THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE NAMES OF GOD WITH REFERENCE TO EXODUS 3:14-17

Abstract

In Africa, especially among the Akan in Ghana, names are not mere arbitrary and meaningless labels, rather names have indexical relationship to socio-cultural meanings and functions, places, time, people and events. It is even unethical to call people not using their proper names. What this means, is that, a name gives an identity to a person. This is underscored by the Akans’ maxim, 'edin pa yέ sene ahunya' meaning “good name is better than riches”. This epitomises that the Akans attach much importance to names. According to Agyekum, African and Ghanaian names are quite different from that of western societies where people take their fathers’ last names. While western names are predictable, African names are generally not predictable, for until the child is born and under what circumstances it is born, the name cannot be determined with accuracy.1 All these go to prove that, names are not just a tag but strongly related to temporal, personal and social indexes.