The Land of Plenty of Names

What’s in a name?

Plenty, for Somalis arriving in the United States.

In Somalia, people traditionally go by a single name--their given name--such as Ali or Abebe or Abdi or Sahar.

But when the refugees are processed by immigration officials to come here, they must have a family, or last, name as well. So they take either their father’s given name or their grandfather’s given name.

For example, Abdi Hussein, who works for the International Rescue Committee in San Diego, took as his family name Hussein, after his grandfather. For a middle name, he took his father’s given name, Arab.

The procedure results in different family names for Hussein’s 2-year-old son and his wife.

His son, named Dek, has Abdi as his middle name, after his father, and Arab for his family name, after his grandfather.

His wife, with a given name of Jamad, has Ahmed as her family name, after her grandfather, and a middle name, Hussein, after her father (no relation to her husband’s grandfather.)

So there’s Abdi Arab Hussein and Jamad Hussein Ahmed, husband and wife, and their son, Dek Abdi Arab.

The process has been equally confusing both to teachers coping with four or more Alis in a class and to the Somalis themselves, who aren’t yet used to the name profusion.