EPISODE 11. NAME

The naming taboo arises from collectivist attitudes in Asian societies, which emphasize community rather than individuality. This mindset suggests that we are part of society and nature rather than independent beings.

Actually, East Asians consider each individual’s identity to be too precious to reveal to anybody. Traditionally, when Koreans make our names, we take one from the family tree(given name) and one from our generations of my family tree (we share this with our brothers and sisters or cousins); one is for myself. Each one has Chinese characters that have their own meanings.

According to Korean tradition, revealing one's name too early can attract ghosts or monsters. This is why we have infant nicknames and childhood names that were used in the past. Also, knowing each other’s real names could lead to curses. Our 저승사자 (Jeosungsaja), a servant of the death, calls a deceased person’s name three times to take their soul. This belief is why each of us has a unique name with different meanings.

I liked how Westerners keep traditions in their ways, like giving babies a name from their grandparents for their memories.

And might some of their children will take your names.

All Western societies share names together, and it feels like everyone knows that person somehow already. It doesn’t feel so far away even though he speaks different languages or lives on different continents. Maybe that is the way you keep your histories going on. You guys have your own way of loving your familytrees and individuals.

However, all of our cultures are mixed in different directions now. First, Asians gave babies names without any context, like giving them European names or some names that don’t have any connection with the generation of our family tree. (ex. my name)

Westerners started naming their babies unique and meaningful names like Offset, Storm, and Apple. When I first heard about this trend, I found it ridiculous and felt that names without historical context lack significance.

But it might be evidence that our society is blending well. We may have all names like that mixed for the next generation in the future, and we might share these ideas as mixed like a grand global familytree of earth for the next generations.