To name something is a tremendously powerful act. It’s one of the first great privileges extended to Adam in the second chapter of the Book of Genesis. The act of naming a child is so often surrounded by such great religious ceremony that atheist and humanist groups have co-opted the ceremonial instinct. Similarly, one of the most meaningful moments in Deaf culture is for a person to receive a name sign all their own.
■ To bestow a name is an act of power. To try to change a name is an attempt to exercise power, as well. Sometimes it’s an act of aggression (as when a bully coins an unflattering nickname for a victim). Other times, it merely looks pathetic (as when someone tries a little too hard to self-apply a nickname).
■ To give, adopt, or change a name is always an act of power -- one that can be used with love and respect or with hostility and malice. Names are so sacred to individuals that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child says explicitly that every child “shall have the right from birth to a name”.
■ Google and Apple have capitulated to a preposterous attempt to change the name of a lake that has been in place for hundreds of years longer than the United States has been a country. Microsoft and Mapquest have not.
■ Those who have participated in this attempted act of maritime unpersoning will have to apologize, sooner or later. What has always been the name will always remain the name, and it’s morally treacherous to pretend otherwise.