Collective Worship



Collective Worship

Title: Names

Theme: Names

School: Secondary

Term: Autumn Term

Summary:

A look at the tradition of naming a child. What is the significance of the name? Nicknames, Jesus’ name and its meaning.

Teachers’ Notes

The pictures should be shown in PowerPoint as the story is told. The ( ) shows when the slide should be changed. To attract pupils’ attention, we recommend the first slide is already on display as they enter.

The Main Text

(Picture 1)

Do you like your name? Do you know how you got your name?

The tradition of passing a name from generation to generation is not as common as it was previously. In the past it was a common practice to name a son or daughter after their grandfather or grandmother. Family connections played a key role in naming a child. Catherine Zeta Jones, for example, shares the name Zeta with her grandmother. Her grandmother was named after the ship Zeta which her father owned.

Sometimes the names of rivers, hills and places were used to name children by parents who had a connection with the location, for example, Teifi.

(Picture 2)

Biblical names are still common and many school pupils have these names. For example, David, Mark, Sarah, Rachel, Ioan or Nathan.

(Picture 3)

Historically, some people have been named or known as describing words, either through the person’s actions for example, Hywel Dda (Howell the Good), or their work - Jones y Gof (Blacksmith Jones). Others have been named after a place or residence, especially a farm or house, for example, Alun Penlan or Annie Tŷ Capel (Chapel House).

(Picture 4)

Sometimes strange names are mentioned. In 1994, for example, a boy was born about fifty miles away from Nottingham and because his dad was a strong supporter of the local football team he named his son Forest.

(Picture 5)

There’s another story about a family with the surname Rush that lived in North Wales, who had a son born during the Christmas season, so they named him Christmas. If we refer back to the Bible, the longest and strangest name mentioned is Maher-shalal-hash-Baz, the son of the prophet Isaiah.

Nicknames were common in Wales in the past, and were sometimes used to differentiate between people with the same name. The nicknames on occasion were very humorous. An example was when one man was referred to as Dai Bungalow, because ‘there was nothing upstairs’.

We all have a surname, but in Biblical times it was not traditional to pass on surnames from generation to generation and often a person would be refered to as someone’s son, for example, Dafydd, the son of Jesse. The tradition continued in Wales as we began to refer to people as Ifan ap Owen Edwards.

(Picture 6)

In biblical times there were also obvious meanings to a name. For example, the name Solomon meant peace. In the same way Joseph named his first son Manasseh, which in Hebrew meant ‘reason to forget’, a sign of forgiveness to his brothers for selling him as a slave when he was younger.

Many biblical names are still used today. For example:

Nathan - meaning ‘a gift from God.’ This is the name of a prophet in the Old Testament who was the son of King David.

Mark - meaning ‘god of war’.

Sarah - meaning ‘princess’ and Hannah meaning ‘grace’. The mother of the prophet Samuel in the Old Testament was called Hannah.

Research the meaning of your name. It may be interesting.

(Picture 7)

This brings us to the name of Jesus Christ, the ‘name above all names’, as one famous hymn puts it.

The name Jesus was very common amongst Jews. The Hebrew version of the name is Joshua. God must have wanted to give him a common name as he wanted Jesus to become one of us, to share the same happiness and sadness as us, to face the same concerns as us, to feel the warmth and the cold, to laugh and cry. Therefore he was given the common name Joshua or Jesus.

And yet, as common as the name was, there was a special meaning to Joshua. The meaning of the name is ‘God saves’. From the minute he was born, Mary had named her son The Saviour. And by celebrating Christmas we celebrate the Saviour’s birthday.

PRAYER: O Lord, we thank you this Christmas for Jesus, the Saviour, the Advocate, the solid foundation to our lives, who is unique. Amen

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