Throughout history, the conferring of a name has been a time of special ceremony and meaning. Names are seen to be both descriptive and proscriptive. They identify the unique characteristics of an individual and they become the way that the individual is known in the community. Working in a building where more than 80 3- and 4-year-olds come for preschool, we get to know a lot of different names Over the years, we have observed which names are popular and which are uncommon. We have also encountered many unique, one-of-a-kind names and more than a few creative ways to spell names that might otherwise be more common. In our culture names are generally the choice of parents and parents differ widely about when in the process of expecting a child that they announce the name.

Of course the ability to know the gender of a child before it is born is something that has only been the part of the current generation. Just a few years ago, it was not so common to know whether the child who was coming was male or female. Couples frequently had two names in mind when they went into the delivery room, prepared to name a child either way.

We know parents who didn’t have a name for a child at the child’s birth and so it was a bit of a scramble to come up with a suitable name in time to fill out the birth certificate.

But these days we know parents who have announced the name of their child months before the birth.

With Jesus, it was different. According to the Gospel of Luke, the angel Gabriel came to Mary in the sixth month of her pregnancy and told her that she was to name the child “Jesus.” Matthew reports it slightly differently. In that Gospel, the angel appears to Joseph and the exact timing is not identified, but the name is the same and it is given to Joseph with the same sense of authority and demand. There was no discussion, no debate. The name was simply given to Mary and Joseph.

Still, all proper ceremony had to be observed. In the traditions of the people at the time, a week was to pass following the birth of a baby. On the eighth evening, at sunset, the mother and the child were to be presented at the temple. The mother would undergo a purification rite. The child would be named in an official naming ceremony. Luke reports that these traditions were fully observed for Jesus. He also reports of the wisdom and vision of Simeon and Anna, elders who were in the temple at the time of Jesus’ presentation and naming. Simeon and Anna recognized the child as the long-awaited messiah. Their vision of what the child was to become has been remembered as one of the central themes of the story.

And so, January 1 each year, in addition to being celebrated as the first day of the Roman Calendar, is the feast of the holy name of Jesus. Christians in many different communions and traditions all set aside a day to remember the stories of Simeon and Anna and celebrate that powerful connection between a name and the person who bears the name. In many contemporary churches, feast days are assigned to Sundays, so the presentation of Jesus is commonly held on the first Sunday after Christmas, which is before January 1 unless Christmas lands on a Sunday. Most of us get a couple of different days to reflect on the process of conferring a name.

It isn’t immediately obvious from the first reading of the Gospels, but when one looks closely, one can determine that the naming ceremony was one that Mary and Joseph were to go through several times. Jesus was, of course, the firstborn son and so the naming ceremony would have had special significance for the new parents. Both Mark and Matthew, however, report that there were siblings to follow: James, Joses (or Joseph), Judas and Simon were Jesus’ brothers and there were sisters as well, though their names aren’t reported int he Gospels. Since sisters are reported in the plural, however, it means that the family had at least seven children.

I know about a family with seven children. The names are unique, but there can be confusion. I grew up in a family with seven children. I sometimes say that I used to think that when I was growing up I thought my name was BeverlyNancyLoisTed, because sometimes our mother had to go through all of the names to get to mine. I can only assume that my youngest brother was, on occasion, referred to as BeverlyNancyLoisTedVernonDanielRandy! When we were growing up the confusion over names was sometimes a source of irritation and sometimes a source of fun. I didn’t like it when neighbors or friends couldn’t remember my name. If someone called me “Vernon,” I could get quite indignant as I would say, “Don’t you know my name is Ted!” There were other times, however, when the confusion was just fine. Our neighbor across the street didn’t learn our names until we were well into our teens and his inability to correctly identify individual brothers was just fine with me, even if it did mean that occasionally I got blamed for something one of my brothers did.

We have been taught to think of Mary as a gentle and meek person. The Cherry Tree Carol includes this description in its lyrics: “Then Mary in her meekness, Then Mary what was mild, so mild . . .” But I have got to believe that a mother of at least seven had to occasionally raise her voice. I’m not sure that the words “gentle, meek, and mild” are the only ones that her children would have used to describe this woman. We know from the Biblical record that she was incredibly strong, that she could stand up to social pressure and that she didn’t shrink back for difficult and even painful situations.

Greetings on this eighth day of Christmas: the day of the holy name of Jesus. May your thoughts and prayers be filled with the significance of names and the power of the name that was chosen for the one who was the bearer of God to the world.

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