I have always enjoyed having a unique name and knowing what it meant (one whom God has promised) and its origin (Hebrew, the story of my birth, etc.). And part of encountering another culture is learning new names and how to pronounce letter combinations you thought couldn't go together. :)
In Zambia, I had a different problem: not smiling at people's names, picked in some cases - I am sure - for how the parents liked the way the word sounded in English even if they didn't know what it meant. Or they simply name their children Tonga words with interesting meanings. Here are some I wrote down along the way:
English: Agrippa, Cleopatra, Only, Obey, Fines, Modern, Favourite, Purity, Precious, Pritness (Prettiness)
Tonga: Linda (awaited precious one), Trouble, Change-of-sex (as in a girl after a number of boys or a boy after a number of girls), Same-sex (opposite of above)
So even our names carry something of culture in what is appropriate to name your child. :)
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Dan and I always found names interesting as well - like Mutinta (change of sex) - while were were in Swaziland and Zambia! We had fun talking about the unique ones - not around the owners of those names, of course :)!!
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