Most Expats Encounter Foreign Regulations Regarding Naming of Their Children

Guy White wrote a post wondering why Muslims in America continue to name their children with foreign-sounding names, and don’t choose “normal” American names.  An explanation of this subject requires a full post.

It is only from my experience of living abroad, and having an American child abroad, that I discovered that many countries (maybe even the majority of countries) do not permit parents to name their children whatever they want.  In our case, we had one American parent, and one North African Muslim parent.

There are several reasons for “government-approved” lists of names.

The first (and most important) reason is that a name identifies one religion.  A Muslim name identifes one as a Muslim to other Muslims.  It was only after living several years in the Middle East that I realized what the term “Christian name” meant.  It clearly identifies one as a “Christian.”  This has now commonly become the “first name.”   But until perhaps the 1970’s, when organized Christian religion began to fall out of favor in many Western countries, the “Christian” name identified one as being either a Christian or from a Christian background, particularly to those from non-Christian backgrounds.  This IS STILL the case, even if we as Westerners no longer recognize that in our own cultures.  It is only within the past 30 years that it’s become acceptable to choose names from many faiths and nationalites, in the West, without respect to one’s religion.

Christian Names

My husband and I chose a name for our daughter which we created from a combination of a Musim and Christian name.  When my husband went to register the birth (our family living in my husband’s North African country) we discovered that this name wasn’t “permitted.”  They told him to “take off” the Christian portion of  the name.  My husband responded that he didn’t believe there was an “approved” list, thinking they just wanted money.  They actually went in the back room and brought out a copy of the regulation and showed him that there was an actual list of approved names.  At this point, I was so upset that my plan was to take my daughter back to America, change her name legally there, and then come back and change it here.  But then I discovered that they would NOT change her name here in the “family book” (a legal document recording births and deaths), and would just record it here as they wished.  In the end, we got a well-known and respected person to make an “intercession” for us with the naming bureau, and my daughter’s name was permitted.

The second reason for a “government-approved” name list is to prevent children from naming their children “undignified” names such as the names of current soap-opera stars, or “unIslamic” names.  A Muslim child MUST have a Muslim name (according to Islam).  Muslim governments (in order to maintain their legitimacy in the eyes of their people) must be seen to uphold Islamic religous laws, such as insisting that all Muslim children have Muslim names.  (A child of two foreign Christians would not be required to take a Muslim name.)  The way many expats in dual-nationality, dual-religion marriages handle this problem is to choose a name which is acceptable in both cultures and religions, such as Adam, or Maryam (the two most common choices).

The third reason for a “government-approved” name list is to control political dissent.  Within many countries, there are different ethnic groups, some of which even have their own local languages and local names.  To a native of a particular country, giving someone one of these ethnic names can be an act of defiance, on par with promoting civil strife.  Government-approved name lists help prevent this sort of thing from happening in many countries.

The laws of all Muslim countries require that if one parent is Muslim, then the child must be Muslim.  (If only one parent is Muslim it will be the father, because a Muslim woman is not permitted to marry a non-Muslim man.  The reason behind this is that under Islam, it is assumed that the father is the head of the family, and the natural order of things is for the rest of the family to follow the father’s religion.)

Returning to Guy White’s original question as to why Muslims in America would continue to choose Islamic names for their children, there are several reasons.

First, even though the children born are considered American citizens by America, other countries often continue to claim the children as citizens for at least one generation, and often two generations (Greece, for example).  Unless the parents have actually RENOUNCED their citizenship in the foreign country, they are most likely to have to register the birth of their child with their own embassy in order to obtain the correct legal documents for their child.  If they are from a Muslim country and are Muslim themselves, any other sort of name would not be accepted either by their country, or by their family back home–it would cause their entire family to be ostracised.  Not having the correct documents for the child’s name would mean that should they ever return home, the child would not even be allowed to enter school, and would be a non-person in terms of not being able to obtain a residence card, sign documents, rent an apartment, etc.  (Other countries give far more importance to legal document procedures than America does, and documents are extremely difficult  both to get, and to replace.)

HERE is a short article explaining that while the Dutch government wants to drop the Moroccan name list in Dutch-Moroccan official registration, Morocco indicates that doing so will cause many inheritance and travel-related problems throughout the lifetimes of the children who are involved.

Secondly, as a Muslim, it is a religious requirement to have a Muslim name.  This is also why if a non-Muslim converts to Islam he or she has to take a “Muslim” name.  If one tried to be a Muslim without a Muslim name, first of all, other Muslims would never believe he is Muslim.  Traveling in some countries, this could even be a safety issue.  In safe countries, one would simply be ostracized.  This also answers the question as to why black Americans who convert to Islam, or who are Muslim choose Muslim names for their children.  As to the more “creative” Muslim names (as opposed to “traditional” Muslim names) some of them are coming up with, these would never be recognized “Muslim” names in Muslim countries–the names would be viewed as “corruptions” of Islamic names.

Furthermore, if the foreign parents never planned to go back to the home country to live, but did choose to take their children back to the home country for a vacation to see relatives, EVERYONE would assume that children with a non-Muslim name HAD LEFT THE MUSLIM RELIGION.  Since this is NOT PERMITTED under Islam (particularly in Islamic countries) just the act of naming your child with a “normal” American name could actually jepardise both the child’s and entire family’s safety in the home country.

Third, Guy White wonders about the name Mohamed.  This is actually a very normal name.  This is the MOST common Muslim name, even in Muslim countries.  In a single class of school children, you will normally find about three Mohamed’s.  Nearly every family names one son Mohamed.  It’s no different than the Christian name Jesus.  While Jesus is not common in America (except among Catholic Hispanic immigrants) it is a well-known and very common name throughout Latin America and Catholic Christian countries.

My suggestion for Muslim immigrants to America, or in the West, who wish to remain Muslim, but who also wish to “fit in,” is to follow what the Christian expats married to Muslims, in Muslim countries do–choose a name such as Adam or Maryam which is better accepted without comment in both cultures.

I hope that this post has answered this important question for some people.

–Expat 21

Tags: Christian names, Islam, Jewish names, Muslim names, naming children in a foreign land