Namesaking Essay Sample

Naming of a child after a relative or a prominent person is very common in our society; some people believe that naming their children after a prominent person or a successful member of the family will help the child adopt some of the traits possessed by the person he\she is being named after. Other cases are where parents give their children their names and then add suffixes at the end, for instance,’jr’, mainly to communicate to the world and let them know that this is my son or this my daughter, as for me I have been given the first name of my grandfather, I can say openly that I would love to become half a man that he is, he is a noble family man and a man of the people. There are people who regret using their parents name or their grandparents’ names simply because they have been horrible people and never like to be associated with them or their names.
I know it somehow seem unfair for a woman to carry a child in her own womb and the child to not adopt her name but the father’s name. However, that is how it is in our communities and sometimes it is contributed mainly by the societal norms and cultural practices. Men are viewed as the heads of the family and it would not make perfect sense if the children adopt their mothers name instead of their fathers or their grandfathers’ name. Naming of the child is usually considered a hard task since there have to be carried out some immense research in order to come up with the name that the child will be given. In some cases the parents have to wait for the grandparents to come up with the most appropriate name that can go hand in hand with their names. For instance, in my community, the first child adopts the names of the grandparents from the father’s side depending on their gender, the second child adopts the names of the uncles or the aunties depending on their gender as well, and then the lastborns adopts the names of the grandparents from the mother’s side.
In other cases the mother may decide to give the child the name of her husband as a means of honoring the husband or in cases where the two are unwed the mother may decide that the child posses the name of his dad and this may change the fathers mind and decide to stick around.It is also believed that naming one’s child after your name enhances a better relationship between you and the child, it brings the feeling of identity.

Conclusion

I think “name-saking” is a great idea in many ways; it is a way of creating identity for someone and brings a sense of belonging to a certain family. It also helps in making one believe that he/she might become like the people they named after. Moreover, it helps strengthen the bond between the father and their sons when they name their sons after themselves. As for myself I wouldn’t have any problem giving my son my name, it is something am looking forward to.