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I noticed a lot of times in the TaNaKh, how children were given specific names for a specific reason.

Take Binyamin for example, his original name at birth was "Benoni" (son of my sorrow) but his father changed it to "son of my right hand".

In fact, each of the Shevatim had their names given for specific reasons.

My question is this: Do children's names (and their meanings) INFLUENCE their character ? Or does the way the child lives REVEAL their name? Rather than getting the name of an aunt or uncle for example.

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BenKCohen
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    Hello BenKCohen. Welcome to Mi Yodeya! We hope you'll stick around to contribute to and enjoy the site! Just so you know, this question will likely be closed soon (it might not happen until after Shabbat is over in the United States and more people are checking out the site) because we generally do not accept opinion or open-ended questions. I hope you'll check out the How To Ask page to find out how to properly form a question on this site so that you can continue to contribute here in the future! – Daniel Jul 05 '14 at 19:06
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    See the comment that I posted on that answer. In general, it is always best if you can give an answer with a source. Sometimes an answer with a little bit of original research is OK, but you should be basing it on something that is recorded somewhere. This website is anonymous. We don't know who you are, so we have no reason to trust you (or anybody else here) unless they site their sources. – Daniel Jul 05 '14 at 19:20
  • Also, just so you know, if you want to address another user with a comment, start your comment with an @ sign followed by that user's name. That way, they will get a notification that you are writing to them. The reason I am not doing that for you is because we are commenting on your question, so you receive a notification even if I do not type @BenKCohen – Daniel Jul 05 '14 at 19:22
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    Except for the last paragraph, this is decent question. Also, the Talmud addresses this in Brachos 7a. See here for some more information: http://download.yutorah.org/2009/1109/735718.pdf – Menachem Jul 06 '14 at 01:47
  • @BenKCohen The name in Hebrew is Dani-Yel actually, not Dani-El. Note the dagesh in the Yod. – Double AA Jul 06 '14 at 02:06
  • "does the way the child lives REVEAL their name": I don't understand this. Do you mean "does the way the child lives reveal the true meaning of what his name has been all along (e.g., Benjamin's life revealed that his name meant 'son of my right hand' whereas had he lived differently it would have revealed that his name meant 'son of days')"? – msh210 Jul 06 '14 at 04:36
  • @Menachem and Yoma 83b – ertert3terte Jul 06 '14 at 04:55

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