A Good Name

My name is Dana Obaid BinGadeem Alsuwaidi دانة عبيد بن جديم السويدي, pronounced Daa-nih Ih-beed Bin-jadAim Isoow-Ahdy. All my names are of Arabic decent. My first name, Dana, means the big pearl: the source of wealth for many Arabic people long before the discovery of petrol. Emirati culture finds it imperative to designate a newborn’s name based on meaning and personality traits, which the name would grant. The name Dana is known to give an intelligent and powerful personality, it certainly is not a coincidence that the name Dana in Urdu means ‘the intelligent’.

 As for my last name, it is a big part of my identity. Prior to the UAE’s burgeon, there were no ID’s nor were there any passports, so your tribal name (family name) represented who you are. It has the power to venerate you or vilify you in the scrutinizing eyes of society. When you come across strangers, they would innevitably ask you for your last name, they would then proceed to ask you about your ancestors and your father paying little to no attention to your trivial first name. Hundreds of years of accomplishments that you could never personally take credit for shape and mold your identity. People feel a great sense of pride due to the status of their family name, as they should, because the venerable family name holds all the military, political and economic success of a family. Family names impinge our lives dramatically hitherto, even in conjugal affairs. In almost all arranged marriages in the UAE, people marry based on family reputation.  

Our names are a big part of our identities. When someone calls me by my name, I often stop and gawk at the significance of the mixture of vowels and letters that flow with the wind into my ears. “That’s MY name.” I would often say to my self. This may be deemed nominal and fatuous of me, however through meticulous observations I can truly appreciate the beauty in fine print that is often swallowed by the ephemeral ebulliently busy lives we lead. My name is of great significance in my life. It is what people identify me as; it is what I identify myself with. It is the name that will be printed on all my achievements such as my diploma and my university degrees. Likewise, it is the name that would be printed on my wrong deeds such as a car ticket, or (God forbid) a jail sentence. That name is given to you, yet it becomes yours. You grow with it, it changes you and you change it. There will come a day when you hear your boss call your name and your tongue will betray you and it will release an acrimonious taste in your mouth. However, there will also be a day when your name will be the first words your nephew utters at the sight of your smile and it will feel like a winsome zephyr on a warm day. Despite the good and the bad days, your name will stay the same and rarely would you ever find yourself wanting to expunge it. Through life you and your name live together, and when the time comes for your petals to vapidly wilt, your name will go and live with another, taking part of you with it.

(Sadly, I have no images of my Bedouin grandparents, this image is from www.deyaralnagab.com)