Baby naming traditions

Naming of a baby is a great event in every community. With the name she or he becomes part of a community. There are numerous traditions concerning this event.

Let's start our little journey through cultures of the Native Americans. The Miwok (Miwuk) tribe of northern California used to choose a name for their babies by the way the stream looked when the baby was born.

Some communities of the Hopi tribe who now primarily live in Arizona used to put an ear of corn next to a baby. The ear of corn symbolized the Mother Earth.

They held a special ceremony 20 days after baby's birth. They rubbed a baby with the corn. The baby was named when the first ray of sun hit his forehead.

The Navajo tribe whose biggest communities exist in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and California find their names very precious so they use them only during ceremonies. In everyday communication they for example say "Mother, go get Daughter".

The Sioux (Lakota, Nakota and Dakota) have six classes of names: birth order, honour , special deed, nicknames, secret and spirit names. The first name is given based on the gender and birth position of the child. During life person gets several names.

Today when a member of Sioux tribe wants to show respect to someone who is not related to him he says "uncle" or "grandfather".

For the people of Hawaii their "Inoa" (name) is very important. There is a traditional belief that an ancestral god will send a name to a member of the unborn child's family. The name can be seen through signs, visions, and dreams.

It is important to discover that name because if another is used it it is going to cripple the child. People use all kind of tricks to "cheat" the spirits so they name the baby in secret or give several names.

Christian names given to babies today have been changed a bit to suit the Hawaiian language.

People in China never name a baby before his birth. They give the baby a fake or so called "milk" name. It should be something bad, disgusting like for example "mud face". It is done to make the evil spirits "sick" and get them away from the baby. Such names can stay during the childhood.

Chinese who speak Mandarin, Cantonese or some of dialects such as Hokkien give a name to their baby which is usually has two syllables from the Chinese alphabet. Each syllable has a unique meaning. Because of thousands of characters in the Chinese alphabet it is quite rare to find persons with the same name.

The above mentioned is a tradition but in China nowadays new trends can be noticed. There are more and more names with only one syllable. Plus some characters are used more often. The character "Mei" meaning beautiful, for example, is popular as a girl name.

The names used in China can have all kind of meaning for example they can be of mythological origin or have special meaning known only to the family.

People in Japan observe the "Oshichiya" or "baby's seventh day". Family and friends gather to celebrate. The baby is dressed in white.

The "Shodo" or "name plaque" with baby's name written in Kanji characters on special Japanese paper. The "Shodo" is kept hung on the wall.

Shodo or name plaque

Names given to baby girls in Japan often express some virtues. For example, there are names like Kiyiko ("clean child"), Nayako ("obedient child"), or Yoshiko ("good child"). The "ko" at the end of female names means "child".

Male names often show the position of child in the family. Ichiro means "first son", Jiro means "second son" and Saburo means "third son" where "ro" means son.

People in India have a naming ceremony called "Namakaran" or "the naamkaran sanskar" (naming ceremony). It is held at least 10 days after the birth and before child's first birthday. It differs from region to region.

Namakaran in Bangalore, India (photo by Deeps)

Here is an example from the Indian state of Maharashtra in the west of the country. A baby lays in the cradle decorated with flower garlands. Women gather around the cradle and sing hymns.