Shiva was originally known as Rudra, a minor deity addressed only three times in the Rig Veda.

♥- " Shiva was originally known as Rudra, a minor deity addressed only three times in the Rig Veda. He gained importance after absorbing some of the characteristics of an earlier fertility God and became Shiva, part of the trinity, or trimurti, with Vishnu and Brahma."-♥
♥-" Shiva wears a snake coiled around his upper arms and neck symbolizing the power he has over the most deadly of creatures. Snakes are also used to symbolize the Hindu dogma of reincarnation. Their natural process of molting or shedding their skin is symbolic of the human soul's transmigration of bodies from one life to another". -♥