Contrary to popular belief, Maldive parents are rather pragmatic when it comes to choosing a name for their child.

A generation ago, most people were not commonly known by their birth names. Instead they were called by an alternative name such as Dohuttu, Lahuttu, Tutteedi, Kudamaniku, or Don Goma.

The rationale behind this practice was that if the evil spirits did not know one’s real name, one would be free from their spells. On occasion there had even been the odd child who was called Maraduru (Death-distant) or Rakkalu (Protection), reflecting the high frequency of infant mortality and a superstitious, yet ingenious and thoroughly Maldive solution to the problem.

Maldivians seriously believed in a whole pantheon of pre-Islamic spirits until quite recently. Chief amongst them was Rannamaari, the supreme deity of the sea. Others included Kissaddevi, Buddevi, Kaddevi Muladevi, Kafikolu, Miskiyddaara, Badi-Edurukaleyge, Afirinfaara, Haamundi and Oditaan.

The terms devi and deo, suffixed to some of these names, in classical Maldive meant god or goddess, as they do in many other tongues of the Indo-European family of languages. No doubt, at one time these spirits would have been worshipped as gods.

Although still secretly feared, and clandestinely supplicated by sorcerers, this pantheon of spirits has long been officially superseded since the advent of Islam eight and a half centuries ago and with it, the worship of the monotheistic Deity called Maaiy-Kalaange in Maldive, Allah in Arabic, Elohim in Hebrew and God in English.

Until recently, only a handful of birth names have commonly been used. These have included those of the Prophet and his better-known disciples and kin. Eg.: Mohamed, Ahmed, Ali, Fatima, Aysha, Omar, Hussain etc. In addition to these names, a few of the Biblical names mentioned in the Koran have also been used. Eg.: Ibrahim (Abraham), Ismail (Ishmael), Moosa (Moses), Isa (Moslem Arabic name for Jesus; the Christian Arabic name for Jesus is Yeshua), Adam, Sarah, Hawwa (Eve), Maryam (Mary) and so on.

Towards the middle of the Twentieth Century, Maldive parents gathered enough courage, spiritual and political, to call their children by more exotic names, which were nevertheless thought to be Islamic because they were either Arabic (eg.: Majid) or perceived to be Arabic. In fact many of these names were pre-Islamic Persian (eg.: Iqbal or Sheereen) or even Greek (eg.: Sofia - this was one of many names absorbed by the Ottomans during their conquest of the Byzantine Roman Empire).

Most Maldive parents do not seem to realise that orthodox Islamic laws and traditions have always been fairly liberal as to one’s personal name. The only sanction is against names of polytheistic gods and goddesses. This rules out such names as Laat, Uzzah, Janice, Diana, Thor, Maya, Shiva, Oditaan and Rannamaari as possible names for one’s child if one were a law-abiding Moslem.

The Prophet Mohamed, after all, was not fussy about "Islamicising" or Arabicising the names of his non-Arab disciples, converts and concubines. Both his Ethiopian disciple Bilal and Persian disciple Salman kept their foreign names, as did his Greek-Egyptian concubine Maria, sent to him as a gift by George son of Muttaq el-Mukoukis, governor of Alexandria. The sultans of Constantinople who were the last of the caliphs (temporal successors to the Prophet Mohamed) regularly married women from amongst their European Christian subjects. They were allowed to keep their native names and even allowed to pass them on to their descendants, eg: Roxelana or Roxana.

A generation of tentative experimentation with exotic "Islamic" names demonstrated that Rannamaari, Oditaan and company have clearly spared the Majids, and Sofias of the Maldives - although it is unclear if some of the Majids have in fact been spared by Rannamaari.

This and increased contact with infidel peoples through travel, English education, Hindi movies, tourism and television has resulted in children whose names are obviously not Koranic, Arabic or even Persian or Turkified Greek. Such names include Maria-Teresa, Sunil, Shizni, Sheena and a whole host of others.

With the advent of these names, a practice that was first introduced at the time when people started using the non-traditional "Islamic" names, have become institutionalised or even, by some people’s reckoning, mandatory. This is the practice of giving a child two names. The original motive behind the dual name was probably taking precaution against any negative spiritual consequences.

For instance, the boy who is commonly known as Ameetabh (an Indian name adopted from Hindi movies) would have been registered at birth as, say, Ahmed Ameetabh; only not many people would know or would be encouraged to find out that he is also called Ahmed. Ahmed is an old-fashioned, fuddy-duddy name. Instead of manipulating Oditaan or Kissaddevi, the sly Maldive parent is, in this case, trying to deceive Naakir and Nakeer.

In Arabian mythology, when Michael, the Archangel of Death departs after performing his macabre duty, each of us will be visited by the two angels, Naakir, the Recorder of Virtue and Nakeer, the Recorder of Vice.

When this celestial pair visits Ahmed Ameetabh in his grave, Nakeer will gleefully say to Naakir, "He is mine! Isn’t he an infidel Hindu, a worshipper of idols?" Naakir would confidently reply, "No, he is mine! Isn’t he Ahmed, a follower of the Prophet of the Almighty?"

A quick check of the heavenly database would confirm that Naakir was in fact right. A couple of Maldive parents have yet again beaten the system!

More recently, a rather more tricky obstacle in the way of choosing a name than any devi, deo or angel seems to have reared its head.

This obstacle is in the form of the bureaucracy. Currently there seems to be some sort of screening of proposed names for their "purity".

The paradox lies in the fact that Ibrahim (Abraham), Shamoon (Shimon) or Ishag (Yitzhak), all Jewish names are acceptable while Cain, Rebecca and Haïm are not, because they are Jewish!

The resourceful Maldive parent will, no doubt, find a way around this minor problem!

Maldive parents have sought actively to have fellow Maldivians embarrassed by having to pronounce tongue-twisting names.

Until fairly recently, Maldivians could not pronounce several Arabic and other foreign consonants adopted into Maldive. Sheen was pronounced as seen and javiyani and zaviyani were pronounced as daal.

Today, names with combinations of these consonants are highly sought after with pride. The zaviyani- sheen combination seems to be a particular favourite. There is no doubt that all the permutations and combinations of these two consonants have nearly been exhausted as personal names. Eg: Shizni, Zishni, Zishaan, Shinaaz, and so on.

Acquiring copyrights over the remaining combinations could well be an enterprising money-maker. There is bound to be a lucrative market for these names- but then respect for copyrights, patents and other intellectual property is a decadent foreign conspiracy.

The Surname

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