Calling names

It is surprising (or perhaps not so much) to see how powerful words are among humans: communication is essential among animals, but words are way more complex and richer in meaning than any form of animal communication. And what is astonishing there are currently more than 7000 languages (plus many more that have become extinct) that are valid solutions to the problem of human communication: used in small or big groups, with high levels of specialization or not so much, forming groups of languages or isolated inside other groups, all of them help human societies to live together, get fed and dressed, and protect themselves from the environment and other predators. But in the end, words are nothing more than little puffs of air and they get lost in the wind, in the same fashion as the tears that get lost in the rain in the 1982 movie "Blade Runner".

In spite of this volatility, words have often been used as weapons, particularly to undermine the standing that a counterpart has inside a group: by declaring that someone belongs to a badly regarded group all the negative properties of the group are implicitly assigned to the recipient, and that regardless of the actual qualities of the subject. If I call someone a "bastard" it is not because I have inspected their birth record and confirmed that their parents where not married at the time of birth, I just declare my opinion that they should be treated as if they were, as outcasts. So even if the insult does not change their condition as legitimate or illegitimate child of their parents, their standing in society is (or can be) altered. Fortunes have been built and destroyed on the bases of name-calling, so please be careful where you shoot that word.

Photo: Tumisu from Pixabay

But today is my birthday and I wanted to focus on the names we are given and various customs around the world involving births and naming. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that the true name is a repeated archetype across many current and pass societies, and that knowing it can provide power over the named creature (in particular a demonic entity can only be summoned if you know its name). But when it comes to humans, receiving a name is a marker of the beginning of their social life, as opposed to birth, which is the beginning of the physiologically independent life. Indeed, in societies where infant mortality was high it was common to delay the naming rite until the baby was out of the most dangerous age: a baby that dies before it was given a name is almost non-existent.

Another common practice in Catholic areas (e.g. Ireland and Spain) was to name newborn children after the saint of the day they were born (or a nearby day) as if to consecrate the child to the saint and request their protection. In many other traditions, the "Name day" is observed as the day of the saint with the same name as the child, as if it were a second birthday, often celebrated with attendance to mass or prayer.

One of the most remarkable properties of given names is the belief in some cultures that only unbaptized (i.e. unnamed) babies can be replaced by a changeling: whether it is the trolls in Scandinavia or the Xanas in northern Spain most of these evil ancestral spirits were powerless once the child had been named.

As a closing note, I want to leave you with the funny note that, in Germany it is considered of low socioeconomic status to name your child exotic non-German names such as Kevin or Chantal (the so-called Kevinism), but the implicit messaging contained in the naming of our children is a topic for another day. Stay safe and have a nice weekend.