As we become increasingly involved in the community here in Nasir, make more friends, and contextualize our lives more and more, we have finally been given Nuer names! We obviously could not name ourselves, so we just had to wait for the people around us to decide what we should be called. And here, that is a pretty big deal.
Often since we’ve been here, we’ve had people ask our names, and once we tell them, their next question is, “What does your name mean?” Then we have to explain that our names don’t have any significance…our parents just liked them. That frequently confuses people. Here, people are often named according to the circumstances surrounding their birth. One of our language tutors is called Ruac, and the word ruac means “to speak.” He said that many people were around speaking when he was born. Our other tutor is called Duop, which means “road,” because he was born next to a road.
Blaise was given his Nuer name several weeks ago, and it was an obvious choice. His name is Wiöt (wee-yote), which is the word that is used to describe a traditional Nuer men’s hairstyle in which the whole head is shaved except for a patch on the top of the head that grows long. It’s the closest thing to mohawk that the Nuer have. So Blaise is now Wiöt.
Mine, however, took a little more time. A couple of weeks ago, Christina was named NyaKim, which means “doctor,” and Laura was named NyaWic, which means “girl of Nasir.” After they had all received their names, I asked Ruac what I was to be called. He said he would need to think about it some more.
Hmmmm.
Finally, on Tuesday, Ruac gave me my Nuer name: NyaMouc (nya-moych), which means “to give, as in a gift.”
I like it!
So, we are The Ginters: Wiöt and NyaMouc. =)
