Traditions of Naming

The Intermediate Listening & Speaking class of the Loyola Intensive English Program has been working with traditions of naming: meanings of names, good names for babies, ceremonies for naming babies, formal and informal ways of addressing people, legal name changes, effective business names, hurricane names.

Below, three students display and explain their names.

Mr. Dong-Joo Lee of Korea has written his name in the Korean script, in the English alphabet, and in Chinese characters. In Korea, the family name, in this case Lee, is placed first. Dong-Joo explained that there are several Lee families in Korea. He belongs to the Gyeng-Ju Lee family group. Dong-Joo also explained that his family consulted a naming specialist to give him his individual name. The name Dong-Joo was chosen for him. Dong-Joo means East Pillar.

Ms. Ekaterina "Katya" Yurevna Dashkovskaya of Russia is married. Her original family name is Vasileva, but since her marriage, she uses the family name of her husband, Dashkovskaya. Katya explained that her first name, Ekaterina, means Purity. She told us that nearly all Russians use a nickname, or a short form of their first name. She herself is called Katya, a short form of Ekaterina. Katya also explained that Russians have a middle name, based on the first name of their father, with a masculine ending for a son and a feminine ending for a daughter. Because Katya's father's first name is Yuri, Katya's middle name is Yurevna.

Ms. Sonia Maria Clemente of Brazil explained that her first name, Sonia, means Dreams Come True. Her middle name, Maria, comes from her family's Catholic religious faith, where it is common to name a child after a holy person. Maria was chosen as Sonia's middle name to honor the mother of Jesus. Clemente is the family name of Sonia's father.

Thank you to Mr. Dong-Joo Lee, Ms. Ekaterina "Katya" Yurevna Dashkovskaya, and Ms. Sonia Maria Clemente for sharing the meaning of their names with us!