Recitation of God's glory eradicates evil in us and gives us an option to be One with the Divine. In Sanskrit, 'Sahastra' means 'a thousand' and 'nama' means 'name'. So 'Sahastranam'  may be translated as 'having thousand names'. This way all the names in the Sahastranam are chanted to make up 1008 names prostrations to the deity.

There are also other smaller stotras, called "Ashtottar Shat Nama" stotras, which have only 108 names. Recital of these names counted on the beads of 108-beaded Mala, is considered sacred and often done during religious ceremonies.