Page 54 - CONTENTS

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Onomastics and Teknonymy
From Colonel John Cross
Onomastics: the study of proper names, especially of their
origins: teknonymy, having a parent named after a child or a child
named after a degraded person or object – 'So what?' as the sewing
machine asked the nudist. I thought I'd spell out one or two nuggets I
have picked up over the years to which a reader might like to add – or
from which to subtract!
Taking onomastics first, it may come as a surprise to learn that
maybe more than 99.99% of all Nepalis never use or even know their
correct name. This means that every Gurkhas soldier who has enlisted
since 1815 has, likewise given a 'false' name to him who recorded it.
This is because the true name, his 'rashi nam' or 'zodiac name', which
could more meaningfully be rendered as 'soul name', once given at
birth, is virtually never mentioned again. Thus evil influences cannot
use it to enter the person when, or if, others call him or her by it. The
southern Irish are also inclined to take this precaution.
That means that any other name used is 'flexible' and, virtually,
a nickname, only permanent after the pundit has told the Head of
Family with what letter the name to be used should start, and then told
the infant's family. And even then it can be changed at the whim of its
owner. Buddhists work similarly. My second 'surrogate' son's
'accepted' name was Hombahadur. When he completed his Proof of
Citizenship document he entered his name as Haribahadur. "Why?" I
asked him, "Did you change it?" "Because I liked it better," was his
answer. Such 'flexibility' has been the bane of countless Record
Officers and the bewilderment of many impoverished widows when
discrepancies over names occur – as they never-endingly do.
There is a plethora of other nicknames, some pejorative, 'snot
nose', 'bandy legs', 'round eyes', 'midnight' for a dozy individual and
others descriptive, 'third son from the other side of the lake', 'tal pari
saiñla' and others merely polite, 'elder brother', 'cousin brother',