to a man the opposite of what his name implies: someone in the direst straits may be called Yasār (ease), someone with no success Najīh (successful), and someone among the losers Rabāh (gain). This amounts to speaking falsely about him and about Allah. There is another consideration as well: people may expect someone to live up to his name, and when they find that he does not, they make this grounds for disparaging and insulting him, as has been said (1):

In their ignorance they named you Sadīd (upright);
By Allah, there is no uprightness in you.
Your very existence is corruption
In this world of existence and corruption. (2)

The poet thus used the name to disparage its bearer. Among my own verses are these:

I named him Sālih (righteous), yet he went
Among people as his name’s very opposite.
He thought his name would veil his traits,
Yet it became what laid them bare.

Similarly, some praise amounts to censure and causes the person praised to fall in people’s estimation. He is praised for qualities he does not possess, so people expect those qualities of him and suppose that he possesses them. When they find otherwise, the praise turns into censure. Had he been left without praise, this harm would not have befallen him. His situation resembles that of someone appointed to a high office (3) and then dismissed: his standing falls below what it was before his appointment, and people regard him less highly than they did before. On this, a poet said (4):

When you describe a man to another,
Do not exaggerate; be measured.