Question:
When choosing a name for a baby, what factors does this depend on (excluding a situation where the parents are naming the baby after a grandparent)?Answer:
It is not an issue that is decided based on logical factors, but [a decision that should come] from a deep, quiet place in oneself.
In the external [practical] sense, it should be a name of a tzaddik (righteous person) in the Torah. A person would have to be on a very high spiritual level to invent a new, original name [which isn’t in the Torah] because a new name would require one to originate a new spiritual illumination. The earlier generations were able to give new names [that weren’t mentioned in the Torah], because they were on the level of originating new spiritual illumination. [The Hebrew word for “name” is shem], and a name that isn’t true [for the baby’s soul] is in the category of “shemamah”, “desolate”, corresponding to the spiritual netherworld of nothingness (tohu), which was the state of the world when it was desolate [before Creation]. In contrast, a spiritually repaired name fills the void of this desolation.
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