What’s in the Name?

My late parents once revealed to me that I was born on wee hours of Eid-ul-Adha. The elders of the family unanimously decided to name me after this blissful Eid day. So, I was named as; “Eidan”. My Dad, an educated person to school level, and a lower cadre employee in a government department did not agree with the elders’ advice, and said: I plan to take my children to a town for education and to a city later for higher studies too, therefore, this ‘village name’ would not suit my boy, and he would not like it when gets educated.

Hence, I survived, not being called after Eid as Eidan.

We all know that purpose of name is to identify one from another. Therefore, everyone has name and all love their name regardless of the fact that it’s given to them by parents. This practice has been going on from the creation of very first man i.e. Aadam (AS) and he was given this name by Allah (SWT).

The human names in the primitive times were borrowed from objects of the nature. Interestingly they are still in vogue around the world. As the societies grew culturally and advanced in education and literature, new and modern names came into existence and they largely replaced old names putting them into extinction, especially in urban areas. 

Culturally and traditionally names in the villages and small towns are very simple and reflect some historical or memorable events, and new born babies are often named after some non-human things. Traditional names in Sindh province of Pakistan are usually taken from week days, Islamic months, trees, flowers, fruits & vegetables, jungles, mountains, and other objects. 

Some names are listed hereunder:

Sindhi Names	Meaning
Aachar	Sunday
Soomar	Monday
Jummo	Friday
Muharram	1st Islamic Month
Safar	2nd Islamic Month
Rajab	7th Islamic Month
Sha’ban	8th Islamic Month
Ramzan	9th Islamic Month
Mevo	Fruit
Amb	Mango
Zaitoon	Guava
Sono	Gold
Kandero	Thorny Tree
Mithoo	Parrot
Mor	Peacock
Jabal	Hill
Pahelwan	Wrestler

Similar traditional names also prevail in rural areas of Punjab, and rest of the provinces. I have poor knowledge about them. Some of the Punjabi names collected through my Punjabi twitter friends are given as under:

Punjabi Names	Meaning
Charagh	Lamp (like Alladin’s)
Channan	Moon
Gulabo	Rose
Boota	Tree Plant
Sohni	Beautiful
Laddoo	Golf ball sized traditional sweet
Billo	Damsel with Cat-like eyes
Makhan	Butter
Jannat	Heaven
Sherdil	Lion hearted

One peculiar habit / trend that prevails since long in Punjab is about parents, elders and friends giving nicknames or shortened / distorted original names to their kids out of sheer love so that these look cuter and easy to pronounce. When children grow up these nicknames look funnier and create embarrassing for them. Here are a few of such distorted names:

Punjabi Nicknames	Real Names
Peeno	Parveen
Peja	Parvaiz
Sheeda	Rasheed
Pheeka	Rafiq
Jajee	Aijaz
Jaka	Razzaq
Phujja	Zafar / Fayyaz
Bali / Balla	Iqbal
Sooda	Maqsood

Nevertheless, people living in cities, big towns and other urban areas across the country, with educated background, prefer to adopt modern names for their children that are used in novels, literature, TV Dramas, and borrowed from Arabic, Persian, Hindi and even English Languages.

There are scores of common names used in Muslim, Christian and Jewish world, though with a small twist of accent and spelling but having similar meaning. These religious male and female names are taken from the names of prophets that descended from Prophet Ibrahim (AS) or before. For example:

Muslim Names	Christian/Jewish Names
Ibrahim	Abraham
Ishaq	Isaac
Ismail	Ishmael
Yaqoob	Jacob
Aadam	Adam
Moosa	Moses
Yousuf	Joseph
Nooh	Noah
Dawood	David
Ilyas	Elijah
Suleman	Solomon
Sarah (Sara)	Sarah (Sara)
Maria	Maria
Hava	Eve
Maryam	Mary
Jibrael (Gibril)	Gabriel
Zakaria	Zach
Haris	Harris
Daniyal	Daniel
Haroon	Aaron
Elishba	Elisheba

Interestingly like our traditional names, English names i.e. Christian and Jewish, also refer to their relation with objects, earth, trees and plants, professions, etc. A few of them are:

Bush, Tree, Goldsmith, Potter, Blacksmith, Silver, Fish, Ocean, Olive, Apple, White, Black, Cave, Hill, Snow, Love, Onion, Fox, Wolf, Star, Stone, Pearl, North, West, etc.

While writing this blog and getting help from Google and Wikipedia on  ‘Names’ I got to a realization that it can lead me to making a full-fledged document on the subject because there are plenty of unavoidable relationships in finding a name. For example, bordering countries carry similar names due to frequent interaction and travelling of people between the two nations. Moreover, since US and Europe have been subjected to massive immigration after WW-I and WW-II respectively, therefore, these countries have names from all regions of the world.

The preferences for religious names over primitive names in the Muslim World are getting momentum in big cities, and especially within immigrant Muslims in Europe and North America. “Muhammad” is by far the widely preferred first or second name for boys and “Fatima” for girls. The name ‘Muhammad’ is considered as the most famous name in the world.

 

The combination of old village names, nicknames and modern names are likely to prevail across the globe. Regardless of improved literacy rate, modernization, globalization, and religious influences in our country, old names and nicknames like; Sher (lion) Khan, Mithoo, Bakhto (lucky), Pheeka and Sheeda, and Eidan would continue to appear in our society/culture, perhaps for ages to come.