Dr. Leon Kass is the chair of the President’s Council on Bioethics, Addie Clark Harding Professor in the College and the Committee on Social Thought, The University of Chicago, and a conservative Jew. His wife, Amy, is Lecturer in the Humanities Collegiate Division at the University of Chicago.

In an essay first published 12 years ago in First Things (First Things 57 (November 1995): 14-25), the Kass’s ask,

What, then, is the case with our proper names, our personal names, the names we carry throughout our lives? Are they merely arbitrary and conventional handles that serve simply to designate and uniquely pick us out of a crowd? Or do our names, like those given by God, have power to shape our lives? Which passions do and should govern acts of naming: when we name, do we express desires for ourselves (ishah - woman) or hopes for the future of others (Chavah - Eve)? Is it a matter of substantial indifference what we are called, what we call ourselves, or what we call others?

I commend the full essay to you: What’s Your Name?