Great question. I'm really interested in how religion originated. People recognised sacred and profane, and were motivated to foster the sacred which was realised as positive and ordered in opposition to the profane which embodied the opposite effects.
Quote:God actually was actually given a 'proper' name - 'Jehovah' - by a particular group of semites, roughly 4,000 years ago. This name is written in the Bible and the Qur'an. 'Jehovah' is translated from the Hebrew Tetragrammaton, and is represented by four Hebrew letters; JHVH or YHWH.source : http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A472033
It is considered by some to be the greatest name of God because it can be considered his 'personal' name, his own self-designation. Unlike other names which are titles, like 'Doctor' or 'Mr', its meaning is, literally, 'he causes to become' or 'powerful or mighty one'. It is pronounced 'yahweh'.
