In patriarchal times personal names were considered to be of great importance. Conscious effort was made to assure identity between the name and its bearer. Often names would constitute a miniature biography of the bearer.
Names were also used as reminders of significant events, to connote character traits, to identify position, and in some instances to foreshadow the bearer’s destiny or that of his posterity. Thus names were used as memorials, as symbols, and as prophecies.
Among righteous people, names were used to identify and testify of great truths or great events, thus keeping such things constantly in the consciousness of the people.