Brazilian aboriginals regard names, next to body and soul, as an inherent part of the self. For them, to tell your name means to let yourself (be) known. Community roots The naming of a person is a rite of passage...
Names Under the Dome: a Peek into Samoan Culture
As the weather is getting colder in the Northern Hemisphere, this is the right moment to share with you the warmth of the Samoan Islands – the land created as a resting place for the gods. Celebrations in Samoa Samoans...
The Exceptions: European Male Names Ending in A
In most of the Indo-European languages that have gender in nouns, we notice that personal names also follow specific gender rules. In the previous article “Why most European names ending in A are female“, I tried to analyse and explain...
Why Most European Names Ending in A Are Female
Throughout the Western world, European civilization has dominated the naming customs ever since the Ancient times. Greek names were en vogue during the Hellenistic period, Roman names in late Antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages, when the now...
The Journey of the Name Sophia
The name Sophia has now become one of the most popular baby names around the globe. You can find it amongst the top favourites in Europe, the Americas and even Asia. It is widely used by people from all cultures...
The Finns of the Steppe and Their Mordvin Names
There was a recent news article that Gérard Depardieu, the French actor most known to people from the 60’s onward has decided to renounce his EU citizenship and move to Russia. As Russia is quite fond of what they call...
The Old Buddhists of Europe
There is a place at the edge of Europe, by the Caspian Sea and just before the Ural Mountains where you can find the only Buddhist people with roots in this old continent. The Kalmyk people They are the Kalmyks...
Cyrillic and its Long Journey East
Over time, humankind has tried to transform oral speech into written texts and has developed many writing forms along the way. From the old cuneiform to Egyptian hieroglyphs, Chinese ideograms, Semitic consonants and Latin letters, we have tried it all,...
Find Your Yakut Spirit Name
Have you ever wondered what mysteries lie hidden in the frozen realms of distant Siberia? What dreams are there to be dreamt, lost on the open steppe? We begin a journey that will take us along the Silk Road, over...
Calling Alexander
Alexander is a world famous name ever since a certain Greek Alexander the Great conquered half of the then-known world and became infamous. Nowadays, there are many Alexanders, if not all great, as well as many Alex’s, Alexey’s and even...
