Genesis 2 indicates the principle of headship and submission still further by the fact that God entrusted man with naming not only the animals (Gen 2:19-20), but also the woman herself, both before and after the Fall (Gen 2:23; 3:20). In the Bible, name-giving often indicates authority. God exercises this prerogative by naming things He created and by later giving new names to such people as Abraham and Jacob (Gen 17:5; 35:10).

Giving a name is more than labeling. It is, as Gerhard von Rad puts it, "an act of appropriate ordering, by which man intellectually objectifies the creatures for himself."¹⁸ God entrusted man with the responsibility of naming the animals to help him comprehend their characteristics and the environment surrounding him. Naming expressed an assessment of each creature’s character (Gen 2:19).

"God was not waiting to see what sounds Adam would associate with each animal," James Hurley observes. "The prerogative of assigning them names reflects control. He was allowing his vicegerent to express his understanding of and to exercise his rule over the animals by assigning them names. Adam does so, and demonstrates his control: ‘whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name’ (Gen 2:19)"¹⁹ In naming the animals Adam fulfills part of his commission to subdue the earth (Gen 2:18), which consists not only in transforming it physically, but also in comprehending it intellectually. It is significant that Adam, not Eve, is entrusted with naming the animal kingdom. This was to enable man not only to comprehend his environment, but to lead him to realize his need for a "helper fit for him" (Gen 2:18).

When Adam discovered that there was no animal suitable to be his companion, God proceeded to fashion a woman from his own body. In his reaction to the creation of woman, Adam revealed not only his joyful astonishment but also his intellectual understanding of the nature of male and female:

"This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man" (Gen. 2:23).

Note that God does not introduce the woman to man, nor does she introduce herself. Adam himself grasps the new situation. In designating her "Woman" Adam defines her identity in relationship to himself. He interprets her as feminine, unlike himself and yet his counterpart. He sees her as part of his own flesh. He defines the woman not only for his own understanding of her but also for her self-understanding. Adam’s defining of the woman is in keeping with the headship responsibility God entrusted to him.

"Adam’s sovereign act [of naming the woman] not only arose out of his own sense of headship, it also made his headship clear to Eve. She found her own identity in relation to the man as his equal and helper by the man’s definition. Both Adam and Eve understood the paradox of their relationship [equal and yet different] from the start."²⁰ Adam’s responsibility to serve as God’s subordinate ruler continues after the Fall. In Genesis 3:20, Adam assigns the woman a new name which reflects God’s promise that, despite their transgression, the woman would bring forth children to continue the race (Gen 3:15-16). "The man called his wife’s name Eve [Hawwah, life-giving], because she was the mother of all living" (Gen 3:20).

There is no indication that Adam’s assigning of a personal name to the woman after the Fall was any different from what he did originally in giving her a class name after her creation. In both instances the man exercised his headship responsibilities. By the first name, "woman–’ishshah," Adam defined the woman’s nature as "taken out of man" (Gen 2:23); by the second name "Eve–Hawwah," Adam defined her function as "the mother of the living" (Gen 3:20). Both naming acts were in keeping with Adam’s headship responsibilities.

The Author’s Interpretation. Rejecting this interpretation, our author argues that although "assigning names in Scripture often does signify authority over the one named, . . . such is not the case in Genesis 2:23."²¹ The first reason he gives is that "the word ‘woman’ (’ishshah) is not a personal name but a generic identification. This is verified in verse 24, which indicates that a man is to cleave to his ’ishshah (‘wife’) and further substantiated in Genesis 3:20, which explicitly records man’s naming of Eve only after the Fall."²²

This argument has three major problems. First, while indeed the word "woman" is not a personal name but a "generic identification," this does not diminish the responsible role of Adam in giving her a class name. Such a name was designed to define who she was in relationship to himself at the moment of her creation. By giving Eve a class name Adam fulfilled the role assigned him by God to name all the living creatures according to their characteristics. We do not know what language was spoken in Eden. In Hebrew the name for woman, ’ishshah, sounds very much like the name for man, ’ish. A pun of sorts may have been intended.

The reason given for assigning Eve such a class name is "because she was taken out of man" (Gen 2:23). This explanation suggests that Adam called Eve ’ishshah, woman, because he realized that she was indeed his own kind, from his own body.

Second, while Genesis 2:24 "indicates that a man is to cleave to his ’ishshah (‘wife’)," this does not minimize the headship role of man. The function of this text is to affirm man’s responsibility to form a committed marital relationship. This commitment involves leaving father and mother and cleaving to his wife. In both instances it is man who is called upon to take the initiative and responsibility to form a committed marital union. The use of the "generic" class name ’ishshah (wife/woman), rather than a personal name, reflects the general principle stated in the text that man is to cleave to his wife.

Lastly, Adam’s assigning the personal name "Eve" to his wife after the Fall (Gen 3:20) only serves to reconfirm his headship role. After Eve’s creation, Adam gave her a class name to define her identity in relationship to himself. After the Fall, Adam gave her the personal name "Eve" to define her role as "the mother of the living" (Gen 3:20). In both instances Adam acts in keeping with his headship responsibilities by defining the woman’s nature and function.

The second reason the author gives for rejecting any headship role in man’s naming of the woman in Genesis 2:23 is his claim that this text "contains a pairing of ‘divine passives,’ indicating that the designation of ‘woman’ comes from God, not man. Just as woman ‘was taken out of man’ by God, with which man had nothing to do, so she ‘shall be called woman,’ a designation originating in God and not man."²³

Assuming for the sake of argument that the designation of "woman" originates from God and not from man, does this negate the headship role of man? Hardly so! Why? Because Adam would then be using a term coined by God Himself to define the woman’s derivation from himself. In this case, Adam exercised his authority by using a divinely coined term to define the woman’s relationship to himself. However one looks at it, Adam is involved in naming Eve before and after the Fall, simply because this is part of his God-assigned headship role.