Naming baby

My friend Pamela Satran has a delightful blog called Nameberry which is a treasure trove about peoples’ first names, in American culture. As illustrated below, it would be of limited use elsewhere.

When my children were born, their father didn’t want any of the usual names and, since he was Australian, went searching in an aboriginal dictionary for inspiration.  My son’s name is a variation on an aboriginal word for “fire” and my daughter’s name means “traveler.” You can make up a child’s name in America (the kids were born in America – it would be interesting to know what they thought in Australia) without being considered strange.

People in Iceland  don’t have the same free-wheeling attitude. Here’s the Icelandic point of view, as expressed in a recent news release:

A 15-year-old Icelandic girl has won the right to use the name given her by her mother, after a court battle against the authorities.

Blaer Bjarkardottir will now be able to use her first name, which means “light breeze”, officially.

Icelandic authorities had objected, saying it was not a proper feminine name.

The country has very strict laws on names which must fit Icelandic grammar and pronunciation rules”.

My former Chinese students tried to instruct me regarding Chinese first names, which come last.  The first name, linearly, is the family name. Wang Zixiang’s “first name” is Zixiang. His family name is Wang.  His sister (if Chinese children had sisters) might be named Wang Xiaobin.

This was just the beginning of their attempts to explain their names to me. Each family names their child for a hope they have for it; like “learned scholar” or “much gold.”  Chinese words are made up of many layers, and name words are no exception. Without further study of Chinese, I cannot claim to understand the interaction of the layers.

The North Koreans obviously have some variation on the same protocols, because the recent grandfather-son-grandson trio of rulers have been named Kim Il-Sung, Kim Jong-il, and Kim Jung-un, with the family name coming first.

I ran across men named Lovemore and Givemore in Zimbabwe, and the name of the president of one African country is Goodluck. Givemore hinted that his name came from “Christianity.”  These are names in English, but there are no English prime ministers or American presidents named “Givemore.”

Once again, we see how language is arbitrary, reflecting customs and beliefs of various cultures. The Icelanders feel strongly enough about their cultural choices to have a court case over a girl’s name.


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