A name is powerful. Think of how heartened you are when someone uses a complimentary name for you. Or how devastated you’ve been when someone called you a name to make fun of you or insult you.

Biblical names—not nicknames—carried great meaning and often described a person’s character traits. From the very first people, Adam and Eve, and then all through the Old and New Testaments, we read of people in the Bible whose names coincided with who they were.

At His birth Jesus’ name carried the weight of meaning for who He was and would be—Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. This child came to rule and reign forever. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph, announcing to him that Mary would conceive and bear a son, Joseph was told to name the child Jesus, “for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).

God gave His Son the “name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow … and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:9-11).