Your name is very important.

Your name on a suitcase in an airport or bus station can eliminate an argument. Call someone a name and you can start an argument, and maybe a fight. A name written in a book at a bookstore can increase its value, if it's the autograph of the author. Sign a contract and it's your name that makes it legal. Your name is the sign of possession, of power, a part of you that signifies your character and identity, even when you are absent.

A name packs meaning like a suitcase. The outside of a suitcase is not really so important. It's what's inside that counts.

We should guard our names like prized possessions -- we don't want any harm to come to a name we hand down like a trust from parents to children.

As Logan Pearsall Smith said, "Our names are labels, plainl…