Cross talk
What is in a name?
Name is the mark of a man in life like tombstone is in death. Name is the existence of a man in absentia, the incorporeal persona that others carry of him with them. Name is the fragrance of man that is carried across the distance of time and space by the wind of familiarity. Name is the licence plate of a vehicle of flesh and bones that runs on the steam of blood and travels on the course of destiny from dust to dust.
"What is in a name?" was the question asked in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The answer was: "that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." If the same question is asked today, the answer will not be the same. Instead one would hear more of what Marshall McLuhan, the Canadian communications scholar, said in the early 60s, " The name of a man is a numbing blow from which he never recovers."
History bears out Marshall McLuhan. General Joseph Hooker was known as "Fighting Joe" in the Unionist Army during the American Civil War. Popular legend has it that once he had rounded up prostitutes in Washington area during the war. Henceforth, his name was permanently attached to the oldest profession on earth. The word hooker, today, means prostitutes in the American lexicon.
There are many more examples of names becoming common noun. Mirzafar is a synonym for treachery in Bengali language. Etymologically, it has been derived from the name of Mir Zafar Ali Khan, who had conspired with the English and betrayed the last free Nawab of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. Likewise, the term boycott comes from the name of the Irish land agent Capt. C. C. Boycott. He was asked by the Irish Land League in 1880 to reduce rents after a bad harvest, and when he refused the tenants avoided any communication with him.
Names are often evocation of bizarre human conditions. Narcissus was a youth in Greek myth, who fell in love with his own reflection in the pool, and hence, narcissism entered psychoanalysis as a term, which means erotic gratification derived from admiration of one's own physical or mental attributes. The Bible tells the story of Judah, who had asked Onan to unite with his brother's widow to preserve his brother's line. Onan, however, wasted his seed on the ground whenever he had relations with his brother's widow. Onanism, henceforth, entered history as a term that stands for masturbation.
There is something interesting about the naming customs, which vary from people to people. Many Indonesians use just a single name, while traditional Chinese naming practices were very complex. Chinese males were given different names at various points in their lives, in addition to a surname and sometimes a generation name. In some instances, the Chinese used names to identify the generation of the bearer.
For the Africans, names were labels used for almost everything, which suited their fancy. Names describe the order in which siblings were born, for example, Mosi is "first born", Kunto is "third born", Nsonowa "seventh born", and Wasswa "first of twins".
Traditional African names often reflect the circumstances at the time of birth. Mwanajuma is "Friday", Esi "Sunday", Khamisi "Thursday", and Wekesa "harvest time". Some African names describe the parents' reaction to the birth and others describe the newborn or its desired characteristics. Vocabulary words are also often used as given names. For example, Sefu means "sword" and Tau is "lion".
There are people who changed their names in the course of their lives, and are remembered by their nom de guerre or revolutionary names. Who remembers Josif Vissarionovich Dzugashvilli? He became famous as Stalin, the adopted name, which means, "steel" in Russian. Ernesto Guevara went down in history as Che'. It means chum or buddy in Italian language.
Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh changed his name like a chameleon changes its colour. In his last days he was endearingly called Uncle Ho, but his birth name was Nguyen Sinh Cung, which was changed to Nguyen Tat Thanh. In 1923 he took the name Nguyen Ai Quoc, meaning "Nguyen the Patriot", and two years later changed it to Ly Thuy. He adopted the name Ho Chi Minh or "the enlightened one" later in his life.
A very few people in the world know a former schoolteacher named Saloth Sar, but most people would quickly recognize Pol Pot, the butcher, who had ordered the death of millions of Cambodians. Ironically, Pol Pot is a name, which had no independent meaning, but was chosen because it was common enough among rural Cambodians (the Khmer). His name eventually pervaded the hearts of his countrymen for the horror he had unleashed on them.
If name brings luck, it also brings misfortune. It is believed that the Pakistani soldiers executed a teacher of Dhaka University in 1971, because they had mistaken him for his namesake. A name can also be embarrassing, as the saying goes in Bengali aphorism, if of a blind child is called Lotus-eyed, or a dark-complexioned girl is called Snow-white. We shall not find too many people in today's world who would like to name their sons Adolf Hitler or Benito Mussoloni, because these are men, who never recovered from the numbing blows of their names.
What is in a name? If you ask that question today, the answer is that a rose smells as sweet as the name you call it. A name is to fame what fire is to glow, a sort of branding that creates the perception of a man to those who know him. Name tells if you are black, white, Christian, Muslim, Hindu or Jewish. Name tells if you are German, French, Dutch, Slav, Arab, urban or rustic. Name is the telltale sign of a man's personality, the fascia signage of an enterprise that walks, talks, dreams and thinks.
Name is the mark of a man in life like tombstone is in death. Name is the existence of a man in absentia, the incorporeal persona that others carry of him with them. Name is the fragrance of man that is carried across the distance of time and space by the wind of familiarity. Name is the licence plate of a vehicle of flesh and bones that runs on the steam of blood and travels on the course of destiny from dust to dust.
Think of a man without a name, and it's hard to define his existence. He is reduced to one in many, just another bubble in the eternally churning ocean of life, a wild flower in the jungle that doesn't stand out. A man needs a name and a man needs a face, and unless one is put to another, he doesn't have an identity. John Keats had once written to Richard Woodhouse, "A poet is the most unpoetical of any thing in existence, because he has no identity; he is continually in for and filling some other body.
" Without a name, a person is simply one continuous strand of life that fills body after body. Name prevents that dilution, and gives man his personality.
If you remember Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, you would know what I mean. Identities often collide within one person and split his personality. It becomes difficult to recognise the night's man in the morning and vice versa, when only names come to the rescue of those who have to deal with it. Name matters in the end, and the rose smells as sweet as the name you call it.
Mohammad Badrul Ahsan is a banker.
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