or can one be
found of Him;" and it is written: "What is His name, and what is the
name of His Son, if thou knowest?" (Prov. 30:4).

Obj. 2: Further, every name is either abstract or concrete. But
concrete names do not belong to God, since He is simple, nor do
abstract names belong to Him, forasmuch as they do not signify any
perfect subsisting thing. Therefore no name can be said of God.

Obj. 3: Further, nouns are taken to signify substance with quality;
verbs and participles signify substance with time; pronouns the same
with demonstration or relation. But none of these can be applied to
God, for He has no quality, nor accident, nor time; moreover, He
cannot be felt, so as to be pointed out; nor can He be described by
relation, inasmuch as relations serve to recall a thing mentioned
before by nouns, participles, or demonstrative pronouns. Therefore
God cannot in any way be named by us.

_On the contrary,_ It is written (Ex. 15:3): "The Lord is a man of war,
Almighty is His name."

_I answer that,_ Since according to the Philosopher (Peri Herm. i),
words are signs of ideas, and ideas the similitude of things, it is
evident that words relate to the meaning of things signified through
the medium of the intellectual conception. It follows therefore that
we can give a name to anything in as far as we can understand it. Now
it was shown above (Q. 12, AA. 11, 12) that in this life we cannot
see the essence of God; but we know God from creatures as their
principle, and also by way of excellence and remotion. In this way
therefore He can be named by us from creatures, yet not so that the
name which signifies Him expresses the divine essence in itself. Thus
the name "man" expresses the essence of man in himself, since it
signifies the definition of man by manifesting his essence; for the
idea expressed by the name is the definition.

Reply Obj. 1: The reason why God has no name, or is said to be
above being named, is because His essence is above all that we
understand about God, and signify in word.

Reply Obj. 2: Because we know and name God from creatures, the
names we attribute to God signify what belongs to material creatures,
of which the knowledge is natural to us. And because in creatures of
this kind what is perfect and subsistent is compound; whereas their
form is not a complete subsisting thing, but rather is that whereby a
thing is; hence it follows that all names used by us to signify a
complete subsisting