What's in a Name?

I don't have time to examine this right now, but someone recently made an interesting point to me. On Brachos 7b, Rabbi Elazar ben P'das expounds a verse saying that "shma garim", a person's name has an effect. The context to this statement is a prior statement by R' Yochanan, who expounds the name of Rus as a reference to her being the progenitor of David. On the other hand, it's brought down in the name of the Arizal that when parents name a child, they are imbued with Ruach HaKodesh. The gemara implies that one's name is a cause, while the Arizal, who I'm certain was aware of the gemara, implies that one's name is an effect.

I suppose that one way to reconcile these ideas would be to say that that parents are provided with Ruach HaKodesh to give their child a name that reflects the natural tendencies of their child, but once the name is given, it strengthens these natural tendencies and helps bring them to fruition in the form of actions.