Names differ greatly in respect to their meanings and implications, and also in respect to their usage.
There are certain names which we encounter and deal with everyday which are used quite randomly. There may be no correlation between the name of an object and the object itself, as is the case with numerous names, titles and attributes.
For example, when someone is named 'Khaz'al' or 'Ja'far', the actual relation between this name and the person has not been taken into consideration. Khaz'al in Arabic originally meant the hyena, and the word Ja'far meant river. There is, as a matter of fact, no actual correlation between people and the nature of a hyena or river; yet they are used occasionally for naming male children. This is a haphazard naming, a nullifying of the relationship between name and subject.
In other instances, a name is strictly chosen to suit the subject and to truthfully represent it.
For example, the name chosen by the Qur'an to represent the teachings of the Seal of the Prophets, Muhammad (s.a.w.). is 'Islam' - that is, absolute submission and servitude to Allah alone.
The Qur'an due to its unrivalled eloquence, chaste language, deep expression and perfect combination of words, meanings and syntax, carefully chose the name 'Islam' as a truthful expression of the message revealed to Muhammad (s.a.w.). Consequently, this Qur'anic selection is exact and general, maintaining harmony between the manifestations of the teachings and the teachings themselves.
This connection between the teachings and their contexts and aims can well be uncovered by first resorting to the lexicons, from which we come to know that the word 'Islam' means submission and surrender. Then, moving from the lexical terminology, we should carefully study the ideology, legislation and direction of the teachings. We are then apt to recognize that the whole religious structure, in its complete unity, aims at submission and surrender to the Lord of the worlds, and freedom from any type of submission or surrender to human tyrants and illusionary legends.
Thus we recognize the correlation between the name 'Islam', and the manifestations of the faith itself. The Qur'an, as revealed by Allah through His Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.), has transformed this word, this name, from its mere linguistic form to the foundation of a faith and way of life.
There is a complete and exact accord between the term 'Islam' and its hidden ideological and legislative truths. This religion, this faith, is called 'Islam' because it is a submission or surrender to the Lord of the worlds, and is also a way towards the freedom and salvation of mankind.
"Those who follow the Apostle-Prophet the 'Ummi' (one who neither reads nor writes), whom they find ordained for them in the Torah and the Gospel, (who) enjoins them good and forbids them evil, and makes lawful for them all good things and prohibits fur them the foul; and removes from them their burden and the fetters (spiritual and social) which were upon them; so (as for) those who believe in him, honour him, help him and follow the light which has been sent down with him, these it is that are the successful."
Sura A'raf (7:157)