Do Transgender Name Changes Follow God’s Example?

A subset of Christians is intent on enlisting Scripture to justify transgender ideology. Their latest strategy is to point to the many instances where God changes people’s names. For example, God changes Abram to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah, and Jacob to Israel. The new names reflect a new identity, purpose, or relationship. In Abraham’s case, “Abram” means “exalted father,” but “Abraham” means “father of many nations,” which represented Abraham’s new status and covenant with God. God’s renaming of Jacob to Israel is particularly relevant for the transgender movement. Since “Israel” means “struggle with God,” transgender advocate and author Austen Hartke notes that the imagery “is incredibly familiar to transgender Christians who have spent a portion of their life grappling with their faith and their gender.” Many people who identify as transgender pick a new name for themselves as part of their social transitioning. From their perspective, it reflects their new identity. Typically, they choose a name that aligns with their “gender identity” or self-perception. Hartke writes, “When a transgender person changes their name, they often work within these same categories: either taking on a name that highlights something true and established about their personality and their connection to others, or embracing a name that shows the world how they’ve changed and who they aspire to be.” The Human Rights Campaign agrees with this sentiment. In their article “What Does the Bible Say About Transgender People?” the authors explain how God set up a pattern for others—especially for those who identify as transgender—to follow: “The Bible establishes a precedent that name changes can be either an uncovering of who God has always seen a person to be, or as the recognition of a new identity and a new beginning. These too are important principles at play for many transgender and non-binary people in being able to affirm their gender identities with themselves, with their communities and ultimately with God.” Since God gives new names, it’s inferred that we can give ourselves a new name as well. What’s the problem with that? First, it’s true that Scripture doesn’t prohibit name changes. I’m not troubled by the practice either. Why? Names are a matter of convention. They are neither inherent nor an essential part of a person. Rather, they’re arbitrary labels that function like a tag or pointer. While some parents choose a child’s name because it has meaning for them, it’s still just a name that could have been something else. Therefore, changing your name is permissible, even if it entails going from a very feminine sounding name like Sophia to a more unisex name like Taylor. Having said that, I’m opposed to changing one’s name to an obviously opposite-sex name for the purpose of signaling a transgender transition. That’s because that kind of a name change is part of an entire transition process outlined by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). According to WPATH’s most recent standards of care (SOC Version 8), people who identify as transgender can be (and often are) encouraged to transition according to a three-stage process: social, hormonal, and surgical. Changing your name is part of the first step of social transitioning. I can’t endorse a decision that partakes in the first transition step because it makes me complicit in the three-step process that can lead to self-harm through surgical alteration and/or amputation of healthy body tissue. Second, while it’s true that God changes people’s names, he never once gives a new name that is incongruent with the person’s biological sex. He never renames Abram to something like “Rebekah” or Sarai to something like “Isaac.” There is zero precedent for a cross-sex name. Every new biblical name marks a new role, character, or covenant while preserving the name’s connection to the person’s sex. Therefore, while name changes are permissible, there are still boundaries rooted in God’s created order. Third, this argument ignores the broader biblical teaching about sex and identity. Scripture teaches that our identity is not detached from our body. Our souls are embodied in a physical form that God declares “very good” (Gen. 1:31). Crossing sex-specific boundaries is always sin (e.g., Deut. 22:5 and 1 Cor. 6:9), so it’s hard to imagine God would condone changing to an opposite-sex name since that would contradict what he’s taught in Scripture. Attempting to enlist the Bible as an ally of transgender ideology isn’t going to work. The precedent God sets with name changes has nothing to do with the modern notion of “gender transition.” It’s anachronistic to attempt to impose the latest gender theory onto the ancient biblical text. Names are important, and name changes are certainly permissible, but there’s no precedent set by God for the kind of change that transgender advocates desire.