The creation story in Genesis shows that God creates by calling things into existence. He calls every one of us, throughout all time, into reality. He literally calls each by name. At the moment of your conception, I tell children, God called you by name, and your soul was created from nothing and joined to your flesh.

What name did he call? We don’t know and won’t find out until God is all and in all. We do know that God does not repeat himself—there are no identical blades of grass, raindrops, or grains of sand—so there is no reason to assume that he has ever called a name more than once. God makes beautiful things: galaxies, the view of the earth from space, and forest canopies. His most cherished creation is us, and we are breathtaking. We hope that we will hear him call our name, and when he does, it will probably be the most beautiful sound we have ever heard. Our hearts will swell, and our eyes will burst into tears of joy.

Meanwhile, we have man-given names that should remind us that we have God-given names. The act of naming is to be taken seriously. We don’t know and can’t give each other our God-given names. Therefore, we should choose the names of the people close to God because they are saved and perfected in heaven with him.

That means giving a Christian name, which is most often the name of a man or woman who is a saint but also the name of an angel. Those folks have been saved and are pleasing to God; he hears and answers their prayers. When we name ourselves after them, we assure ourselves of their prayers, and they become our model for holiness. When we give ourselves the name of a heavenly citizen, that name points to God, who named us.

This is what the Church means when she teaches, “The name is the icon of the person. (Catechism, 2158)”