Whodunit Wednesday: Biblical names in society

The first two days of this week I was off with a group of Catholic kids and leaders and had the opportunity to talk about faith in work and about what we find in the Bible. Religion and faith are words on many peoples tongues, but concepts which are often far from the heart. As a matter of fact, the news stated this past week that trust in religion is in Belgium the lowest of all Europe. People in Belgium feel that religion is dangerous.
Faith, on the other hand, is something that most people still talk about. During these two days with these teens, they took a quiz (using QR codes and their phones). Questions popped up about how many apostles there were, what the name of Jesus’ father was (nice trick question) and more. Another activity looked at what they say to believe and if they truly believe it. A third activity looked at what the names of the children meant and where they came from.
In all of this it was amazing to me how important names are. Pontius Pilatus was a real historical figure. Some of the kids’ names came from names in the Bible: Mathis from Matthew, Thomas (with an ‘h’), Maria and Marit (both from Maria) and more. In Belgium and the Netherlands we have lots of names that come from this biblical history and culture, even if they do not always immediately sound like it.
Maria is, of course, a well-known and well-used name in Catholic Belgium. It may show up a bit less in the Netherlands (mostly in the south where we are), but versions of it will still show up. Remnants of the Roman past also show up in normal everyday names. Some are Roman and Biblical at the same time.
My younger brother’s name is Marc - with a ‘c’. This was very different when we were growing up. But here in Belgium it is very common. In fact, Mark - with a ‘k’ - jumps out immediately as different. This is because in Belgium they are working with the name ‘Marcus’ - the Biblical name of the 2nd gospel and a typical Roman name (i.e. Marcus Aurelius).
There are some differences between the countries. Take, for example, Luk or Luc. The Dutch will more likely use the ‘k’ where the Belgians will use the ‘c’. The Dutch language version of the name is ‘Lucas’ but this can also be spelled ‘Lukas’. And then there are all the varied versions of Peter: ‘Peter’ (pronounced ‘pay-ter’), ‘Pieter’ (pronounced ‘pee-ter’) and of course also ‘Pierre’. These kan all be shortened: ‘Peet’, ‘Piet’ or otherwise.
When we named our son, Sean, we thought to be right on track. Sean was born in Belgium (Stephan was born in Abilene, Texas, just before we moved here). There are various versions of ‘John’ here: Johan, Johannes (which can shorten to ‘Hannes’ or ‘Hans’) or Jean (the French spelling and pronunciation). You could also use Ian, John or Johnny (or Jonny) here.
We chose for more Anglicised version, but one we thought most people would recognise, since the actor Sean Connery was well-known. It turned out that many people pronounced ‘Sean’ as ’see-un’. The way we were pronouncing Sean was closer to the pronunciation of ‘Jean’. But it was even closer to ’Sjaan’ (pronounced ‘shaan’ with a long, open ‘aa’ as one would do at the doctor). This name, however, is a girl’s name, so it obviously did not fit Sean.
In the end, people get used to using your name if they get to know you. That is also what we try to get across to the young people we work with. It is possible to get to know the people in the Bible, even if we can’t quite hear how they might have pronounced their names. Then the question is whether we will share in their faith or not, live as they lived in trustin God.