Going through the reading assigned for today, I was intrigued by a chapter, how names work. It was fascinating to see how the concept of name varies in different places. The chapter introduces the concept of naming - a place or person, and highlights the two major headings in name studies – personal names and place names. The author reflects on the use of personal names in different cultures and shows how naming system differ greatly from language to language. He refers to a general misconception of using first and last name as the standard form of using names and highlights how different culture use different naming system. In United States of America, Last name is often given importance over the first name and there is a frequent use of middle name which is not the case in Europe where middle name is acquired through special occasions (such as the Catholic ceremony of Confirmation). The use of middle name is not very common in countries such as Nepal, where people acquire middle name by their choice. When a person is born, their name hardly resembles their parents and the concept of using the same name with different suffix such as Jr. doesn’t exist. Also, the first name is given more importance than the last name and often a person is identified by their first name rather than last name.
One thing I have noticed after coming to the United States is that the name used in America doesn’t have a literal meaning. The name can be derived from a word similar to the name; however, the name itself doesn’t carry any meaning and is not used while creating a sentence. However, in Nepal a person’s name usually means something and the name itself is used while formulating a sentence. For e.g. Prayas is a word in Nepali which mean “Try again” and it is very common to create a sentence with the name Prayas in it – “Ma padhne prayas gardai chu,” which if translated in English would be “I am trying to study.”
In terms of naming place, the author mentions how there are similarity in naming places as the names people give to their surrounding often provide a unique source of information about a society’s history, culture, beliefs and values. For e.g. the name of natural features such as hills, rivers often give information about the hills, rivers – Honolulu (safe harbor). A similar concept is seen in Nepali culture. For e.g. Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) refer to a highest point.
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