Monday, September 21, 2015

Names

The baby is unfortunately named Andrea. Now, while that may sound pretty normal and even mundane within the western context, this particular Andrea exists not in the western world. There is nothing western about Andrea. Neither of her parents are westerners. In fact, they are as Malay as you can get.

So what were her parents thinking of??? They have obviously not taken into account the context of the surroundings that they exist in when they were selecting a name for her

Ha, be prepared to have your child complain later on that people are ask her if she is Muslim or not...and when she says that she is, they would want to know why she has a non-Muslim name (oh yes, there are going to be people who would want to know that). They might even want to know if she is Malay (pigeon holing people into their respective race categories seems to be a very big thing around here).

Andrea's mother comes from a kampung. She married a city boy. I guess she married up. She doesn't feel comfortable speaking English around more fluent speakers. Perhaps this name choice is more about  Andrea's mother's aspirations to white wash her child in the literal sense?

I think it is important to name your child with a name that would reflect her belonging within the context of the immediate society that she will be raised in. It is important that the name of your child reflects her cultural background as well. After all, shouldn't we all be proud of our respective heritages?

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