Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon the son of John; you will be called Kephas" (which is translated Peter).
"You are Simon the son of John; you will be called Kephas" (which is translated Peter)... This, then, is the name Christ gives to Simon. As for James and his brother, these He called "sons of thunder." (Mark 3:17). Why do such a thing? To show that it was he, Jesus, who gave the old covenant, that it was he who altered names, who called Abram "Abraham," and Sarai "Sarah," and Jacob "Israel," (Gn 17:5ff.; 32:29). To many he assigned names even from their birth, as he did for Isaac and Samson, and to Isaiah and Hosea’s children (Is 8,3; Hos 1:4,6,9)…
Now we all have one name, which is greater than any, that of being called "Christians", the name that makes us “sons of God,” "friends of God" and one “Body” with him. For the very term itself is more able than any one of those others to rouse us and make us more zealous for the practice of virtue. Let us not, then, act unworthily of the honor belonging to so great and beautiful a title, we who are called Christ's… For if someone who is said to be descended from some famous general, or who is otherwise distinguished, is proud to be called this or that man's son, and deems the name a great honor, and strives in every way not to bring reproach to him after whom he is called, shall not we, who are not called after the name of a general nor of any earthly prince, nor of an Angel nor Archangel nor Seraphim, but of the King Himself of all of them: shall we not freely give even our very lives so as not to insult him who has thus honored us?