From the Naming Ceremony

Photo of Josias holding Shi-ming-go Mah-twe-he-gun Ah-pew in his arms after the ceremony was over.

I remember, in great detail, the personal process of finding my son Riley his name.  It involved baby books, scouring the world wide web’s storehouse of baby names and then bouncing the names I’d found off my friends for their take. It didn’t take me long to decide to name him Brody (it’s actually one of his middle names). Here are the reasons I chose it. It’s a cool-sounding name. It has a nice ring to it and it goes well with the times. I’m not an Emily, John, Wendy or Robert type of person. Here’s my reasoning: those names are too common.

Everyone has them. Mind you they’re good names. And get this: when people immigrate to Canada from developing countries, they tend to give their children the type of name I rejected. Why you ask? Because most people doing the hiring in large cities are middle-aged white people who are more likely to hire, say someone named Emily Jackson over someone named Kimiko Shewaybick for example – at least that’s what I learned when tuning in to an episode of the Tyra Banks Show one day several months ago. There you go. What’s at the top of your resume does say a lot about you and it does this even before people meet you. Here’s something else to think about: Riley is a unisex name meaning it goes well with a boy or a girl kind of like Jamie does. Now that I think about it, I’m not sure Riley will appreciate that I agreed to let his dad call him Riley as his first name because his job application might get trashed because the person doing the hiring can’t figure out if it’s a man or woman who applied for their advertised position.

Anyway, here’s the dictionary definition of name. It is a label for a person, place or thing normally used to distinguish one from another.

Names can identify a class, category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. A personal name identifies a specific unique and identifiable individual person.

In multiple and different world mythologies and folklore, knowing the name of a thing is considered to have power over a thing (to varying degrees). Which leads me to the real reason why I’m writing today, my son’s father and I recently went to visit a well-respected Elder and medicine man with an offering of tobacco and a request: “will you do us the honour of giving our son his Indian name?” We held our collective breaths as he took time to think about our request, and we were very pleased (and relieved) when he said yes. You see, asking a medicine man to name your child is like asking them to take the child on as their spiritual guide and advisor. It is a lifetime commitment and it is a very special agreement between the mother and father, the child and the medicine man.

He took our offering of tobacco and each night went to sleep with it beside him for several days while he prayed to the spirits to reveal the name of our son to him. At the end of that period, he called upon us to come as a family to attend a sweat lodge ceremony. It was at that sweat lodge ceremony that our son’s name was revealed to us. The ceremony itself was intense and when we emerged from the depths of that darkened lodge at the ceremony’s conclusion we were feeling stronger, healthier and at peace. Shi-ming-go Mah-twe-he-gun Ah-pew (translated it means “Smiling Drumming Boy/Man”). What a beautiful name, and so appropriate to Riley as he is loud, boisterous, friendly and fearless.  I give thanks to the spirits for naming him. We also consider ourselves very fortunate to have Josias Fiddler as our son’s spiritual guide and advisor because of who he is. He is a kind man who is generous with his time, teachings and compassion. We truly feel he will lead our son well into the future. And here’s something interesting Josias told us at the end of the ceremony that I too will also leave you to think about: some of our people have even moved to completely stop using their ‘colonial’ or ‘residential school’ names after receiving their traditional name.