My Name is A Gift

8 hours ago
4 min read

Debut author Zeshan Akhter has generously written this piece for the Armadillo Blog, sharing more about her own background, the inspiration for her charming picturebook and the experience of becoming a writer.

The inspiration for My Name Is A Gift came in large part from my mum. As I was growing up, she often spoke about the importance of choosing beautiful names for babies. As a person of Pakistani heritage, the languages of my ethnicity are Urdu and Punjabi. As a Muslim, I also have access to Arabic, which is the language of my faith. Being poetic, these languages are rich sources of meaningful names. For example, Fareeda (f) means “gem or precious pearl,” Manar (f) means “guiding light,” Khalil (m) means “friend,” “companion” or “trustworthy,” and Hadi (m) means “leader” or “guide”. People from many cultures choose names for their children that symbolise their hope and blessings for their little ones. Learning the meanings of person’s name when I meet them is part of the fun of getting to know someone.

Research has shown that babies are sensitive to their name by the age of four months and by five months not only detect their name, but also use it as a social cue to guide their attention to events and objects in the world. David Zhu, professor of management and entrepreneurship at Arizona State University and researcher in the psychology of names, says, "Because a name is used to identify an individual and communicate with the individual daily, it serves as the very basis of one's self-conception, especially concerning others.''

So names are more than just labels; they are an integral part of our identity and sense of self.

The importance of names is even encoded into the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. For example, article 7 states that “Children must be registered when they are born and given a name which is officially recognized by the government.” Article 8 states that: “Children have the right to their own identity – an official record of who they are which includes their name... No one should take this away from them, but if this happens, governments must help children to quickly get their identity back.”

In My Name Is A Gift, the little girl Sitara describes the process whereby she is given her name. Sitara says that “When I met Daddy and fitted in his hands, I didn’t have a name. So Daddy and Mummy whispered one in my ear.” Asa Gilland’s stunning illustrations are so beautifully imagined. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect visual image for this scene.

When a child’s name is mis-pronounced, the changed word loses its meaning. In My Name Is A Gift, this is what Sitara is conveying when she says that some people who have never heard of her name before” tumble up my name in their mouths,” and “miss out letters or put them the wrong way round,” which results in words “…that are NOT my name, they’re just jumbled up sounds." I chose the phrase “tumble up my name in their mouths,” because sometimes it feels as if when we try and say unfamiliar names, the letters can get thrown about in the oral equivalent of a washing machine and come out mangled, inside-out and the wrong way around.

A name is the first gift that is bestowed on babies by their parents or caregivers. This concept is key to My Name Is A Gift. The main character, Sitara says, that her name is the first gift she ever received, “wrapped in Daddy and Mummy’s love.” Gifts are cherished and it seems to me that this first gift of a name has an especially tender wrapping that needs to be treated with care.

Traditionally, in many cultures, careful consideration is given to choosing names because they are carried throughout life, and according to belief, even afterwards. It is believed in many cultures that names can have an influence on the development of childrens’ personalities and identities, how they view themselves and their potential in life. Names should be affectionate, and signal positive attributes. There is academic research on this topic, some of which looks at the impact of names that are considered successful and whether the concept of self-fulfilling prophecies might be at play.

But we need only consider the before-and-after names of famous people to see the impact of difficult names. For example, the Hollywood actor Joaquin Phoenix has a distinguished surname, but his original family name was Bottom which his parents changed early in their children's lives.

Another fascinating perspective is that when children are given names in honour of ancestors or figures of importance from the past, in their mind’s eye, they can envisage their own selves as the heroes of those epic stories. I also carefully research the meanings of names when I create characters for my books.

In My Name is A Gift, the little girl’s name, Sitara, means “shine like a star.” After I wrote this book, it occurred to me that I might have unconsciously picked this name because when my siblings and I were little my mum always said we should aim to shine like stars in whatever we chose to do in life. It was a courageous wish for my mother to make. She came to the United Kingdom from Pakistan after she married. She was so far from all she knew and from her support network, but she wasn’t intimidated, she still wanted her children to aim high. My wish for children who read the book is also to aim high in life, to have the courage to stand up for their names and value the stories behind them.