It is customary when we receive the sacrament of confirmation to choose a confirmation name. This is ordinarily from a saint or biblical figure after whom we intend to model our lives.

            A few years ago, a young man approached the bishop to be confirmed. (To get the full effect of this story, you should know that the bishop was wearing a lapel microphone capable of picking up voices near him. Thus, the conversation between the bishop and the boy was heard by the entire congregation.) When the bishop asked the young man what his confirmation name was to be, he responded rather proudly that he had chosen the name Isaiah. The bishop was duly impressed and asked the boy why he chose the name of this prophet from of old. The boy responded that he chose Isaiah because that was his dog’s name. This was one of those times when even the bishop did not quite know what to say.

            The idea of taking a new name to symbolize a new direction in life has a long tradition. We see in the Jewish scriptures that when God called Abram to become the father of God’s people, Abram was renamed Abraham. When Jesus called Simon to be the first apostle, he renamed him Peter. Later when Saul the persecutor of Christians was converted and became the apostle to the Gentiles, he came to be known as Paul. In each case, the significance was the same.

            At the same time as Abram received his new name, God renamed Abram’s wife Sarai Sarah, as a sign that the covenant he was making with Abram also extended to Sarai.¹ And then there was Mary Magdalene, who came to be known throughout much of Christian history as a prostitute, though that claim is not backed up anywhere in the gospels. What we do know from the scriptures is that although her name was not changed, s

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