Principle 6
Names are frequently meant to give clues about their bearers’ personality or fate.
EXAMPLE (Gen. 30:23-4):
Biblical names often play off their sound to give the audience clues about what is to come. When Rahel (Rachel) gives birth to her firstborn son, the naming has multiple meanings:
She said:
God has removed/asaf
my reproach [of childlessness].
And she called his name: Yosef,
saying:
May YHWH add/yosef
another son to me.
Given that in his long and dramatic story, Yosef will be a son both removed and added, that is, lost and found by his family, the naming takes on added significance.