Meaningful Rename / Myths & Religion

• The Bible:
  • Abram becomes Abraham ("Father of many nations") and his wife Sarai becomes Sarah ("princess"). Jacob takes the name Israel ("struggles with God") after wrestling with the angel. Hosea becomes Joshua by adding a letter from God's name (the "yod") to his name. Also in the Bible, Jesus renames Simon to Peter, in Aramaic "Kephas" (Rock). (There are a lot of other renamings that qualify more as Some Call Me "Tim"—e.g. Greek- and Latin-speakers couldn't pronounce the "sh" sound, so Saul of Tarsus—"Sha'ul" in Hebrew—was known as "Paul" to the wider world.)
  • Satan the Devil is a rename, Satan meaning "resister" and Devil meaning "slanderer". His previous name is not in the Bible. There's a Biblical verse about the fall of the Morning-Star (which is directly speaking about a Babylonian king) that many take to be obliquely speaking about Satan; because of this, "Lucifer" ("light-bearer", the Latin name for the morning star) is often used as a name for Satan before his fall (as, for example, in The Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost).
  • When Joseph, son of Jacob, becomes the Pharoah's right-hand man after interpreting his dreams, the Pharoah names him Zaphnath-Paaneah ("he who reveals mysteries").
  • In the Book of Jeremiah, a priest named Pash-Hur gets annoyed by Jeremiah's prophesying and throws him in jail for the night. The next day he lets Jeremiah out, and Jeremiah informs him that God has changed his name to "Magor-Missaviv," which means "terror all around," because he will watch all his friends die in the invasion of Judah before being dragged off to Babylon for the rest of his life.
  • Subverted by Naomi in The Book of Ruth. Near the beginning of the book, she tells Ruth not to call her "Naomi"(pleasant) but "Mara" (bitter) due to the misfortunes she's suffered. However, the narrative continues to refer to her as "Naomi".
  • The three friends of Daniel (Hananiah, Misail, and Azarya) had names that all referred to God in some way. In Babylon they are renamed Sadrach, Mesach, and Abednego, names containing references to Babylonian gods. (Except for 'Mesach', which means something around the lines of 'useless') Eventually Daniel gets the same treatment, being renamed to Belteshazzar. Odds are that their capturers wanted them to forget their God.
• Celtic Mythology:
  • Setanta killed Culann's guard dog in self-defense when the dog attacked him. Culann was devastated by the loss of his dog, so Setanta volunteered to become his new servant and guard. Setanta renamed himself Cu Chulainn (The Hound of Culann).
  • Queen Medb really wanted King Conchobar dead. A Druid told her that her son Maine would eventually kill Conchobar. She had seven sons, but none of them were named Maine, so she renamed all of them, just to be sure. Fedlimid became Maine Athramail ("like his father"), Cairbre became Maine Máthramail ("like his mother"), Eochaid became Maine Andoe ("the swift") and was also known as Cich-Maine Andoe or Cichmuine, Fergus became Maine Taí ("the silent"), Cet became Maine Mórgor ("of great duty"), Sin became Maine Mílscothach ("honey-speech"), and Dáire became Maine Móepirt ("beyond description"). Maine Andoe ended up killing a completely different Conchobar.
• Classical Mythology:
  • In some versions of the story where Artemis and Apollo killed the 14 children of Niobe as revenge for her making a Blasphemous Boast, either one daughter, Meliboea, was spared, or her and her brother, Amyclas, were spared. Either way, Meliboea was so traumatized that she permanently turned pale, causing her to change her name to Chloris, which means "Pale one".
  • Heracles was originally named Alcides by his mother Alcmene and foster father Amphitryon. His parents later changed his name to Heracles, which means "Glory to Hera", in an attempt to appease Hera, who hated him for being Zeus' son, which didn't work.
  • When Heracles was at war with King Laomedon, he captured Laomedon's son Podarces. Laomedon's daughter Hesione bought his freedom with her golden veil. Podarces changed his name to Priam, which means "to buy".
• In Japanese Mythology, the sword Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi (or "Sword of the gathering clouds of heaven") was used by a prince to escape a fire. He first tried to cut away the grass surrounding him to starve the flames of fuel but noticed that with every stroke, the wind changed to match the direction of his cuts. He used this magic to make a larger fire and blow it back towards his pursuers and then renamed the sword Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, the Grass Cutting Sword.
• Norse Mythology: In Ragnar Lodbrok and His Sons, Aslaug, the orphaned daughter of Sigurd and Brynhildr, was adopted by the couple Áke and Grima, who renamed her Kráka ("Crow").