Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Sa'diyah – Fortunate (Name)

My name is an Arabian name which means fortunate. My grandmother named me which I love
dearly. I always though my name was too long. My name written in Somali is Sacdiya. My name in Arabic is written as Halimah-Sacdiyah. Halimah means gentle, patient and mild-tempered. Some people have the wrong name which does not describe them at all. I am everything this name represents and more. I was given this name because of my character. My character is sweet, caring, respectful, loving and very humble. In my culture, to identify a Somali, three names must be used: a given name followed by the father's given name and the grandfather's. Women, therefore, do not change their names at marriage. Nearly all men and some women in Somalia are identified by a public name, naanays. There are two kinds of naanays or nicknames, similar to Western nicknames, and covert nicknames, which are used to talk about a person but rarely used to address that person. Nickname is very common with Somali people. I don’t have any nickname, but I would love to have a nickname but I don’t. My name is very unique and it describes me perfectly.

My name is sound and written different in English than it does in Somali. My name in English is written as Sadia and it was hard at first to get used to it. People who are not Somalian pronounce my name in many ways. I used to get very annoyed at first that people can’t pronounce my name the correct way but then I learned that I have harder time pronouncing certain names. My name is very common in older ladies. When I was little girl I never liked my name because kids used to make fun of me. Now that I am older and wiser I appreciate my name because I was given this name by Maryan Abdi, my grandmother, who is the most important person next to my mom. My grandmother took care of me when I was young.

The name came from a section in Quran, the Holy book for Islam. Since Somalia is one hundred percent Islam country most of the names they use are from Arabian names and which are mostly Islamic names. My name was originally Hamlio-Sacdiya. It is actually two names put together. I was named after the lady who breast-feeds the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessing be upon him. Halimo-Sacdiya took care of the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessing be upon him. She was very humble and caring woman. After finding out that I was named after the lady took care of the prophet and was I very touched because the Prophet is very important to me and to many Muslim people around the world. A lot of Somali people are name after the Prophets, or Prophet’s wife’s, daughters, sons or influence people such as Presidents. For example my brother was name after the President of Egypt, Anwar Al Sadat. We call him Sadad which means, in Arabic good fortune or good luck. In my culture it is very common to be named after a grandmother, father or cousin or uncle. Even though my name is Halimo-Sacdiya, I was never called Halimo-Sacdiya because it is too long so I drop the first name and I go by Sacdiya only. It is very few people who have two names. My sisters have a second name.

My name suits me perfectly. I am very glad that my grandmother choosed such a wonderful name for me. Different cultures have different names and all we need to do is respect each other’s culture. Names are very unique and that’s why we are multicultural World. Even though my name is an older name I would not change my name because it defines me and that’s who I am.

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