Names Matter

Names dictate how we think without most of us even realizing it.

By guest contributor Michael Moore.

A line from the Quentin Tarantino film Pulp Fiction has always stuck with me. It is not any of the lines said by Samuel L. Jackson. The line in question is spoken by Bruce Willis in the scene where he is riding in the taxi immediately after his boxing match. The taxi driver, Esmeralda, asks the Bruce Willis character his name. He tells her his name is Butch. Esmeralda, a seemingly Latin character, asks what his name means. Butch says something interesting and insightful regarding a shortcoming of American culture. Butch says, “I’m American, honey. Our names don’t mean shit.”

What does Butch mean when he says that American names don’t mean anything? He is articulating an unfortunate apathy that many Americans have towards the significance of names. Many Americans, especially if they are not raised in a Christian tradition, will likely have little to no understanding of what their own names mean. The Esmeralda character does not hold this view; otherwise, she would not have asked about the significance of the name “Butch.” Her name, Esmeralda, means “emerald.” In American culture, this name is associated with a poor, yet exotic, mysterious female archetype as popularized by the Victor Hugo novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, later adapted into the Disney animated film of the same name. The traits of being foreign and exotic are largely why the name “Esmeralda” has significance in the first place and may be why the writers of Pulp Fiction chose it for the alluring and eccentric Latina cab driver. It seems to be a general understanding that names of foreigners have meaning while the names of native, heritage Americans have no meaning.

A popular baby name website ranks the most common names given to children born in the year 2024. For girls, the top three names are Olivia, Amelia, and Emma. For boys, the top names are Noah, Liam, and Oliver. How many parents who named their daughter “Olivia” are aware that the name means “olive” or “olive tree”? How many women named Olivia are aware that their name is derived from a Mediterranean tree or fruit from said tree? How many parents who named their son Noah are aware that the name is from the Bible story of an ancient Hebrew who trusted God and built an ark to protect his family from God’s judgment of the world? I suspect that most people who chose these names and who carry these names are not aware of, or do not care about, where the names come from. Most parents, when picking baby names, likely just pick a name that they like based on phonetic characteristics. An example of this trend, especially among Millennial parents, is the addition of the suffix -leigh to a name for girls: Everleigh, Ryleigh, Kayleigh, Charleigh, etc. For boys, the trend is to add the suffix -den: Brayden, Aiden, Jayden, Treyden, etc. These names have risen in popularity, not because of a specific meaning, but because the names themselves have a certain visual and phonetic aesthetic. These names generally are not in honor of an idea or ancestor or concept, but are likely chosen for more superficial reasons.

Why is this important, and why do I say that this is a shortcoming in American culture? Because names matter a great deal on the subconscious level to an extent that many do not realize. Recently, President Donald Trump has ordered the renaming of Denali in Alaska back to Mount McKinley as well as the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Some commentary online has been critical of this move out of a seeming lack of importance. A post on X with 8.8 million views and 145 thousand likes at the time of this writing expresses this confusion:

“Can someone far smarter than me explain to me why the name of a mountain in Alaska is even remotely on the top 10,000 issues facing this country? Who is this for?” Perhaps Hayden is genuinely confused about why the name of a mountain in Alaska is important to President Trump. It is clear to me that this type of viral post is expressive of a broader ignorance to the power of names.

The enemy is not confused about the reasoning. The enemy is an expert on crafting names and language in a subtle way that serves a specific purpose. Consider the phrase “person of color.” Colloquially, this phrase is used to describe a non-White person generally in American culture. The phrase took the place of the older term “colored person” which was prominent in the first half of the 20th century. Why did the old phrase fall out of fashion? Because it was labeled a racist term against Black people in America. Ostensibly, the term “person of color” is no different from the term “colored person.” Functionally, the two terms describe the same type of people and are basically the same, right? Wrong. This type of seemingly minor linguistic change is demonstrative of an immense battle over meaning. Language is akin to the air we breathe. It is the medium in which one thinks and understands reality. If the enemy can control language to the extent that they can mandate a change from “colored person” to “person of color,” the enemy controls the landscape in the battle of ideas. If someone unwittingly says the phrase “person of color” when speaking about the racial differences between people, this person is already accepting a certain premise about race as dictated by the type that mandated the use of the phrase in the first place. Like Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz, when you can control the terrain and the terms of engagement, you win the battle. Use of certain phrases signals that a particular premise is accepted before the battle of ideas even starts.

How does this all tie into the significance of names in the Year of Our Lord 2025? Names dictate how we think without most of us even realizing it. Donald Trump knows the significance of names and used this knowledge to great effect in battle against his enemies. Crooked Hillary. Sleepy Joe. Little Marco. Lyin’ Ted. Low-Energy Jeb. All these names assigned to Trump’s political enemies brilliantly used the power of names to his advantage. By renaming his opponents, he set the terrain for battle against them and changed how people thought subconsciously. The same principle applies moving forward as the culture is hopefully changed towards a better state. Renaming Denali and the Gulf of Mexico is a move that aggressively changes how Americans view the natural world. The mountain and the body of water remain unchanged, but the perception changes. This type of renaming effort needs to be carried forward in the coming months and years.

An excellent place to start is with military installations and assets. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has already ordered the renaming of bases back to their original names in honor of Confederate generals. Fort Bragg is and always was Fort Bragg, not anything else. Renaming in this manner can and should be pushed further.

At the time of writing, there is a class of Navy tankers named after the Georgia Representative and “discount MLK Jr.” John Lewis. In this class of ships is a ship named after homosexual and strongly alleged pedophile Harvey Milk. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” used to be the official Defense Department policy that prohibited openly homosexual individuals from serving in the military. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was repealed in the first term of the Obama Administration for the purpose of using the military as a vehicle for social change. To the enemy’s credit, they knew that repealing the statute was not enough. In addition to repealing the policy, ships had to be named after homosexual icons as a sign of acceptance of such a lifestyle. Harvey Milk, a former Navy officer, was a good choice as a namesake for this agenda. Milk posthumously was thus honored in 2016. (By the way, John Lewis voted to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”)

Another ship in the John Lewis class, the USNS Earl Warren, was named after leftist Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren. Warren presided over cases such as Brown v. Board of Education and Griswold v. Connecticut, which helped do away with freedom of association and paved the way for abortion with Roe v. Wade, respectively. Most of the Court decisions that came in the 1960s regarding radical social change can be attributed to Warren. Such legal precedents set by Warren opened the door for Roe and Obergefell. The USNS John Lewis, USNS Harvey Milk, and USNS Earl Warren are currently the three active ships in the John Lewis class and should be renamed. Planned namesakes for future ships include Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Thurgood Marshall, both judges who were of the same school of thought as Warren. All the names of the planned ships in this class ought to be reconsidered and changed to honor good Americans. Navy tradition has long dictated the honoring of presidents by naming aircraft carriers after them. President Richard Nixon, one of the most popular presidents of the 20th century and the last real right-wing president aside from Donald Trump, has not been honored in this manner. Currently, there are two planned carriers to honor Bill Clinton and George W. Bush as well as an enlisted sailor named Doris Miller, but not President Nixon. The names for these carriers should be reconsidered, and at least one of the newbuilds should be renamed to honor Richard Nixon.

In the Christian tradition, from which America takes great inspiration, names are of the highest importance. Our Lord renames the Apostles Peter and Paul when He calls them into His service. God charges Adam with the responsibility of naming every bird and beast on Earth. In older, more civilized times, a question that might be asked was “What is your Christian name?” This question comes from the tradition of renaming, wherein a new convert would take on a Christian name after baptism. Many of the names in the English language are either Christian names or derivations of Christian names. For example, the name “Sean” or “Shawn” is an Irish derivation of the name “John.” My name, “Michael,” means literally the question “Who is like God?” When asked rhetorically, this name is meant to signify that no one is like God. Names are of primary importance to who you are. If a person is named after nonsense or ugliness, or if a person is named in a shallow and passing trend, those characteristics may follow him throughout his life. Parents naming a child after chaos, wickedness, or meaninglessness is setting a precedent for their child, whether they know it or not.

Names matter. What things and people are called matter. In the same sense that a good American would never name a child after Leon Trotsky or Queen Jezebel, as a matter of public policy, ships, mountains, bodies of water, monuments, and the like ought to be renamed if they are presently named after persons of ill repute. Parents ought to take great care in the naming of their children. When naming children, it would be wise to take into consideration historical and familial meanings of a name. While Butch in Pulp Fiction may have been largely correct in stating that American names “don’t mean shit,” this doesn’t have to be the case. One’s name can carry power and significance, and it may serve our culture better if American names start to have meaning moving forward.