Once again I’m coming back on the subject of names, because while I was looking for Ethiopian names on the Internet I found some news in a newspaper from Israel where it was reported that in certain schools of that country children from Ethiopian origin were forced to change their names to others that are more “adequate”, according to the teachers’ criteria.
I think that reflects a total ignorance from the teachers part; forcing those kids to give up their names is like asking them to give up their identity.
First names are very important in Ethiopian culture and there is the belief that if you change your name your personality will also change, as well as your luck.
Besides, children identify with their names as individuals, as part of a family and as part of a culture, especially when they emigrated from their native country.
A name can only be changed by the person who bears it since it’s a decision that will affect her for the rest of her life.
In Argentina it is very common for women to keep their maiden name after getting married; on the other hand in the US women tend to adopt their husband’s last name and many times they keep it even after a divorce.
While I was living in Argentina, I kept my maiden name even after I got married, but when we moved here I decided to take Miguel’s last name, just because for an American it is easier to say Alicia Grinberg than Alicia Crivicich (my maiden name) and I knew that if I had kept it I would have had to spell it every time, and fix a thousand errors in all kind of documents.
But I did it because I don’t give much importance to names, I feel that my identity goes beyond a word, but I’m an adult that thought about it and made a decision about MY name and how I want to be called.
Regarding the names of my Ethiopian children, at first we thought that we would give them new names and their birth names would become their middle names, but now after much consideration we have decided to do the reverse: we will keep their birth names, even when they don’t sound “American” and some people may find them difficult to pronounce. Over time if they want to change their Ethiopian names or want to be called by the middle names we will give them I’m OK with that, but it’s going to be their personal decision.
I want to keep that little connection with their culture even when it is only a name.
Since I was looking for Ethiopian names, their meanings and their writing in Amharic on the Internet, I decided to make a list with everything I found and to post it on my blog, so be on the look out, because when I finish it I will post it on the Amharic page.

AliciA