Jaamac to Jamie: Why not Anglicize your name?

[DubatDiaries]

Walaal, you have terrible takes today. What is going on with you?

Write down your name so we can build up your confidence. Being the only nerdy girl in the History and Culture section, I would hate to see a sister look crazy out in the streets changing her name because she thinks the world might embrace her more.

How old are you, if you don't mind me asking?

My own name is not what I am talking about, this is my takeaway from sitting in the audience of a university graduation with a lot of Asians (the entire continent), Europeans and some Africans. These elaborate names people be having are lost on the rest of us - not very "self -preservation 'ist'" of me, I know, but its a concession I don't mind making.

I don't think the world would embrace me more if I change my name. You are making it sound like I am an angsty teen in need of dire intervention.... I'm okay, great even.

 

[Garaad Awal]

The real issue is Arabification. Hit our community like the plague. These babies now don’t have Somali names

The Habar Yoonis from the Musa Cabdale clan claims Arabization is an issue. You are a few centuries late

 

[DubatDiaries]

The evils of Zionism aside, I have to hand it to the Yahudis for reverse westernizing their names. Niggas going from "Benjamin Goldberg" to "Benyamin Har-Zahav". Waa respectable.

Benjamin Netanyahu used to be Mileikowsky

Different names for different locations, circumstances.

 

[DubatDiaries]

If a dictatorial cadaan regime demanded I change my name to something more "Christian" I would Habeshize my name and still remain foreign sounding just to say f*ck you. Asrat Gebre. Has the same meanings as my real Somali name.

See, thats where we disagree

I'd be walking around named John Joseph Smith before I name myself Dawit or Makonnen

 

[DubatDiaries]

At this point this website has convinced me if an cadaan told you guys get on all fours and start barking you'd comply

No, I don't think I would ...but thats just me. I can't speak for the rest of them

 

[The alchemist]

My own name is not what I am talking about, this is my takeaway from sitting in the audience of a university graduation with a lot of Asians (the entire continent), Europeans and some Africans. These elaborate names people be having are lost on the rest of us - not very "self -preservation 'ist'" of me, I know, but its a concession I don't mind making.

I don't think the world would embrace me more if I change my name. You are making it sound like I am an angsty teen in need of dire intervention.... I'm okay, great even.

Stop, please.

Pretending it was a normal proposition makes you look like a nutcase.

Self-preservation of identity is important. Naming your kids James, Chad, Roland, Jimmy and what else, is giving in to assimilation. You pushing this knowing the consequences is questionable. It surely does signify issues you have because I have never heard this suggestion in my life and is an extreme position that would repulse anyone anywhere but some East Asian countries.

You're so lost you prioritize external convenience (what is easier for some random cadaan person) over cultural integrity. Names carry history, culture, tradition, often religious significance, identity, and even a sense of cultural and social belonging. Changing that in favor of the Western brand makes you a turncoat.

The reason why I asked you for your age is that one expects such thinking of very insecure young girls (only in rare cases) to hate their name and want to fit in, (pre-high school activities). They start to modify themselves by de-culturizing their heritage, replacing it with a foreign expression aligned with the cadaans. If you're in your 20s, you should be well settled with your name, and have a social life that has built rapport, reputation, and relationships -- people you know, professionally or privately, already have an idea of who you are. You would look crazy to suddenly change your name. People don't suddenly want to pretend to be someone else unless they have psychological issues, or are hiding from someone (I know of such a case).

My question is, are you going to name your kids white names?

Within the psychology of name change, it is such that the individual wants to be something/someone else. And what direction goes explains what the person wants to be. You suggesting you want a Jamac (a name people rarely err, as explained) to "Jamie," reflects how you want Jamac to be more like a Jamie. Jamie has a superior archetypical appeal to you. You subscribe to the Western supremacist ideal.

One emulates that one thinks is superior, and you promoting the strange Jamac-to-Jamie transformation tells us you want to ascend to imitate the people that bear such names and distance yourself from the culture associated with Jamac, that you don't think is worth holding on to, i.e., you think is inferior.

Naming carries the potential to express as well as to constitute social relations. You want to be among the Whites, as such that you have elevated their social existence above the Somalis. You want Somalis to rise up and grab onto Western naming profiles to fuse among gaal as a form of new transformation while rejecting and leaving behind the old because you want to include cadaans within the change: they are after all what you think is the chief motivator. Calling this anything else than a mechanism of conformity is a lie. If some lunatic who is Somali calls himself "Jack," I know the fool is hanging with none of the people of his background, and more likely is "whitewashed." If I approach that individual I am assuming he is like any other random, not Somali. I already have an ajnabi friend named Jack, why would I want a counterfeit one?

A person is not sincere if they claim that they're proud of their background, yet change their name to be liked by foreigners. I'm sorry, that is just how it works 100/100.

If you were, real, you'd just say, "Name your kids with simple-sounding Somali names" (although most Somali names are very simple). That is still out of bounds for several reasons, but at least you would be consistent with only concerning the exaggerated issues of names.

 

[Xassan]

At this point this website has convinced me if an cadaan told you guys get on all fours and start barking you'd comply

Nah not really lol

 

[Rayaale]

When I was in high school one teacher used to call me Maxi he couldn’t pronounce Maxamud

 

[Xassan]

When I was in high school one teacher used to call me Maxi he couldn’t pronounce Maxamud

Was he saying Mackamud lol they assume the x pronounced like the english x but its basically soft h

 

[Testo 21]

Abdirahman to Andy

Mohamed to Moe or mike

 

[Tiyeglow]

What's in a name? Is it just some convenient way to be labelled or does it have a deeper significance?

My name is Samatar, named after my 4th grandfather AUN. I do accept my close friends to call me Sam, Aabe wuxu igu yeerijiray "Sam the lion" marka yaraa. It isn't to appease to white people, its an easy nickname. In my corporate space, I simply never allow anyone to call me "Sam", and I regret that during my high school days I accepted "Sam-ar-tah" rather than forcing people to pronounce it in the genuine way, but I was young. Now, I set the line. My name is too meaningful and sacred to me to be desecrated by qolada xaarka iska tirtirin. Side note: When I was in Somalia, hearing everyone pronounce my name the right way without having to repeat it was profound to me personally wallahi.

 

[Rayaale]

Was he saying Mackamud lol they assume the x pronounced like the english x but its basically soft h

They can’t pronounce x and c,he just shortened it to Maxi