What’s in a Surname?

About this poem

Almost everyone has or is born with a surname, also known as a family name. I say almost everyone, since in my wife’s native Southeast Asian country of Burma (Myanmar), surnames are considered a European invention and are not traditionally assigned, as was the case with former United Nations Secretary-General U Thant, a Burmese, who bore the honorific “U” (“Mister”) assigned to men of a certain rank or status. This honorific was attached to his only given personal name that was solely “Thant” and when it was combined with the prefix “U” simply referred to “Mister Thant;” just as a Westerner, or even more likely an Easterner, honoring me, might address me as “Mr Karl,” using only my first name. Foreigners unfamiliar with the Burmese culture, would, in error, often refer to the Burmese Secretary General as “Mr. U Thant,” not recognizing that the honorific Burmese “U” already referred to “Mr” and therefore, in error, they were mistakenly addressing him twice as “Mister.” As in traditional Burmese culture, Native Americans (the First Peoples of the Americas) also do not traditionally have surnames, unless they accommodate to Western traditions. However, they often have two names, with one preserved and kept private for protection of the person’s core psychic identity. In Europe and the Western world surnames, as a tradition, began to be used in the 12th century, after the Norman invasion of Britain, but actually took several centuries before the majority of Europeans were assigned one. Broadly speaking, the use of surnames falls into four distinct categories, as follows: A. Patronymic names, or names derived from other names usually referring to a male ancestor, but occasionally also as a matronymic derived from a female ancestor; B. “Occupational Names” referring originally to the occupation of the bearer’s ancestors; C. Locational or Topographic surnames derived from the former domicile or residence of the bearer’s ancestors; D. Surnames derived from nicknames formerly assigned to the bearer’s ancestors. In short, a person’s surname or family name can be a rich treasure trove or reservoir of “tall tales” about people that are truly sometimes larger than life. This poem “What’s in a Surname “ has focused on two eminent “larger than life” European psychiatrists, who devoted their careers to decoding secrets of the human psyche unraveled in languages as their containers. As a postscript I must offer profound thanks to an online reader who has since directed my attention to the humorous phenomenon of “Nominative Determinism” that makes the observation of how a person’s occupation or professional calling seems so often to correspond with or to be determined by the names they are given or called, hence the phrase “Nominative Determinism.” While we are on the subject of names and jokes about them, how about initials. Mine is KCF. My family members often claim my jokes are “too fried,” and, in gesture. replace my given initials with those of KFC, as in the Kentucky Fried Chicken food chain industry. I do declare that to be Subjective Determinism, don’t you? more »