Rebecca Grace

Even though we are a mere 5 weeks away from leaving this country we are still learning about the people, customs and traditions. A few months ago Miriam (our maid) told us that her teenage daughter was expecting a baby and she said that when it is born if it is a boy it will be named John and if it is a girl it will be Charlene. At that point I probably responded inappropriately by saying that Charlene is nearly impossible to pronounce for Zambians. When I introduce myself to someone I usually get a blank stare like I just landed from another planet or the courageous ones will give it a shot and come up with something like “Shereen”. I think I was secretly hoping she would have a boy so that John would have a little African namesake but last Monday we found out she’d had a beautiful little girl. I waited until Friday to ask what the name was and was told that they were waiting for me to come and name her! We chatted a bit and I tried fishing for the types of names that they might like but she wasn’t giving too many clues. I explained that in our culture it is always the parents responsibility to name the child and Miriam thought that was very odd as she didn’t name any of her 6 children.

Basically we have found that there are three general categories of names used over here: Biblical names, English words (we have met Happy, Lucky, Clever, Gift, Given, Baby, Beauty, Princess and many, many others) and African names. After some Googling, surveying and advice asking…meet Rebecca Grace Zulu.

We went and visited in their home this morning and got to hold the beautiful new baby. They seemed happy with the name, it was an honour and a pleasure to be involved this way.

L-R: Charlene holding Rebecca, Erin, Danica, Elisabeth and Miriam