Naming Your Children; Think About the Child

There’s been a trend to give children rather ‘irregular’ names.   I am lumping a lot of different types under the word ‘irregular’ and will explain.

Ethnic

There are many people in the Western Hemisphere who have a parent or parents who were brought from Africa.  They often decide to give their child what they know or think are ‘African’ names.

I am not talking about ‘Kwame’ or ‘Thabo’ or ‘Jomo’, which are famous names and people are familiar with them.  I’m talking about the strange name that teachers can not pronounce and have no idea if the name belongs to a boy or a girl.

I know a man whose parents named him Shamona.   Everyone thinks it is a girl’s name.  So the teacher would call the name and up would stand a boy, and the kids would laugh.   Another was called Nquakwa, so the kids call him ‘Quack’.

Why?  Why do this to a child?

If one wants an ‘ethnic’ name, chose one people can pronounce.   One that the child won’t be embarrassed by.

This confusion of names isn’t limited to those from Africa.  A lot of ‘Boys’ names have been given to girls.

Blake, Carter, Elliot have been given to girls.  The teacher will assume these are boys, and when a girl raises her hand, the kids will laugh.

Giving a child a name typically associated with another gender can and will impact that child’s life.

A study was done which found that girls with less feminine names are more likely to move into ‘boys’ realms, and boys with more feminine names often behave badly.

This confusion of gender by name; causing people to assume the obverse is not healthy.

One of the most important things, if you are giving your child a unique name is to pick one that can easily be pronounced.   For example,  if John and Marie want to name their little girl Joma it might be okay.  If Anthony and Lucy want to call their child Antlu, that is not so wonderful.

If once wants to call their daughter Carter why not add ‘Ann’  Carter-Ann, or Carter Lynn, so that the teacher will not embarrass the child.

Often teachers may set seats, by putting all the boys in odd numbered rows, girls in even numbered.  Imagine the embarrassment of the child when  Elliot (who is a girl) is put in the boy’s seat.   Surely she is going to feel different, wrong, and her sexual identity would be confused.

The same thing happened to Shamona.  He was put in the ‘girl’s row’ and everyone got a good laugh.  Except him.

So have a care when you name your child.