The idea that every thing has naturally received its correct name has been a prerequisite for understanding language since Plato, based on a naturally motivated and immediate relationship between name and thing. Such a theory of names implies that the name is already present in the thing and only needs to be found and extracted. In contrast, religiously motivated concepts of naming seem to aim in a somewhat different direction. Here, it is more the name that shapes or even brings forth the thing, person, or entity. Mythopoetic and religious naming concepts play a prominent role in modern philosophy of language and literature, despite the fact that these concepts stand in clear contradiction to those language theories that are based on the conventionality and arbitrariness of the sign.