What's In A Name?
When I was on the maternity ward having my first child, my ex took it upon himself to do a little cultural intervention and prevent a couple (of the non-Anglophone variety) from naming their son "Mathew" as opposed to "Matthew". That neither of us were aware of the French "Mathieu" (I know, Canadien philistines) is irrelevant since the couple was, well, not French, either. Indeed, they were an "ethnic" couple, as most of the other couples on the ward were - demographics being what they are and all. But we both have Bachelor of Arts degrees from the University of Toronto and we couldn't bear for their son to be held back in life by what we knew would be some pointy WASP teacher who would stream him into the tech high school (I know, I know - they don't do that anymore) because his parents didn't know that the correct spelling of Mathew is Matthew.
It was 1990. Long before Canadians knew there were Muslims. Or even Arab Christians - which is what that couple was. Arab Christian from Lebanon (I'm guessing, but from what I learned via the woman who worked at the convenience store near our suburban home in Ottawa - years later - that couple was most likely from Lebanon naming their son with the good Christian Mathew/Matthew).
ANYWAY, to make a drunk post shorter, I just have to say, we thought it was a little bizarre that couples from elsewhere, now/then here, would be naming their sons (and daughters) - and we encountered other couples on the ward, Italian, Polish, African - with names like Ashley and Justin - and Mathew/Matthew - instead of... well... less "Top Ten Canadian WASP baby names".
Which brings me to the point of this entry - why is it that so many Muslim parents name their sons, Mohammed? I mean, honestly, and not to be officious, but - I can see where so many Mohammeds, aged young to teen, are going to cause an administrative nightmare one of these days. As a G-person, I just want to suggest that you Muslim parents mix it up a bit. For instance, when I was in grades five and six, my teacher was a Muslim man from Guyana, first name Ahmed (second name... Mohammed...). It turns out his third name was also Amin, but we didn't find that out until a few years later - when it was safe to say your last name was Amin. In the meantime, it also turned out his first name was actually Mohammed - but for the sake of Westerners, he went by Ahmed. My point being - why are all Muslims boys named Mohammed?!
Anyhoo, the moral of this story is: never post drunk.
I think I'll leave this post as a lesson to myself. But seriously - what's with all the Mohammeds?! I mean - c'mon. THERE ARE TOO MANY MOHAMMEDS! STOP NAMING YOUR SONS MOHAMMED!
