What's In A Name?
I confessed to one of my grade 11 classes this week that I didn't know any of their names. They're written on their shirts, but some of them have three names and I never know which one to use. Here are some of the most interesting ones:One of my favorite boys in that class is named Syahreza (Shah-ray-za), which he claims means, "King of the World." I'm not sure I trust that translation, but I like the name anyway.
The words "indah" and "ayu" mean beautiful in Indonesian, and a lot of kids have those words tossed into their names at some point. I have some girls whose names are just "Indah," and then I have chicks like "Christyayu," which literally means "beautiful Christy." I think these are the most beautiful names (lame pun intended!)
Some of the girl's names are just not attractive-sounding to me--like Nindah, Wenty, and Prahiwi.
There are variations on names I know--like Erik, Kristian, Irene, and Diane. But don't be deceived--they're not definitely not pronounced the same. Erik is more like "arrreek" and Diane is "deeahnn." I usually just tell these kids that they're going to get an American pronounciation if they ever want me to know their names.
Then I have the absolutely impossible to pronounce/read/pretend to understand names. Face it kids--you will never hear your name come out of my mouth, Virgonesia Cahya P. Nor will you, Novia Diah Permatasari. And I'm not even sure I could get yours out in one breath, Anak Agung Istri Wulan Permata Sain (I wouldn't believe that was a name, but I'm holding his writing assignment with that name on it, and I looked it up on my roster--she (he?) is real!).
After this illuminating discussion I still had a few minutes to kill, so I asked them if they could have any name in the world, what would it be. I should have known better than to ask them that...although it would be a lot easier if everyone in my classes were named Kobe Bryant or LeBron James.
posted by Caitlin @ 10:28 PM
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