Names

I've just read the first chapter of what appears to be a very cool book of essays: What do You Care What Other People Think: Further Adventures of a Curious Character,  by (and about) Richard P. Feynman.  In this first chapter he writes about how his father instilled in him a love for all things science (he was a Nobel Prize winning physicist - apparently a pretty important scientist).

At one point he explains the special kind of scientific thinking his father taught him by contrasting another child's experience of a nature walk with dad, with Feynman's own.  The other kid learned the name of the bird over there.  Feynman learned to notice what it's doing, and why it does it.  (It's picking at its feathers because of lice, or something like that.)  He says that his father taught him early on to distinguish knowing the name of something, and knowing something.

Yes and yes.  This resonated quite deeply.

But the more I think about it the more I also appreciate the other side.  Names do matter.  Sure, knowing the name and going no deeper than its pronunciation probably doesn't matter all that much.  Unless of course the pronunciation itself tells you something about it.  The name "Zalman" is a Russification of "Solomon," so I know something about this person's ancestry, or the people his parents admired, just by hearing his name.  Or when I meet someone named "David," I can learn a bit from how he says his own name: Duh-vid, Day-vid, Dah-VEED, Dah-weed."

And if it's a made-up name, say, in a book, I can learn something about what the author wants me to know about this person.  Like the two sons in the book of Ruth, Machlon and Kilyon (literally, disease and destruction), who die young and quite early in story.

And then there's context.  If a man buying chicken and rice from a street vendor is addressed right then and there as "Yossi," this might mean something to bystanders.  Perhaps he'll choose to go by "Joey" for the moment.  

I was once in a store with a guy named Shalom, who needed to give his name for an order.  "What's your name?"  "Shalom."  "Wow!  Talk about a Jewish name!"  "Yeah, and I'm not even Jewish."  "Really???"  "Just kidding, I'm Jewish."  "Hahahahah!" 

And then there's my name.  On the one hand, it's kind of a cheerleader name.  Jenny.  Once in college a friend said it was kind of a funny name for me.  I like the irony.  And on the other hand,  it's the name of my grandmother's beloved sister, whom my grandmother adored, and talked about as having such deep wisdom and such a gentle manner.  I hear both resonances when my name is spoken.

I suppose Feynman's right.  Just knowing a name is not enough, and it's certainly a far cry from knowing the thing, or the person.  But knowing why the name is the name, what it means and how it's pronounced, actually can be a big part of knowing a thing, or a person.

Shoot - I should be working on my dissertation.  

Dissertation.  Just the name makes it sound so....  Oy.