Parents name their children, a founder names her company, a craftsman names his product. All have the authority to name, and this authority is an expression of rule. The named doesn’t get to choose its own name. Likewise, Adam had a God-given delegated authority over the rest of creation, and with that authority came the extraordinary privilege to name what came before him – extraordinary in the sense that the Maker delegated his own right to name his creation to mankind. Only one creature was named by God – Adam himself – a mark of his own submission to his Maker.

Done rightly, naming bestows value, dignity, and an identity on what is named.