What's in a name? A chinese family is naming their child "@" claiming it means "love him". Well you may think this is strange but wait:there is an Australian who wants to call a child "Hell", another wants to use the name "4real". That is the reality!
And the Virginia Tech shooter goes by the name "?". Call that weird? Although parents have the right to give ther children names, they should also think about the child later. Child ren can grow up traumatized as a child when other children make jokes of their strange names. Starnge names make good jokes you know.
In my part of South Sudan, starnge names are not given, but what ends up sticking are the nicknames: Abu Ras, etc. What is your take?
5 comments:
...Om Ras in my case.
I never understood nicknaming chilren after their most "obvious" flaw. I don't ever recall laughing along. I grew up thinking I belonged in a circus, even though everyone did it to be "endearing."
Now I know my giant head is just a sign of my wit and intelligence. :'P
For your question. I think parents should try to stick to reasonable names that don't start with characters or symbols. Or at least write it out i.e. Forreal and At. lol
I have a colleague who went to a workshop in Sudan with 'Burried-Alive' and another time he came across 'Born-to-Kill'. I went to a workshop once with 'Wau Wau' (from 'Wau'). And I once interviewed a 16-year old Girl, called 'Poverty', she was the 13th girl child her parents had. For me the Ugandan style of giving names as 'Comfort', 'Innocent', 'Happy' is also rather interesting.
Greetings from UG
Pernille
In my travels in some areas in upper nile i have come across a couple of folks going by the names of "WFP" or World food Program. I also met a lady who named one of her kids SAM-2 because he was apparantly born during or immediately after a big fire fight. I am assuming these were not first born kids.:)
lol...
this is interesting. There is a popular music group called Kus in Belguim or Holland. This group will never be invited to play in Sudan...
The Dutch word for the male genital organ is lul. It is also used as an offensive work just like dickhead. I heard from friend in Holland that some Sudanese from the Nuer tribe had been forced to change their names from Thomas Lul to Thomas van de Sar or something..!
Um ras, eh? Dalu, it is easy to get away with a big head, but there are guys who are not so lucky! There are Abu Kura (cripple), Abu Zumba (squint!) Giving children names that shows their disaility or abnormality is not fair on someone trying to survive a world not cutout for him/her.
True P. Calling them by the English translations is a modern way of using traditionla naming systems. Ofcourse in many tribes, names are given according to your time of birth, season, day, or whatever. It never was bad at all. People can also tell immediately from tribe to tribe whether you are a first born, third girls or part of a twin just from your name.
Hey Returnee, that was funny! We have one prominent South Sudanese politician who was known as Clement Mboro. His name really raised eyebrows in East Africa . We have a Kuma too!(Mboro is swahili for male organ. And Kuma for the female!)
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