Day One Hundred & Thirty One - What's In A Name?

I have always had a fascination with the meaning of a name. A name says a lot about a person. A name has an effect on the development of a person’s mind and personality. I don’t think this effect is normally a conscious thing, but sometimes it can be noticeable.

I obviously have not ever had to name a child, but I have though about how hard it would be. A name is so important. I once had a friend tell me a story of when she was travelling in Southeast Asia and she inadvertently named a baby ‘Baby’. She felt horrible thinking about this child somewhere half way across the world growing up being called Baby because some white lady came and awed the community enough to have her mother ask this lady to name her baby. If my friend had understood what was going on she would have given the child a legitimate name, not Baby.

All over the world the birth of a child is an event of joy and significance. In Africa I think that there is more involved in naming a child and there is more attached to it. The hopes of the parents, when the child was born, current events of importance, celestial events that may have occurred when the child was born, many different things can determine the name of a child here. I think it is believed that the name chosen will influence for better or for worse the life of the child. Some of the name meanings I have come across here are: born on Tuesday, born after twins, born at night, or last born, or born under the moon, born in the rainy season. A friend just told me of a name that means, “gathering people together”. This story was told to me so I may have the details incorrect. A little girl was born in 2010 around the time of the referendum and her name means “gathering people together”. She was born in a time where people of South Sudan were coming together and uniting as one to bring freedom to their country. She is named after an incredible time in the worlds history. Meanings like this are so incredible.

Deng is a very common first or last name among the tribes here. Dinka, Nuer and Shilluk tribes all use this name. In Dinka it means “Rain” and it also refers to the heavens or God. The Dinka tribes believe that the most powerful God, god of all gods is ‘Deng’.

The Kikuyu (Gikuyu) are Kenya’s biggest ethnic group. The origin and history behind this ethnic group is very interesting. Their ancestors come from Northern Kenya, and the theory is that many of the other tribes in Kenya broke away from the main Kikuyu group. The Kikuyu themselves moved and ended up residing in the west. The story of when and how the Kikuyu became separate and independent people is stated in oral tradition, which says that the founder of the Kikuyu was a man named Gikuyu. One day, Ngai (God) gave him a wife called Mumbi, and commanded them to build a homestead at the valley with a unique bird species called "Nyagathanga". Some versions of the story say that Ngai first took Gikuyu to the top of Kirinyaga to behold the land that he was giving them. The location is still sacred. Mumbi bore nine daughters, who married and had families, and which eventually became clans. Ngai gave them the highly fertile lands to the southwest of the mountain to live in. These clans – the true ancestors of the Kikuyu – are actually called the ‘full nine’ or ‘nine fully’ (kenda muiyuru), for there also was a tenth daughter, who descended from an unmarried mother in one of the other nine clans (which suggests the later amalgamation of at least one other people into the Kikuyu). Until recently, it was a common taboo for anyone to give the exact number of their children; to violate taboo would portend a bad omen. The names of these nine daughters are commonly used to name women.

Now the point to this little history lesson, the Kikuyu tradition of naming children intrigues me to no end. The Kikuyu see every generation as a replacement of the previous one; therefore, names are passed down from generation to generation. There is a specific system for how this is done. I get slightly confused by which name goes to which person and whose name was who’s originally. So, the first son receives his father’s father’s name. The first daughter receives her father’s mother’s name. The second son receives his mother’s father’s name. The second daughter receives her mother’s mother’s name.
Subsequent children are named similarly after the brothers and sisters of the grandmother and grandfather; from eldest to youngest, alternating from father's to mother's. And from what I understand, a Christian name is given as a first name. A wee bit confusing but interesting to say the least.

My only concern about this naming system is instances where a husband and wife may only have girls, or only have boys. This to me means that names are lost. Kind of like how I have three sisters and no brothers, therefore, unless one of us girls keeps our last name, my father will be the last person in his line to bear the name Wheeler. Sad.

Now my parents did not name me after anyone. This does not mean they did not put any thought into it. I do not know if they looked up the meanings of the names that they gave me, but either way they did well. Caryn is Scandinavian in origin and means ‘Pure’. Danae is Greek in origin and means ‘She who judges’. In my opinion, solid names. Thanks Mom and Dad.