"What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name.".

The recent incident of a priest in the Syriac Orthodox church encouraging two parents not to baptize their new born child with an ancient Assyrian name can either be interpreted as an isolated phenomenon, or, which I will stress here, a form of religious conservatism positioning itself against modernism. In order to do demonstrate my thesis, I will first start with describing the role of religion in the Swedish societal context and the practice of religiosity among Assyrians, continuing with the process of modernisation, and end with how religious conservatism reacts to modernisation through specific strategies.