Don't You Have an English Name?
Indigenous People's day, Canada. These kids were smiling at a small dog
a chiwawa, I believe. All cultures have a system of naming kids.
Mei means beautiful in Mandarin.
Is that the correct term Mandarin? I don’t want to say Chinese. It seems too general. It is like saying I speak African, when there
are hundreds of African languages, some related in how they are spoken, others
not.
Outrun the Moon,
the last fiction I read revolves around Mei-Si,
which means beautiful thought. Her name
is Mercy in the book, to accommodate the English tradition that ‘you come into our world, the Queen’s world. Yours is not interesting or important.’
I once worked with somebody called Sushmita. One day the manager was baffled when I spoke
about her. I explained where she worked
in the organisation and she said, “Oh! you mean Sue. We call her Sue.” The book taught me the meaning of ‘mei’: beautiful, which explains why many Chinese girls are called
Mei Li, re-engineered into May Lee.
This blog is about a bouquet of things, including how kids are
given names in Africa. The primary
reason is the family. What was happening in the family when the child was
born? What are the family’s aspirations for
the little thing?Names are also a record of what was happening in the community or country for example, baby girls born after a long drought will be called No-mvula, the one who brought rain.
Parents sometimes have questions about their life, so it is not unusual for kids to have names that are questions.
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ZULU
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ENGLISH
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Funani.
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A girl’s name which means what do you want?
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Batheni.
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A girl’s name which means what did they say?
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Bathini.
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A girl’s name which means what are they saying now?
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Ngitheni.
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A girl’s name which means what did I say?
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Baphetheni.
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A girl’s name which means what are they bringing or what do they
have?
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Senzeni.
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A boy’s name which means what have we done?
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