What's in a Name - Part 3

Since this thematic horse isn't quite dead yet, I thought I'd beat one more post out of the very fascinating subject of names.

In some cultures, names are considered to have their own magic: knowing the name of a person or thing is believed to give you some level of power over that person or thing, and so true names are kept secret...which may be why we're sometimes reluctant to give out our real names in some contexts (consider that most of us use screen names while online, or don't give out our full names to people we meet casually in bars). In an age when identity theft is a serious problem, there really is some magic in the knowledge of a name (or, especially, a social security number).

How do we get our names? In the U.S., the convention is for people in general to have three names: first (Christian or given), middle, and last (or family). The first name is often the name of the parent or some respected relative or other figure, and the family name is obvious, but the source of the middle name is somewhat more flexible: it can come from the name of a relative, a friend, or someone we want to honor. It can also be ... well ... different. Some people don't have a middle name, and some have only an initial (U.S. president Harry S. Truman is an example of the latter - the "S" doesn't stand for anything, it's just an initial). Sometimes there's name overkill when one middle name just isn't enough: the heir to the throne of Great Britain, for example, is named Charles Philip Arthur George Windsor. Russians have a first name, patronymic, and family name, the patronymic middle name being derived from the father's name; thus, Ivan's son Peter would be Peter Ivanovich, and his daughter Larissa would be Larissa Ivanova.

Reader Mike commented on the first of these posts that it's also tough to have a first and middle name (Robert Michael), then be called by your middle name (Mike)...it tends to confuse people. Sometimes, though, this is done by choice when an individual doesn't really like his given name: one of my college friends was named "Claude Robert," but signed his letters "C. Robert" and preferred to be called "Bob." We often called him "Crobert" just to irritate him.

The family name can also have its own issues. The tradition in this country for many years was for a woman to take the name of her husband's family upon marriage; however, many women, particularly those who are established professionals, now choose to either keep their own family name or combine it with the husband's name through hyphenation. In some Latin cultures, combined family names are also common. And sometimes, people just don't like their family name, and opt to change it legally to something else: I once knew an individual named "Raper" who legally changed his name to something less inflammatory.

The order in which names are presented is culturally determined. In the U.S. and much of the rest of the world, the order is first name, middle name, family name; but in China and much of the Orient (and in Romania, go figure), the family name comes first. Thus, Chinese president Hu Jintao is President Hu, not President Jintao, and gymnast Nadia Comenici would be found in the phone book (and formally addressed) as Comenici Nadia.

Names can also lead to great fun (or embarrassment), as we saw yesterday. One of the funniest comedy routines ever done was the classic "Who's on First" baseball team lineup by Abbot and Costello. If you've never heard this wonderful (and perfectly clean) routine, you can read the transcript and hear a recording here. There are also several versions of a takeoff on this routine, involving President Bush being briefed by Secretary of State Rice prior to a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao; you can read the transcript of "Hu's on First" here.

And so we come full circle to our original question: what's in a name? Actually, there's quite a bit to a name, and it's interesting to think about it.

But we're done now, and tomorrow we'll think about something else.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo