What’s in a Naming?

Our pastor standing by the family on the couches

Last week we attended the naming day celebration for a new baby of a family at our church. It was intriguing in a number of ways. There were about 50 men gathered on plastic chairs outside the gate of the family’s house right on the main road into town. There were about 50 more women inside the gate sitting, standing, chatting and preparing things. Outside the family sat on their matching couches in front of the gate. Our pastor opened with greetings and then a 20 minute sermonette on the importance of believing in Jesus and the meaning of this girl’s name. Her name is related to the word for “joy,” but they said it’s the same as the English name Moriah which seems a fair amount different to me at least.

This made me think about the interesting meanings behind a lot of names for types of people here. Many professions start with the word or prefix meaning “owner of” or “possessor of” something. A mechanic is an owner of fixing the car. An evangelist is the possessor of the good news. The guy that walks around with a big tea kettle, boxes of different kinds of tea, and glass cups he’ll rinse out before he pours you a tea, is called the “owner of tea.” A guard is the possessor of guarding. A shopkeeper in the market could be called the owner of a store, or the “son of the market,” which is another common way of expressing the relationship of people to what they do. Students are sons/daughters of school. Brothers are sons of a mother. People who live in a certain town or frequent a certain place are “sons/daughters” of that place.

Our guard with three sisters and Benja

Also, it’s considered not as respectful to refer to people by their actual name. It’s much more polite to call someone the father/mother of one of their children. For example our guard would be referred to by most of the neighbors as Baban Benja. Similarly, if someone has the same name as your husband/wife/child, you can just call them, “my child” (etc.), instead of their real name. Smile On had a funny response to calling our guard this type name, because the word for father, baba, is very similar to the word for big, babba. He thought we were calling the guard Big Benja (which would be very fitting for Steelers fans), and so we should therefor call Benja a reciprocal name like Small Samaila!