This is so because our name is identified with us and to use it touches us. When someone uses our name it relates us in some way, even if only in passing, to that person. When we use our full name, our Christian name and our family name, we are all the more conscious of its relational nature. Our Christian name identifies each of us individually. Our family name fits us into a bigger picture our relationship to other human beings, our family.
Names can also identify wider relationships.
Sometimes the name is linked to an office that we substitute for the person. People speak of the president. The office substitutes in a way for the name of the person in office, because it is the office and the responsibilities attached to it that take precedence over the individual and his or her particular personality. In the courtroom we address the judge as Your honor. The same is true within the Church.