In biblical times, names actually meant something beyond just sounding nice. Often a child would be named in honor of an event that took place at the time of their birth or based for some sort of unique physical characteristic that the child possessed at birth. To that end, often times God would sovereignly change a person’s name well into adulthood either to reflect their new identities as believers or their new calling as His ambassadors. In the case of John the Baptist, he was named John, meaning "God is gracious." That name mattered because not only was it the chosen name that the angel Gabriel had commanded Zachariah to give to the child but because it also reflected God’s gracious salvation, in which John would figure prominently as the Messiah’s forerunner.