The automatic question you ask when you meet someone new. The first breaker of a personal boundary. The most easily-identifiable aspect that sets you apart from the person next to you. A name is more than the word you write on the sticker above. It's a fundamental element of human interaction. Your name precedes you in life and follows you in death. Names humanize, differentiate, and deserve more credit than they get.
On any given day you could lose every single one of your worldly possessions due to natural disaster, bankruptcy, or you name it. You could have nothing to your name but the name itself. Almost everything you own has the potential to be taken away from you, except your name. The homeless person you saw on the street yesterday, the waiter who took your order, the criminal you heard about on the news -- they all have names.
What finalizes a divorce, monetary transaction, or lease? A signature. The moment someone writes their name in cursive form on a legal document, the deal is sealed. If they wrote someone else's name, it would be worthless. This hypothetical person's name matters, as does yours.
As humans, we crave to feel known. It is unlikely for that desire ever to be fulfilled apart from being called by name. A name is a starting place that can lead to learning someone's silliest quirks, deepest fears, and biggest dreams. The "Cheers" theme song tells it like it is: "Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name."
Would you rather be a name, or a number? Easy. The former. Good customer service revolves around treating customers like more than a number, hence those mass customization e-mails that are probably populating your inbox right now. Admit it, when you see or hear your name in a place that it doesn't necessarily have to be, it feels good. As does finding your name on a key chain (shout-out to all my people out there who've never had that experience ... I feel your pain).
I won't throw out a false statistic, but it's a recognized fact that a large percentage of girls already have their future children's names picked out. Time and time again I've heard, "I like the name *insert name here*, but I know someone with that name, so I can't call my kid that." The better you know someone, the more you associate their name with the actual person. Then there's the whole, "You look like a..." in reimagining people's names. What even does that mean? What exactly makes someone "look like" an Elizabeth, a Jacob, or a La-a (pronounced "Ladasha")?
The Bible tells us in Isaiah 43:1 that the Lord formed us individually. It reads, "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine." Just as God calls us by name, we should do the same to each other. "Hey, how are you?" means so much more when a name is included. I fully acknowledge the fact that remembering the names of everyone you meet is a borderline impossible feat, and recalling names does not come naturally to all people. Still, I challenge you to make a concerted effort to commit more names to memory, because nothing but good can come of it.
