Genesis 32-36: What's in a Name?

To understand Jacob's name, you have to see him at the moment of birth.  His twin brother Esau is born, and like a drowning man, Jacob is immediately pulled from his mother's womb clinging as hard as he can to his brother's heel.  So he was given the name Jacob which means "he grasps the heel" or figuratively, "he deceives."  And up to this point, that is what Jacob's life has been, one of deceit, with Jacob being both the exploiter and the recipient.

But now, now that he has become wealthy, and is surrounded by wives, children and possessions, the results of everything gained by deceit no longer satisfy.  He longs to go home, to the place he left in haste because he stole his brother's birthright and blessing.  All of a sudden, relationships have become more important to him than anything else, and he has put possessions first for so long, he doesn't know any other way to gain his brothers trust except by possessions.  So he sends an offering; a major portion of his cattle ahead to his brother Esau.  He craftily sends the cattle in groups, so that if Esau decides to destroy the first offering of appeasement, or the second, he may soften his heart towards Jacob by the time he gets through all of the peace offering to where Jacob and his family are following behind.
 
As a last desperate act, Jacob sends his wives, children and all of his possessions across the ford of the Jabbok and remains on the other side totally alone.  As dark falls and he is all by himself, a man appears and wrestles with him all night long.  It is not his brother Esau whom he feared, it was a stranger.  Jacob put up a tough fight and the man had to wrench Jaacob's hip in order to get the best of him. Finally at daybreak, the stranger tries to leave and the following conversation takes place:

And He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.”But he said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!”
So He said to him, “What is your name?”
He said, “Jacob.”
And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.”
Then Jacob asked, saying, “Tell me Your name, I pray.”
And He said, “Why is it that you ask about My name?" And He blessed him there.- Gen 32:26-29 NKJV

The important thing was not the Lord's name, but the change of name for Jacob.  He went from being "one who grasps" to "one who struggles with God."  It's all in what you try to grab hold of.