Imagine if you were named “Airplane” or “Screwdriver” by your parents or fellow villagers in a Third World country. I’m told that that is exactly what has happened in some Indian villages wanting to be identified with anything American and “Western.” Through the work of Western 
missionaries in these remote parts of India, uneducated peoples focused on something “civilized” to be remembered by; something important and “impressive.” And so, they are “Television” and “Camera.”
We, in our educated western living rooms and offices, hear about this and can’t help but chuckle and snicker at the utter silliness and nonsense in these names for people. Would you want to be named after a hand tool or kitchen appliance? I mean, what is the significance of knowing that you are going to be following the pattern of a can opener? But, as we survey the landscape of “Western civilization” in our modern times, it appears that we are following the leading of these “poor, uneducated” villagers. According to a recent Prison Fellowship Breakpoint commentary, new names are cropping up in our midst (new and “cutting-edge”): 4real; Apple, ESPN, and Moxie CrimeFighter.
Who’s really advanced around here? Who’s following who in the chase to give meaning to the naming of new additions? Just as a child who is named “Airplane” might have trouble figuring out his or her destiny and meaning and purpose without having to be reminded about flying metal contraptions, so too may the child who is named “Apple.” It may well signal the extent to which a post-Christian culture would repel against order, meaning, and purpose. If the meaning of my name means nothing more than a fruit to eat and look at and throw away, does it also signal a world where chance and natural selection and sameness are glorified and lifted up? If the meaning of my name is a sports channel, what do I look forward to in fulfilling my purpose? Owning a television so I can see my channel? Being involved in athletics to “be on my channel?” What if ESPN goes out of business?
Could it be that we are becoming cynical about life as a whole; a world where strange and bizarre events take place everyday in the name of pursuing happiness and purpose? In a place of tragedy and sadness and utter depravity among human beings, could we as a people be “copping out”-----escaping the make-believe world we were told we were entering and instead recognizing the morbid truth that as Henry David Thoreau put it, all men eventually “live lives of quiet despair?” Could all the troubles we see in society be making us so sarcastic so as to name our children whatever whim we feel like conveying at the moment? Today, it could be that I’m into boats; hence I will name my child “Canoe.” Tomorrow, I could be intensely involved in real estate; hence I may settle instead for “Dwelling.”
Does this demonstrate a picture of selfish, short-sighted, cynical generations to come in our midst? As Anne Morse on “The Point” blog suggests, “they view themselves as having little power in the world; having the opportunity to choose someone else's name is a powerful thing, and these parents take full advantage of it by giving their baby the most "original" name they can think of--even if it makes their child feel like a freak.” Here, we may be seeing not “the greatest generation” as in the past, but the “Shameful generation.” A people who have been disconnected from history, legacy, and vision of what they want to see in the land they live in. Rather, a parenting age in which we would instead pursue a global political correctness (“May my child be understood by the entire world”) that seeks peace and good feelings without discretion and guidance from our past forefathers. If we disconnect ourselves from the biblical wisdom of naming our children after the character we desire and roar into the future in the name of “tolerance”, we will suffer the same fate other civilizations have borne out: we will repeat the mistakes and errors of those we are trying to flee from and find ourselves in grave danger of self-destruction.
Adrian Valdivia, BBN Staff