Naming a child Jesus or Muhammad

I know down in some cultures, they may name their child Jesus, however the pronunciation is different. As you already know, it would be "hey-zeus" instead of "jee-zus". Also in the middle eastern cultures, they may name their Muhammad after their prophet.

Is it right to do this? If they believe that they are important to the well being of their lives, why name their children after them if these names are uber-holy and prophetic?

These names should be forbidden. They are holy enough names to just be exclusive to these beings. I know it's out of honor and respect and it's not like the parents are saying "Honor my child Muhammad", but it's like naming your child Allah. There's plenty of other names out there that are still holy names like Matthew and John, common names. There's many in different cultures that are close, but not like Jesus or Muhammad.

Am I the only one. It's more about respect to me than anything else.

 

Flattery is respect, IMO.

I don't see what's wrong with this..

 

I don't see it as a big deal one way or the other. I would point out that for the most part the cultures in question do not pronounce it "jee-zus," but rather in the way they pronounce it as a common name. There's nothing essential or accurate about our pronunciation (or even spelling) of Jesus' name; it's just the one our particular culture has adopted.

-Paul

 

They are holy enough names to just be exclusive to these beings. I know it's out of honor and respect and it's not like the parents are saying "Honor my child Muhammad", but it's like naming your child Allah.
Too many people make the mistake of drawing overly linear parallels between Christianity and Islam. Muhammad is not the Islamic counterpart to Jesus; he is not a part of God or a son of God to Muslims, only God's last messenger and very much a mortal. To Christians, Jesus was God's son and part of the Trinity of God. Associating aspects, children, and partners to God is the highest sin in Islam. Muslims name their kids Muhammad all the time, just like Westerners (for a lack of a better term) name their kids David or Adam; naming one's child after a prophet of God is much different than naming your child after God Himself.

In a nutshell, the difference between naming a child Muhammad or naming him Jesus is that Muhammad is not a part of some Trinity of God.

EDIT: Fixed markup codes (thanks, DarthBoba!)

 

I know Muhammad wasn't a God in the Muslim culture. He was a messenger and the closest they had as a bridge between between Allah and the Muslims. Sort of like a Moses or an Elijah in the Christian sense. I know bits and pieces of Islam, so if I mistake something, please forgive. Now naming you child Allah is a definite no.

I know people named Elijah. I never met a Moses before.

This is something a few people have been debating for the past few days

 

Muslims name their kids Muhammad all the time, just like Westerners (for a lack of a better term) name their kids David or Adam; naming one's child after a prophet of God is much different than naming your child after God Himself.

Quite right. Moslems look at Mohammad in a way very different than Christians look at Jesus; specifically, Mohammad is not part of God, whereas Jesus is part of the Holy Trinity.

Also, it should be noted that Joshua is an alternate translation of Jesus (Yeshu / Yeshua). Should children no longer be named Joshua?

 

I don't see any problem with this, especially since there were people who had these names before, during, and after the lives of Jesus and Muhammad

 

Christians (and Jews) name their children after prophets quite regularly. I don't see how Mohammed is any different.

 

ALso Jesus is also known as Eazer ( Pronounce Ez-ah) in Islam and yes there are Muslim who have named their sons as such.

I think one of the prince in Saudi Arabia is name Eazer.

 

As Raven touched upon, Jesus' name, in actuality, is Joshua in English. ("Y'Hoshua" in Hebrew.) "Jesus" came from a translation of a Greek name for Him that was never actually given Him.

In any case, I see nothing wrong with it. Although He was God, He was also man, and thus, it wouldn't really be improper, I would think.

 

IIRC, Jesus (or whatever the origianl translation was) was a fairly common name during Christ's time anyway. No reason to stomp on that.

Muhummad is such a common Muslim name that if people were getting perky about it, you think they'd be hollerin' somethin' fierce by now.

 

Parents are allowed to name their kids anything they want, hence we are honored with the presence of Dweezil and Moonunit Zappa. I see no problem with naming a child Jesus or Muhammad.

 

I agree with those who say Jesus wasn't even the man's name.
However, the people, as far as we can tell, think it is, so the implication is the same.
However, there were Yeshuas in the Bible before the big Yeshua and it never said anywhere (I believe) that no one else could take the name as it wouldn't specifically make them that particular person.
With that in mind, I've met:
Muhammads
Moseses (Mosesee, Mosesi?)
Jacobs
Abrahams
Adams
Eves
Josephs
Isaacs
Davids
Joshuas
Rachels
Sarahs (Saras too)
Peters
Pauls
Phillips
Marks
Bartholemeus (or however you speel it)
Thomases
Johns
Matthews
Simons
Marys (I'm sure some of them have been virgins, but I've yet to meet a surname of Magdalene, Magdala, etc)
and finally, Jesuses.

Not suprisingly, I've never met a Judas (in name anyway, let's not get into actions). But there is Jude Law. Jude can be seen as an offshoot of Judah like Judas is, so they are in effect, the same. Frankly, I like the name Judas as it has a nice ring to it and if it wouldn't cause him a world of grief (disreguarding the fact that another apostle was first-named Judas), I'd name my kid Judas.
With that in mind, I've also not yet met a Yaweh or God.

 

That Wascally Droid, it's good you haven't met a person named Yahweh or an Allah or a God. Now that would be drawing the lines.

 

Come on, people, naming your kid God or Allah is no different than naming him Obi-Wan or Anakin. Except "God" isn't trademarked (at least that I know of).

 

It's the same if you consider Obi-Wan or Anakin religeous figures (which hopefully nobody does).
But in the terms of a follower of something not thinking straight and being overzealous, then I could see that.
It's a shame though, cause I think Anakin is a very nice name actually Fictional, but sounds like it's from here. Harkens back to Atticus from 'How to Kill a Mockingbird'.
Other nice-sounding SW names include:

Padme
Cliegg
Beru
Jaina
Mara
Antilles for a middle name... (I'm not including the earth-based names)

Back to Holy names - I think if they sound nice, they should be used. Course, I can't imagine too many people in english-speaking countries thinking Yoweh sounds nice. Too much like 'yowee!'
Then, 'Jesus' is too ingrained in culture for most people to want to use it. That's why no one blinks when someone names their kid Joshua - the more correct english translation of His name. It's Jesus that carries the weight, not Joshua.

-Please note, I mostly use Christian examples, as that's the religeon I know the most about. If I knew enough about, say, Islam, I'd pull examples from there too.-

 

ALso Jesus is also known as Eazer ( Pronounce Ez-ah) in Islam and yes there are Muslim who have named their sons as such.
A more modern spelling of it is "Isa" (pronounced Ee-sah)

If I knew enough about, say, Islam, I'd pull examples from there too.

here are some Muslim names that have Biblical equivalents (this is by no means a complete listing):
Musa -- Moses
Yaqub -- Jacob
Ibrahim -- Abraham
Aadam -- Adam
Hawa' -- Eve
Yusuf -- Joseph
Ishaq -- Isaac
Ismael -- Ishmael
Dawood -- David
Isa -- Jesus
Sarah -- Sara
Yunus -- Jonas
Maryam -- Mary
Nuh -- Noah
Lut -- Lot
Ayub -- Job
Zakariyyah -- Zachary (sp?)
Dhul-Kifli -- Ezekiel

 

Is it right to do this? If they believe that they are important to the well being of their lives, why name their children after them if these names are uber-holy and prophetic?

These names should be forbidden.

Both Jesus and Muhammad were common names before they came onto the scene. Does this mean we have to ban all variations of them, too? So no more John's or...well, I dont' know what Mohammad could be a variation of, but you get the point.

 

You know, the actual Hebrew name for Jesus is Joshua. I know quite a few people named Josh.

 

It's the same if you consider Obi-Wan or Anakin religeous figures (which hopefully nobody does).

Well...take a gander at this:

www.jediism.org

 

Come on, people, naming your kid God or Allah is no different than naming him Obi-Wan or Anakin.

But the reaction a person would get for having such a name wouldn't be the same. If someone's kid is named Anakin, their peers might have some laughs over how nerdy the parents are, but that would be it. But if someone were named God, or Lucifer or Satan or Beelzebub or....

Incidentally, I find it curious that kids can be named after archangels (Michael, Gabriel), who I think sort of come across as minor divinities or at least very powerful figures in the earlier parts of the Old Testament.

 

Well, Yiddish equivalent for Moses is Moshe, and Abraham as Avraham, I think.

 

"Abraham" is "Avram" for Jews, I'm pretty sure

 

What's wrong with naming your kids after fictional characters?

The author of Peter Pan created the name Wendy and after his book came out people started naming their daughter's Wendy. No one thought that was wrong.




I think you got the right to name your child anything you want. Just cuz some religious figure took the name first doesn't mean it's off limits.

 

As long as they don't name their kid F-head or Smelly, I think it's ok.