There are subtleties to the tradition of receiving a new name upon receiving Holy Baptism or upon one’s reception into the Church. There are those, the scriptures indicate, that received new names upon Holy Baptism, and those who did not. The Serbians, to this day, do not, but rather their birth names become their Christian names. There are differing traditions within the one Faith as to how these names are chosen for the Christian, and differing notions as to what kinds of names are appropriate.The reality remains that the fulness of our pious custom is not to use diminutives of the name, any more than we would use diminutives for the Saints for whom these names are often chosen. We would not refer to the evangelist as St. Johnny, nor the Apostle as St. Pete. St. John Maximovitch is said to have refused communion to those who used diminutives in this way, underscoring that using a diminutive in this way is generally a reductionism, a diminishing of our Faith.
Likewise, it is not our tradition to prefer the name of our natural birth which was unto death to that of our new birth, in which we live forever. If a former Jennifer, though she may be called to the civil courts as such, is now a Petka, then we the faithful should refer to her as Petka and address her as such. When an Orthodox Christian introduces himself as Larry, we should ask his ‘new name’ so that we might pray for him properly and address him with reverence. It is the new birth that is our life. The old birth is as nothing by comparison.
In the same way, one’s natural birthday is not preferred to our Name Day, since one is the cause for mourning and the other for rejoicing in the resurrection of Holy Baptism into life eternal. The heretic Origen may have been right when he said, “Only pagans celebrate their own birthdays.” After all, we celebrate the birthdays of Saints on our calendar, but for us it is the Name Day which causes us to glorify God. We may celebrate the birthday of our children, but adults in Orthodox countries have always made little of their own birthdays and yet rejoiced with great glory on their Namedays. Likewise, we honor the one who named us, since we do not name ourselves but, according to the tradition, are given our names by another. Christians do not build monuments to our own names, as pagans have done, but rather our names are monuments to others, to those who went before, and to those who led us to Christ.
Nonetheless, whatever name our godmother or godfather or the priest spoke at our baptism, that is our new name. That is the name by which we are known in Heaven and in the whole Kingdom of God. If we neglect it because we find it awkward, then the awkwardness is not in the name but in the soul. Let us teach our souls of the Kingdom, celebrating always the Saints and the resurrection from the dead.
Nor do we refer to Fr. John Meyendorff as Fr. Meyendorff or Fr. Thomas Hopko as Fr. Hopko. It is not their genus, not their family names that are the symbol of their redemption, any more than these were the names spoken at their reception into Holy Orthodoxy, but rather their Christian names — they are Fr. John and Fr. Thomas and Fr. Alexander and so on, after the Saints and All-laudable Apostles. Nor yet would we refer to them as merely John Meyendorff or Thomas Hopko, since we receive the presbyters as the Sanhedrin of God. These are indeed our fathers, and we must continually remind our own souls of this, so that we may see clearly, saying in all our speech “Father Bless”.
Lastly, it is not our tradition to refer to Saint Paul as merely Paul, or to to St. Irenaeus as merely Irenaeus. Speaking in this manner deludes the mind, depriving us of heavenly vision. It deludes our souls by lowering the Saints in our estimation or else raising ourselves, rather than seeking always to follow their example. In the same manner, too much casual talk of “Jesus” and “Mary” rather than putting ourselves ever in remembrance of Our Lord and the Theotokos not only impoverishes our own senses but presents to the world a very different view of the Holy Gospel than that we received. Just as their is no “low mass” in Holy Orthodoxy, but rather fulness of glory upon glory, let us adorn our speech and so raise our minds to fulness of veneration and piety. Let us go farther, so that we do not attend Church but rather Divine Liturgy, so that we do not receive sacraments but the Holy Mysteries, celebrate not Easter but Holy Pascha. How often we are tempted to abbreviate, when we would not abbreviate the fasts or the liturgies. Piety is the consciousness of holy things, Holy Baptism, Holy Chrismation, Holy Communion, Holy Matrimony, Holy Orthodoxy, Holy Pascha, Holy Nativity.
These pieties may seem like small things, but then piety consists in the small things. Whether out of perceived convenience or scholastic association or of simple laziness or loss of spiritual insight, we must not let reductionism keep us from the fulness of that faith we received and likewise are charged to preserve. Let us make our souls fit and our mouths fitting to adorn the Holy Faith so that we may indeed share it with our fathers. Let us always seek the fulness of the fulness of the Faith, imitating piety after piety of the Faithful who have handed down the faith to us from generation to generation that we may see them ever glorified from ages to ages. Amen.