Our names always have a story to tell about who we are

This week’s column in The Kerryman newspaper

Michael Commane

This time of year newspapers print a list of the most common names given to newborn children during the year.

My current job has me working with a large number of non-Irish people, mainly from India and the African continent. It has taken me some time to pronounce their names correctly; it’s a whole new experience and one that I am enjoying.

Some weeks ago I got chatting to a mother, who had a new-born baby with her. The child’s name was Sailor. I was tempted to ask her if the daddy was a sailor man.

I’m intrigued with how we get our names, and I’m especially interested in the socio-economic background to so many of our first names.

And then there are all those family names that are associated with trades, occupations and professions. 

Someone told me that before we were given surnames we were known by the type of work we did. It made for a great discussion around the dinner table this Christmas. No doubt the Woods were working with tress or in the forest, and the Thatchers made roofs with straw or reeds. Presumably the Taylors were in the rag trade.

In Newbridge in Co Kildare there is a railway bridge called Sex’s Bridge and I’m told there is a good story as to how it got its name.

Many railway and canal bridges were called after the designing architects or engineers.

Our names are important and how we address people is also important. In school fadó fadó we were called by our surnames. It was a horrible practice but complemented the treatment meted out to us. The first thing the Germans did to those arriving at the concentration camps was to strip them of their names and burn a number on their arms.

Nicknames can be good fun or insulting and greatly harming. Kate Winslet recalled in a Christmas interview how she was called Blubber in school and then later as an adult was known as Corset Kate.

I was introduced to a man called Karl last month. I asked him had he been called after Karl Marx, he said no, that he had been called after Pope John Paul II, Karol Wojtyla. I silently laughed to myself as I can only imagine the man today has little or no time for popes and none at all for JPII. I know another man with whom I worked is simply known at JP and he too is another baby of the John Paul II era. I wonder what Mr Varadkar thinks of Pope Leo calling himself after a former taoiseach?

Is it my imagination or is it that today first names are driven by our social background. In the past first names were handed down from one generation to the next; I’m called after my paternal grandfather. Maybe up until the 1970s and ’80s children were also called after saints.

But those traditions seem to have disappeared; today there are the neutral names, Old Testament names, celebrity names, TV names, and yes, even in the Republic of Ireland, the royal names.

I think if I had a child I’d give them a name which would make for a simple email address.

Happy New Year to all.