Kim: The brand name for shortening here is "Kimbo," which is my parents' pet name for me. I recently gave my name to a shop clerk while buying sodas for a church event. He wrote "Kim" as "Camel." That was a low blow.
Dusty: Very tricky for Tanzanians to say, so he usually goes by Dustin, which is pronounced like "Dastin" and is frequently said "Datsun." Yes, you remember those vehicles from the '70's, right? When we first got here, he was occasionally referred to as "Bwana Vumbi" (Mr. Dust).
Tessa: Before she was born, we asked Tanzanian friends to pronounce a list of names so we wouldn't burden a child with a butchered name. Our friends said "Tessa" properly, and we went with it. What they didn't tell us is that in Swahili it means "torture." Oops. So we frequently find ourselves explaining that it is a short name for "Teresa" even though that's not her name. "Tesa" is also the name of a laundry soap here, so that brings a nicer connotation than torture - don't you think? It turns out many here can't say the 'e' in her name the way we say it, so it comes out as "Tassa" or "Teesa."
Jack: With Jack we went with a name that is also used here, Jackson. We knew we would call him "Jack" though, and because Tanzanian names almost always end with a vowel, we knew they would call him "Jackie" which sounds like a girl's name to us, so before we knew it, we were calling him "Jacko" as a preemptive strike against "Jackie." However, people now call him "Jakobo" thinking his name is "Jacob."
Hill: Having a complicated maiden name, I thought no one could screw up "Hill." I mean, it's a common noun with only one syllable and only one spelling. Wrong. When I showed up for my first prenatal appointment in Nairobi when I was pregnant with Tessa, I found they had written my last name as "Hell." Yep.
Fortunately I go by "Mama Tessa" almost all the time, which is the normal format for parents' names here - they stick Mama or Baba (Father) in front of the eldest child's name. Because of this, it's funny that you can know someone quite well without ever knowing their first name.
More on Tanzanian names at a later date. Till then, this is Camel signing off on behalf of Datsun, Teesa, and Jakobo.
May 22 Update:
We took Jack to the clinic to submit a "sample" to be tested for parasites. It came up negative! But we had a classic name mix-up, this time with evidence:
Our friend, the doctor, wrote Jack's second name as "Dusty," and the receptionist took it one step further.
3 comments:
Ha! I laughed out loud when I read about your name being written "camel."
There's something about Jacobo that I like - I think it has to do with that character in The Count of Monte Cristo being a loyal friend and servant. That's one of my favorite books.
Once when I worked at the library, a lady called in to renew her books, and when I asked for her last name, she said "Heel" so I spelled it out and she said "No, H-I-L-L, like a hill" - she had a thick southern accent and I felt like a heel!
Oh yes, that's always funny in Tanzania. People were usually confused when I told them tha my name is "Johanna" because here in Germany we pronounce it like the Swahili male name "Yohana"...
I'm totally cracking up! Upon introduction, Luke is called "Lukas" and Malia is usually "Mariamu" or "Meri" even though they shouldn't have any trouble pronouncing her name. I used to tell people "I'm Kelly, like baiskeli (bicycle)." Their answer without fail was, "No, not like baiskeli!" and then would proceed to call me Karin or something else way off in my mind. So I stuck with Mama Luka.
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