Friday, February 12, 2010
What's in a Name
When I was first given a list of my students for the new year, my initial reaction was curiosity. There was only one "American" style name on the list of 14. All of the others were totally unfamiliar in both print and sound. I couldn't tell just from looking which names belonged to boys and which to girls. This is the world of the ESL teacher. Not only couldn't I tell male from female, I often couldn't tell first name from last. I wondered how I was going to memorize all of these strange sounding names, and what types of children owned them. Yet, when those same students came together in the classroom, the names rolled off their tongues easily and familiarly, showing me that a name is a name, and I was the one with the problem. Well, I kind of knew that already. What I didn't know, was how familiar and comfortable those names would become, how quickly I would associate these new names with the students, and how normal those names are now, not how different they were. If you listen to the names of your new students, you can hear melody. What is common to one group of people seems strange to another. What of our "European" names? Aren't they guided by time and generation? When is the last time you envisioned a drop dead, gorgeous Ethyl? or a startlingly handsome Homer? Let's take the time to meet the person behind the name before we judge it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Names are vital parts of who we are. Most parents go through an in depth research process before naming their children, but few rarely consider how they may shape their child by the names they choose. My parents named me Jared Ross - Jared (of Hebrew origin, meaning descendant or descending) and Ross (of Scottish or Gaelic origin, meaining headland, bluff, or cliff or someone who lives near there). Should they have known they would give birth to a boy of smaller stature who loves a good view of nature? I should hope so! All joking aside, names carry incredible weight. It is why some of us choose to go by nicknames or by pseudonyms. Why screen names and emails are given such importance. They're insight into character and experience. To call someone by name is no small act. I've seen the power of it just by using the name of the cashier when I go to a nearby Duane Reade. They light up. They've been recognized. Especially when you pronounce it correctly. I endeavored to learn all of my students' names as quickly as possible, and when you're an educator for the Deaf, you get to learn sign names as well, which is no easy task. There is poetry in the naming. Many have noted its importance. Madeline L'Engle, in A Wind In The Door, refers to her protagonists as "Namers." Through her characters, she asserts that the name matters. John Proctor, in The Crucible, cries out against his signature on a false swearing, "Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life!" They are not the only ones to see this. The name matters, and by recognizing that, you recognize the individual spirit that is so vitally a part of who we are.
ReplyDelete