Personal names in Nowapan are the stuff that drives biographers and historians mad. A person in Pan will have multiple names over the course of a lifetime with only the clan name routinely remaining the same and even it can change.

Nowans typically have three component names. The first is the name of their clan, the second is their family (or more accurately, band) name, and the third is their self name.

The clan name (wun.ptel) is the name of the clan into which one is born. It rarely changes but because new clans are occasionally formed, it can. Such changes rarely affect adult males but can affect females of all ages.

The family or band name (wun.ren) is initially the name of the family into which one is born. Wun.ren are chosen by all spouses and their matriarch shortly after the family is born. Some wun.ren are traditional within a given clan but they need not be and a wun.ren may be invented out of whole cloth. When a person enters into marriage, that person takes on the new wun.ren, discarding his/her original wun.ren. Barring remarriage, a male keeps this wun.ren until death, even after the family/band has broken up. Females who become matriarchs will take up the new family's name just as the spouse's do.

The self name (wun.dha) is most often changed. A person will usually go through at least 4 names, sometimes more. Nowans do not believe that any adult should carry a wun.dha chosen by someone else, a wun.dha should reflect the individual and his/her life. New born children are given very simple names which they will keep until they are speaking well. These names simply consist of the the morpheme pil, "baby or infant", a numeral and ordinal numeral inflection reflecting the order of birth within the band. Thus the wun.dha of the first born will always be pil.na.gu, the second will be named pil.mno.gu, the third pil.bde.gu and so on. Birth certificates are filled out with these names which are periodically amended as necessary.

Once a child begins to speak and his/her personality is more clearly perceived, the band will chose a new wun.dha. A child carries this wun.dha until the onset of puberty. Then the child is allowed to chose a new name. This name in turn is kept until marriage, it is often the name that childhood friends still use in intimate speech. At marriage, the person chooses yet another wun.dha, one that most people never change again. At this point, most males have been through all the name changes they will ever have. Females typically change it again when they become Matriarchs.

Any traumatic or very important, although out of the ordinary, event in a person's life may be the occasion for choosing a new wun.dha. This is rare but not unknown, it usually occurs after the breakup of the family band. It may even be ignored if the other members of one's clan refuse to accept it as a legitimate name change. This usually occurs if the clan members do not feel the event important enough to really justify a name change. In this process it becomes apparent that while Nowans believe an adult has the right to choose a name it still must be within acceptable social limits. It is generally easier for females to win acceptance of name changes than it is for males. Males exercise their power and influence outside the household, name changes hold at least the potential for weakoning such power, if not in large ways, at least in those where immediate recognition would open doors so to speak.

The usage of names varies with the level of acquaintance. Generally only close friends and fellow clan or family members will call someone by their wun.dha. Less familiar friends and acquaintances will use the wun.ren. Strangers will use the wun.þel only at first, later appending the wun.ren. In the public sphere, politicians and famous individuals are called by all three names.

As can be seen below, the composition of names can be either whimsical or serious. They are usually composed of 2-4 morphemes and may be lacking some derivational elements that would spell out the sense more clearly. This is usually quite intentional, the full sense may be a closely held personal matter or the intent may be to allow multiple interpretations.

This table shows the name changes of a typical female over the course of a lifetime.

And this table shows the name changes of her younger brother over the course of his lifetime.

Revised August 29, 2001

URL:www.geocities.com/nowapan