Three Names

Midrash teaches:
We each have three names.

The first we learn is
What our parents call us.
We hope that they
Gave that name 
(which, 
even if we reject it,
we bear it)
Some thought.

The second, along the way,
We earn.  It is what
Others decide to call us.
It may be a name, or an honorific,
a nickname, a title, an allusion,
a compliment, a pejorative,
sometimes the epithet becomes
the epitaph.
It is how we are known, 
By how we have been.

The last, of course, is the 
True first, the real name,
The secret we hope to unfold,.
If we are diligent, 
Thoughtful, honest, and perhaps
With some luck, we might learn
The name bestowed
From Above.

On Yom Kippur,
I always hope at last
To learn that
True, but so far,
Secret name.
If I do, likely
I won’t tell you.
It’s between me
And the Infinitely Merciful One.

Especially on Yom Kippur.

It is taught: A man is called by three names; one that his father and his mother called him, one that others called him, and one that he is called in the book of his lineage. *The book that the Holy One blessed be He wrote, which spans the time from Creation until the culmination of all the generations. One’s name in that book expresses the purpose for which one was created (Midrash HaMevo’ar).

Kohelet Rabba 7:1