Micronesia-style

Naming your kid, Micronesia-style

Earlier this year a delegation of traditional and elected leaders from Kili in the Marshall Islands travelled to Washington, D.C.

While there they met with a number of high-ranking officials, but none made as big an impres sion as the Vice-President of the United States, George Bush.

The residents of Kili, of course, originally hail from Bi kini, the atoll where America tested nuclear weapons in the 1940 s and 19505. For years simi lar groups of islanders have gone to Washington to plead for more financial support, or just to re mind federal bureaucrats that the Bikinians are alive and, if not well, still in need of U.S. assistance.

But this time, meeting the vice-president, the islanders truly felt as if they had gotten their message across to someone who

mattered. They were impressed

by the meeting arranged by

U.S. Ambassador Fred M. Zeder 11, a friend and political associate of the vice-president and when they returned to Kili they told others of their accomplishment.

How big a deal was the session with Bush? Zeder found out re cently when he visited Kili.

While on that tiny speck of coral, the ambassador was introduced to a newborn baby. The tot’s name? George Bush.

The honor given Bush has been repeated a number of times over the years in Micronesia.

There are young men named Kennedy, Nixon and Truman.

There have even been babies named after the various high commissioners. In the Eastern Carolines, some parents have named their children Lincoln Ab raham, Hamilton Alexander and Jefferson Thomsin. At least one toddler has grown up with the name Hitler.

What does it all mean? I have a theory by no means pecul iarly my own that these names and others are a healthy indica

tion of the flexibility and strength of the various cultures in Mic ronesia. They have faced consid erable pressure from the outside world indeed, colonial rule has spanned hundreds of years and has brought Spanish, Ger man, Japanese and Americans.

With such a history, adaptability is not only a desirable cultural characteristic, it may well be an absolutely necessary one.

However, assimilating outside influences (in this case names) does not mean the indigenous cultures have capitulated to foreign forces. That has hardly been the case. The islanders of Micronesia have managed to meld the larger world with theirs in a smooth manner, and at times with a sense of humor.

Consider the warm thoughts that must have been behind nam ing newborns Lovely, Honey, Rejoice, Dearly, Smilling, Sin cerli and Sweety. Then there are Dearful, Truelove, Loveme, Lucky mis, Memory and Har money. One of my favorites is Rain, a wonderfully evocative name.

Popular culture, particularly cinema and television, has in spired many parents in recent years. McGarrett, named after the television hero of “Hawaii 5- 0”, has become a familiar name.

Others are Zorro, Brucelee, Mannix, Tarzan, Starsky and Hutch (given to one person), Sinbat and Shaft.

An older source of inspiration is the Bible, and in that regard Micronesians are definitely no different from other Christians.

But besides the “usual” biblical names, Micronesians have also called their children Redsea, Praise, Brother, Goodnews and Believe (though that may not necessarily be religiously oriented).

Occasionally one comes ac ross names which may be sym bolic of a number of events or occasions. Consider Suffer, Full, Request, Stormy, Joyluck, Late,

Question or Lost. A potentially

disconcerting history is behind

the name Almost. And what is the history behind Chesty is any one’s guess.

I first became interested in names and what they might mean a half dozen years ago after talking with Rokucho Billy of Truk. At the time he was work ing in the Trust Territory’s Health Services Department, and had compiled many of the more unusual names from the copies of birth certificates that went across his desk.

Billy, still as debonair now as he was then, had a few theories of his own on some of the names.

Sometimes, he said, a child might be named after a father’s girlfriend! In other times, a name

measured in a number of ways.

Anglicised given names appear

to be gaining in popularity, and there certainly has been an infu sion of new genes into the Mic ronesian pool. That is resulting, in some cases, not only in new names but a new understanding of what “kind” of person consti tutes a Trukese or Palauan or

Ponapean.

Some of the same influences can been seen in Hawaii where many immigrants have settled to form a rich and varied cultural scene. Asian and Pacific Island settlers have, by the second and third generations, adopted names from their new home. It is not uncommon to find Japanese with an Anglicised first name and a Hawaiian middle name. The

might be given to commemorate a special event or person or thing. For instance, there is a youngster named Airmike after the airline (Air Micronesia which everyone calls “Air Mike”) that serves the area.

Sometimes names change, for convenience or perhaps out of a lark. Another factor that has in fluenced name-giving is the American-imposed system of birth certificates which require a child, in effect, to have a first and last name. In some cases without birth certificates, that would not necessarily have been done.

Many family and given names also reflect the long colonial his tory of Micronesia. In the North ern Marianas, for instance, one finds names like Juan, Francisco, Jose and Cabrerra, all indicative of Spanish influence.

German monikers are also pre valent, particularly in the Eastern Carolines and in the Marshall Islands. Thus, one finds Helgen bergers and Heines along with traditional Ponapean and Mar shallese names.

America’s impact can be

same can be said for many Caucasian newcomers who have taken to giving their children Polynesian middle names, And last year, for the first time, a majority of the births in Hawaii were of mixed parentage.

That will undoubtedly have an impact on the names given to those children and probably their children.

In Micronesia the cultural swapping will continue. And perhaps within one or two gener ations there will be a movement to revert to more traditional names. On the whole, however, the present attitude is a positive indication of the dynamic nature of Micronesian cultures, In a sense, this willingness to draw from others recalls the thoughts of the English author Roger Ascham who said: “Each new form of human speech in traduces one into a new world of thought and life. So in some degree is it in traversing other continents and mingling with other races. As a hawk flieth not high with one wing, even so a man reacheth not to excellence with one tongue.”

Notes from the North Floyd K. Takeuchi on Micronesia