year old cousins refer to it as "The Texaco". It has never been that in their life. Probably for all intents and purposes, that building will always be known as the Texaco by that town.