Or change a name as a name is the conduit by which that person receives blessings from HaShem. The Kohen Godol would carry the names of the tribes on the stones of the Choshen and the Eiphod to be meritorious for the Jewish people. The way to waken someone from a faint is to call him by name because one’s name is connected to the essence of his soul. The Talmud Brochos (7B) states: “Eisov was not only angry over Yitzchok’s blessing, [To Yaakov] but he was angry about another matter as well, as it is written: Bereishis (27:36). “And he said, הֲכִי קָּרָּא שְמוֹ יַעֲקֹב וַיַעְקְבֵנִי זֶׁה פַעֲמַיִם ‘Is he not rightly named Yaakov, for he has supplanted me twice? He took my birth right, and behold, now he has taken my blessing’”. The name Yaakov is etymologically similar in Hebrew to the word supplanted me....
Continuing on the topic of names, the Talmud asks: What is the meaning of the name Ruth? Rabbi Yocḥanan said: שריוהו להקדוש ברוך הוא בשירות ותשבחות That she had the privilege that Dovid, who inundated HaKodosh Boruch Hu with songs and praises, would descend from her. The name Rus is etymologically similar in Hebrew to the word inundate [riva]. Regarding the basic assumption that these homiletic interpretations of names are allusions to one’s future, the Talmud asks: From where do we derive that the name affects one’s life? Rabbi Eliezer said that the verse says: לְכו חֲזו מִפְעֲלוֹת ה׳ אֲשֶׁר שָּם שַמוֹת בָּאָּרֶׁץ “Go, see the works of HaShem who has made desolations [shamos] upon the earth” (Tehilim 46:9). Do not read the word as shamos, rather as shemos, names. The names given to people are, therefore, “the works of HaShem upon the earth.”
