Naming Patterns

    A few posts ago Far Side of Fifty made some comments on how her grandchildren and some relatives were named. It was interesting post and got me thinking about patterns used by different cultural, ethnic and religious groups for naming children.


     Far Side got me thinking about naming children in my family. My ancestors came to Canada in the late 1800' to early 1900's. They came from Volhynia which is in the Ukraine. They had gone to the Ukraine in the late 1700's. So they were cut off from the main German culture. They remained as Germans from the late 1700's.


    So the German naming pattern usually went this way. The first grand son or son was given the paternal grandfather's name as his second name. The second grandson or son was given the maternal grandfather's name. They also had a pattern of giving a child a first name after a saint. The second name would be the name used every day. As with most groups these were general guidelines and variations occurred.  The same pattern applied to female names.


    Now it only took a few generations for these patterns to be forgotten or changed. Many did not learn the German language. Many Anglicized their names. My name was originally spelled Klein. My Dad changed it to Kline.  Some of his family were not very pleased with him.


    The Jewish religion has many fairly strict guidelines for naming children. My friend told me that the Rabbi had to approve the names he wanted to give his children.


    The English had a custom where a child was quite often given a surname for a second name. As a result you see many English names which include  surnames. My brother in law was named John after his father and Elliott after his mother's family. To my way of thinking many of these names had a rather elegant ring to them.


    Icelanders use a patronymic system of naming children. Jon Larson's son becomes Peter Jonsson. His daughter Anna becomes Anna Jonsson. Again they liked to use Saint's names.


    Naming by our aboriginals was interesting to say the least. Children were given names that had significance in a spiritual, animal or place origin. Names were changed when circumstances called for it.  Someone could be renamed if there had been a misfortune and they wanted to change their status to become more fortunate.


    I did not use any pattern in naming my children. I picked up my adopted son a couple of days before Christmas. It was a very unexpected placement and we hadn't thought of any name. Since we were going to my parent's place for Christmas, my wife said, "We need a name before we go for Christmas. I don't want your Dad to name him."


     So I've had a brief look at naming patterns and you don't have to look very far to learn a great deal. 

Did We Name Living Things the Best Way?

     With all due respects to Carl Linaeus and all life scientists past and present, I would suggest that we should or should have used the names aboriginals had for living things. Now I'm not suggesting that we abandon Linaeus's system. Linaeus's system works extremely well and is accepted and used world wide.


     When Europeans first went out to discover the world , settle it and tame the original peoples, they also took it upon themselves to not only name living things but to "discover them." Well, I have news for you ! Most living things were known by the original peoples in any part of the world. More than that, most living things had been named. And further than that, the original people had a very great knowledge about the living things. So because living things had names , why did Europeans take it upon themselves to rename things? This is where I suggest that we should or should have used the names for living things that were first given to them.


     Not only were the living things known and named but also the geographical locations were well named. Maps were in their heads. The other day I was writing about an  Inuit settlement I had lived in. When I was there it was called Wakeham Bay. Today it is called Kangiqsujuaq which means very large bay. That's exactly what it is ...a very large bay. The bay is 25 miles long and 8 miles wide at it's widest. So the original name makes much more sense. Mr Wakeham came along and since he didn't find anybody there decided to leave his name on it. Original place names were very descriptive and helped with finding the location. Having traveled with Inuit in both the eastern and the western Arctic I soon found out that they didn't bother with our maps, and had names for places and didn't have any difficulty to get anywhere they wanted.


     If we look at birds for example, we find all kinds of people who pinned their name to a species that had already been named...Spraque, Baird, Franklin, Bonepart, Thayer, Forster, Lewis, Wilson...and many more. These birds were well known and named before any of these people saw them. The Palliser Expedition occurred in western Canada in the 1860's. Much scientific work was done. It's amazing what these people did and what was found. They knew the plant families and classification, but since it was a new species to them they took it upon themselves to name it.


    Where I live the Cree language is still in use and quite healthy. Names for places and things are still very well known in their culture.


    If we use peyote as an example, we've kept the original name with a little bit of change. Peyote is classified under the Linaeus system with Latin names but the original name is used for the common name. Original peoples knew that peyote was good for many things. It has been proved scientifically that they were correct.


     So since many of the original names were very descriptive,  I think that we should have made an effort to find out what they were and use them.

Town Name Discoveries

      A blogger I follow has Osage Minnesota in the location. I don't know whether the blogger lives in Osage or if it's the server location.

      So the other day my curiosity led me to look in my atlas and find out where in the ???? Osage is. Now going to my atlas tells you I am rather ancient. So I looked in my trusty atlas and couldn't fine Osage. Finally I said, "Oh Look on the internet!" Osage, Minnesota came up right away and with it a total description of the town.

     Now as I was looking in my atlas and before I gave up I noticed a number of towns with the same name as towns in my home province of Saskatchewan. So I wondered did these places have any connection to each other. I knew that many Americans came to homestead in Saskatchewan. I also have read some local Saskatchewan history and remember that some places were named because of where some of the settlers had come from.

      So in about two minutes I found Wadena, Watson, Kelliher, Bruno, Ogema, Elrose, Benson, Atwater, Belle Plaine and Ceylon. All of these are also place names in Saskatchewan. I researched one, Wadena. And yes, the first Settlers had come from Wadena, Minnesota and had named the place Wadena because that's where they came from. One wonders if the settlers were so attached to the area they came from that they used the name to make themselves feel better or if they were short on imagination and creativity?

    No matter it was still an interesting little discovery. I also wonder if the Minnesota names came from somewhere else?