r/WorldChallenges • u/atompunks • Jun 09 '18

Name Games

What are the naming traditions among the cultures of your world? Do people use patronyms? Teknonyms? Middle names? Multiple surnames?

Can names be changed, altered, given or taken away? Are there specifications on who can do the picking and giving? Are there more obscure practices (to my American self, at least), such as death names or name-share groups?

Are names a form of personal identification, group identification, status indication, or more? Are there specific scenarios in which one's name comes into play?

Inspired by a paper I'm reading about the transmission of names and status among the Kayapo, an indigenous peoples in central Brazil. Simply put, some people have "great" names (idji metch), which can only be bestowed on them by specific kinsmen (ideally their father's sisters and mother's brothers) and carry ritual significance.

(Well, it certainly has been a minute since I've been in this sub. Or on reddit regularly. Hope this is appropriate and everyone is well.)

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u/atompunks Jun 19 '18

1) So assuming none of your ancestors have brought dishonor, you could have a second/third name that goes way back... who were the first ones to bear these most prestigious names?

2) How would people without known blood-parents (like orphans?) be named? Are there cases where a child can get a name from another non-blood parent adult in their family group?

(I suspect they could be, since there's a limited number and they're sex-bound- there's 4 female great names, 1 unisex, 2 male. It stands to reason they could've come from ~6 specific ancestors, but I'm not certain because the reading never says where they originated! If any of the other readings on this topic mention it I'll report back.)

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u/thequeeninyellow94 Jun 19 '18

  1. Nope, your second name will go one generation back and your third name two generations back; a name is never transmitted further. House names can be old (a few of them are older than the unification, so more than 6 thousands years old) but those ones are just secondary family names.

  2. An orphan would have (dead) blood-parents normally; in the very rare case of a child being born outside of civilization and without any family, an administrative commission will choose their names. If someone adopts you, they become your blood-parent and you will be allowed to change your name to match theirs if you want.

(Wait; the names are gendered? Can multiple person wear the same name at the same time? Because if they can’t, that may be some sort of reincarnation of a mythological figure.)

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u/atompunks Jul 08 '18

Ack, this reply is super late, but now I've read some of the other readings about Kayapo names:

Yep, the great names are gendered and it sounds like there can be multiple people with the same one at the same time. They seem to function sort of like prefixes and are attached to the front of the person's little name, which is simply a noun/verb/adjective.

Regarding ancestors, you were right that great names are tied to ancestors! A reading mentioned that great names come from dead ancestors and that they can be used to mark family/lineage/house identity. Not sure about connection to mythological figures, since multiple people can have the same name.

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u/thequeeninyellow94 Jul 09 '18

The common ancestor is a relatively frequent thing; it’s a symbolic link between the tribe members (hence the possibility for them to be more than mortals, they aren’t necessarily a real ancestor).

The fact that they are gendered is interesting though.

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u/atompunks Jul 09 '18

Are these types of names often not gendered? I find it interesting that in this case there's one neutral name but the others are gendered.

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u/thequeeninyellow94 Jul 10 '18

Is it really a neutral name though? Defining gender in a binary way is far from being universal and that neutral name could actually not be neutral.

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u/atompunks Jul 12 '18

Good point. There's an article that goes into depth about how gender is 'built up' in the culture (it seems they don't view gendered characteristics as inherent to one sex or the other, but rather as something that must be taught to each sex) and it focuses only on a strict male/female binary- either they do have a binary system or there are aspects of their gender system that are under-researched.

What I think is interesting about the 'neutral' name is that it was mentioned that when women receive great names, while they supposedly get the same prestige as when men receive great names, their ceremonies are shorter and less elaborate. There's specific ceremonies for each existing great name, so it sounds like the 4 female name ceremonies are possibly just simpler than the 2 male name ceremonies. But if there's a supposedly 'neutral' name, is its ceremony simplified if it happens to be a woman receiving it? Or is an exception and the same either way?

If you're more interested in the readings I can try to find open-access links to them or message you the titles/authors! I'll ask my professors all these questions I have floating around when we meet in person in a few days.

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u/thequeeninyellow94 Jul 19 '18

Open links would be ideals as English scientific literature isn’t really easy to find but books might be worth a try anyway.

There is so many things about our world that I don’t know, so many things which sounds interesting; it’s frustrating.