Born David A. Hoover on January 10, 1960 in Bowling Green, Ohio. However, I legally changed my name to David Ben Ariel (with the help of a Jewish attorney) during the spring of 1989. It cost me $300.00.
She also asks me to place a small ad in a newspaper announcing my intention 30 days in advance. I placed my ad in Bowling Green Sentinel.
I also had to appear before a judge (it depends on the county in which I was born) to privately question my motives. My attorney asserted that I was not running away from the law or trying to escape some outstanding debt, but that my reasons were religious in nature. The judge agreed, but wanted to convince me that I might have a “trouble” with that name in America, without going into details. I felt he meant it because she was Jewish and/or it might be hard for some to figure out how to pronounce it. I told him I wasn’t worried about it because I planned to move to Israel anyway.
The reasons for changing my name were religious in nature. why? Because I honestly feel that Ben Ariel is a name from God. And why do I feel this way? Because after a Hebrew class where my teacher mentioned how many people change their names when they move to Israel, I came home wondering what surname I would get in Israel, knowing that my first name is already Hebrew.
I have always loved my cousin’s Hebrew last name, after reading it in Leon Oris’ book displacement Since it means “son of my people,” but while I was thinking about it and wondering what name my father would have given me, if he would give me a Hebrew name, I didn’t know. Then I knelt down to pray and asked God what name, if any, he would give me because he is my Heavenly Father, and I could not ask my father because he died when I was twelve years old.
I was expecting that maybe God would lead me, guide me, or influence me to like a certain name, but Ariel immediately popped up in my mind and I immediately rejected him. why? Because it means “the lion of God” and I felt that this name belonged only to Jesus Christ, the lion of the tribe of Judah. While I was wondering about Ariel’s name, I remembered that the Israeli defense minister is Ariel Sharon (whom I have since met in Jerusalem and Hebron). I reluctantly decided to keep the name back up (because I really liked it!) until God or circumstances would lead me to another acceptance, and I went to bed.
The Bible mentions many incidents where God chose to change a person’s name or name before he was born. It’s unusual but not unscriptural. There was Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac (Genesis 17:5, 15, 19); Ishmael (Genesis 16:11); Solomon (1 Chronicles 22:9) and Solomon’s new title Jedidiah (2 Sam. 12:25); Cyrus (Isaiah 44:28; 45:4); John the Baptist (Luke 13:1); Jesus (Matthew 1:21); Peter and the brothers James and John, whom Jesus called “sons of thunder” (Mark 3:16-17); For example but not limited to.
God promises to give us a new and unique name in the kingdom, either in place of or in addition to our current name (Revelation 2:17), as well as sharing Jesus’ new name and bearing the father’s name as priest-kings (Revelation 3:12, 14; Exodus 28:36; Leviticus 8:9). God has many names or titles, describing his wonderful attributes and attributes (Isaiah 9:6). Even Jews know that God’s Hebrew name Elohim (literally the gods) is plural due to the fact that God is too great to be restricted to one name, and is used in the royal sense of “we”. That’s why the Elohim said “let’s…” We understand that the reason is also that there are two beings of God in the one kingdom of God, like Adam and Eve were two separate people sharing the title Adam as one family unit (Genesis 2:24; 5:2; John 10:30).
God has his reasons for changing someone’s name and who are we to question him? April 1980 issue of Good News Magazine (published by the Worldwide Church of God) He published an article called “History of the Church” that helps us understand why Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter: “…and gave him a prophetic title for the moral and spiritual strength he would eventually prove. Jesus gave him the new name, before he earned it he might be incentive for him to realize what Jesus expected.”
After I went to bed, and about to fall asleep, Isaiah 29:1 erred in my mind. Surprisingly, I did not memorize this Bible! Reveals that Ariel is the title of Jerusalem! I now understand why God the Father chose Ariel for me. Anyone who knows me knows Jerusalem is always on my mind (Jeremiah 51:50), especially after my first visit there to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) in 1980. God has shown me that he has aroused me and given me a burning desire for Jerusalem and Israel (Isaiah 62:1, 6-7). I finally realized that God was calling me ‘Son of Jerusalem’.
I got up from bed, got down on my knees with tears in my eyes, and thanked God for my true knowledge of us inside and out, just as His word says, and embraced the new name God gave me! I also accepted it as my spiritual goal: to live worthy of a person named after Holy Jerusalem and all that it represents perfectly.
I end my prayer facing Jerusalem every night with Jerusalem Shel Zahav (Jerusalem is gold), a plea for Jerusalem to fulfill its call (2 Chronicles 6:38-39; Dan. 6:10). Later, I began to understand how Ariel could also refer to Judas and King David. Since my family tree goes back to the British and Scottish royal families (the royal house of David), it is also appropriate that Ben Ariel can mean “son of David” and “son of Judah” (whose tribal emblem is the lion).
I am convinced that the God of the Bible, the God of Israel, and the God of my grandfather David have blessed me in the name of Ariel. Even if I chose Ariel myself—which I did not, I objected originally—there would be no harm in doing so because such a biblical practice: “One will say, I am Lord; Himself in the name of Israel” (Isaiah 44:5).
God called me Ariel in 1982, but it wasn’t until 1989 that I legally changed my name. I knew that although God had given me the name I didn’t necessarily have to change my name. I was also reluctant to do so because I am the only son and the only surviving Hoover males (whom I know) are my grandfather and I. I didn’t want the name to die, not because I’m married and have any sons anyway (although God assures his “eunuchs” that we will be given excellent and eternal names – Isa. 56:5). I began to see that Hoover might have been an Anglicanized form of German Hooper (because many immigrants changed their names upon arrival in America).
I also did not want to hurt my grandfather or offend me (Arthur Hoover of Resingson, Ohio) or perhaps be disinherited, but I decided that since I was about to seek citizenship in Israel, beginning a new chapter in our family history, I would take the lead And I change my name. My grandfather ended up dying about four months before the accident, unaware of what she had planned to do. So now I’m David Ben Ariel for years and my family and friends are used to it.
My God-given name was created before the God who mentions Jerusalem twice In it: the city of David and Ariel.