What’s in a name anyways?

I learned something very interesting this evening at dinner with my two lovely friends from Burma. These women are doctors who are training here in Singapore and then hope to set up private practices to serve their people, who have very limited access to medical care.

What I found so interesting was their practice of naming children, and how that impacts gender equality in their country.

When I asked whether it was considered more delightful to have a daughter or a son, both responded that little girls and boys are met with equal delight. When I inquired further as to why this may be so in a region where little boys tend to reign as the little princes, they said it was perhaps due to the lack of importance of a family name. Actually, children can be named one syllable if the parents desire. There is no family name, and so males do not have the honor and responsibility of passing on the family lineage. I said it was perhaps harder to keep track of families with no common thread, and they said, indeed it was, but that most families keep elaborate family trees.

As we ventured into religion, the topic became more animated, because in Buddhism, men are believed to be superior to women. For instance, my friends told me that they, as women, are forbidden from climbing to the highest steps on the temples. This became quite an interesting discussion...