What's in a name? Everything, if you are a migrant and Muslim - By Dr. Yusuf Omar

[Admin]

When my wife Khadijo and I were expecting a baby daughter 17 months ago, we asked friends in our Somali community to suggest some names. A young, Western-educated Somali woman came up with "Amelia. It's a beautiful name and easy to pronounce," she said. "And it will go down well with Aussies. And after all, she'll be an Aussie herself."As a statement of fact this was true. Our daughter would be spared the trauma we suffered as refugees; the years of limbo and statelessness before the welcome shock of a new home on the other side of the world. So we considered going with "Amelia" to  pave the way for her easy integration into her country of birth. Though we were quietly apprehensive about the response from Somali elders, we felt comfortable with the decision.We were hopelessly naive.  News of our chosen name spread on the Somali-Australian grapevine. The older generation reacted with intense hurt, even anger. They saw our non-traditional choice, a name that owed nothing to our Somali or Muslim heritage, as a betrayal of our identity. They were especially disappointed in me because I am a poet and poets are seen as the keepers of the culture.Still, the  controversy spread.The episode was a sobering lesson about a truth I suspected all along: names are never really "neutral". A name both defines and shapes a person. It tells a story, and not always a happy one. In a complex world of migration and globalisation, I wonder how many of us are truly at peace with our names.Some people are named after their grandmothers, grandfathers, cousins, aunts, uncles, national heroes or historical figures to keep generations connected. In the Somali culture some are named after an event such as Geedi (traveller) for someone born during travel or Ubax (flower) referring to someone born in a pleasing environment, surrounded by aromatic flowers.Many Somali refugees have changed their names. Since 1991 a brutal civil war in our homeland, in the Horn of Africa, has displaced 1.7 million people, roughly one-fifth of the population. The displaced spent years in refugee camps or embarked on long, treacherous journeys to safety; the luckier ones found haven in countries such as Australia and elsewhere in the West. Some of these newly arrived refugees feared that if they kept their  real names, the authorities would trace their travel route and return people to their last country of departure. So these Somalis  changed their names on arrival at the airport. Many still use these bogus names in official documents, but use their real names in the community.I know two brothers who were smuggled to Australia from an African country and an Asian country and as soon they arrived in Australia  to seek political asylum they changed their names, even disguising the fact they were brothers. Their respective children are confused about why they don't share the same names as their cousins.Somalis are a nomadic and oral society. They enjoy travelling and talking but not writing and reading. Some of the generation who changed their names have since passed away leaving their children with unknown family and clan names. These young people are in limbo, both in the Somali community in Australia and in their country of origin. From other Somalis they often hear insults, such as "you have a fake family name."Some were sent home to Somalia for "cultural rehabilitation". When they came back to Australia they told heartbreaking stories. They said they had been teased or accused of being imposters. Some were disowned by their clans.I see the federal government wants to refuse protection visas to people who destroy evidence of their identity or arrive with false documents. I hope our leaders understand that many refugees behave this way simply out of fear and desperation.Other Somalis changed their names after they settled here. A youth from Melbourne's north told me he called himself "Moe" because "you can't get a job with the name Mohamed". While this saddened me, academic research shows Moe is right.If you have an original African, Asian or Middle Eastern name, your chance of being called for an interview is  much less than if your name sounds Anglo-Saxon.  Candidates with names such as Smith are at a distinct advantage compared with those called Al-Utaibi (Middle Eastern), Adekanmbi (Nigerians), Malakooti (Afghan), Etsehiwot (Ethiopian), and Chenguang (Chinese). Even amongAnglo-Saxon names, people with more easily pronounced names occupy higher status positions in professions such as law or politics. Lucky you, Tony Abbott and Bill Shorten. Research also shows that those with African, Asian, or Middle Eastern names are also less likely to be promoted. Australia is seen as a successful model of multiculturalism; however, this subtle and soft discrimination based on name profiling is chronic and growing in the Australian labour market. It is dampening the ambitions and aspirations of many young migrants.But the encounter with Moe also got me thinking about converts to Islam. I often see some new Muslims changing from their original names like John or Janet to Osman or Aisha. On one occasion at a La Trobe University prayer room I met an older Anglo-Saxon Muslim man. "Assalamu alaykum," I greeted him. "Wa'alaykum assalam," he responded as the Muslim custom requires. "What is your name brother?" I asked. "Ahmed," he answered, explaining he had converted to Islam 30 years earlier.Some new converts to Islam even change their family names believing that this is true Islam. While I respect their choice, it has nothing to do with Islamic teachings. Earlier in my life a well respected local Somali sheikh explained to me that Prophet Mohamed never changed the names of new converts to Islam unless the name had a bad meaning within Islam. 'Abdushamsi' (the slave of sun) is one such name. Almost all his companions kept their traditional names once they embraced Islam, names such as Abubakar, Omar, Khadijo, Maria, Salman, Bilal, Suhayb. Mohamed himself had his name long before he became a prophet.I think these new converts consult sheikh Google fatwaa and that's all. If anyone is going to change his or her name, I would invite them to adopt an Australian aboriginal name. I think this is fair. So from now on my nickname will be Yahbini, meaning "star". Many Africans and Asians also changed their  names during the Christian missionary expansion in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. This reminds me of an amusing encounter from 13 years ago, when I was new to Australia. I went to an office to fill out a form. "What is your Christian name?" asked the lady behind the desk.  "I'm  not Christian," I  said, incensed.At one of my favourite coffee shops in Fitzroy, a place to which people flock during  their morning break like thirsty camels around a water wheel, the woman behind the counter once asked: "What is your name?" "Yusuf," I said. "Josef?" She  leaned in to hear me better.  She tried again, "Yufus?" "Whatever is easy for you," I smiled. After all, it took me ages before I could pronounce the name of my Sri Lankan friend "Rajalingam."As I said, names tell stories. In free societies we are free to change our names, just as we're free to choose our lifestyle or religion. And yet when a person changes their name they risk obliterating not just their personal history but the history of their community and their sense of belonging to that group. A change of name can leave a person as vulnerable as a tree with damaged roots swaying in the wind.So what of my daughter's name? My mother in-law, aware of the community tension regarding Amelia, suggested instead the name "Eemaan", meaning faith.   We took her advice. For all that, the young people still call my girl Amelia.Dr Yusuf Omar is an Australian from a Somali  background. He recently completed a PHD on Somali youth perspectives and he is also one of the two Victorian members of the (federal) african ministerial consultative commitee (AMCC).  -

http://www.somaliaonline.com/whats-in-a-name-everything-if-you-are-a-migrant-and-muslim-by-dr-yusuf-omar/

[ElPunto]

Two comments. This idea that changing your name allows one to leave behind the baggage of ethnicity/race and will be less subjected to prejudice and stereotype is crap. Just look at the African-American experience. Two - this idea that converts change their names because of reliance on mistaken Shiekh Google is itself a stereotype as if converts are unable to research properly. A convert may wish to change their name for a myriad of reasons. One easy one is that having entered Islam a convert may want a new start to his/her life and as such a new name.

[bilan]

Name whatever you feel like naming your kids, but it annoys me as hell when people put down original Somali names and instead suggest Arabic names, not the ones that have roots in Islam, but names like Rania, Dalia,Shadia adil etc. seriously Someone even named their kid Sudaysi, not realizing that sh Sudaysi's name is Abdirahman, and Sudaysi is family name. do not tell me Sagal is ugly name and I should name my child sheering.

[Holac]

^ We live in a global village and Arabic names are more dominant due to media (TV, books, etc). Our grandparents were shielded from Arab influence, but things have changed. I agree we should not abandon our traditional names.