What's in a Name...

I went on an excursion with my 7th graders a couple of days ago. I promise to post pics of that soon but I wanted to mention that in this one class we have a Giorgi, two Lucas, a Nino, two Maris, and a Tamuna. So, there you know almost half of their names!

Giorgi, Dato, Irakli, Giga, and Luca seem to be quite popular among boys names here while Nino, Mari, Tamuna, Salome and Natia seem to be popular among the girls. I have taken a real liking to a few of these names so don’t be surprised if they come up again in the distant future as a possible name for one of my offspring. Mind you we’re talking “way distant future” here. Interesting though to note that calling someone “girl” or “boy” here may be just as common as calling someone by their given name. A brief lesson in Georgian:
-girl    - gogo
-boy    - bit’chi ( beet chi)- Use when you are talking about a boy
-boy    -bit' cho- Use when you are speaking directly to the boy
-come  - modi  (mow dee)
-good   - kargi  (you need to roll your “r”)

You’d be surprised how often you hear these four little words throughout the day. Things like “modi bit’cho” or “kargi gogo.” And speaking of kargi gogo, I think that is my actual name here. It doesn’t take much to provoke these words from a Georgian’s lips. When I first arrived at school I would say “Dila msvidobisa"  (Good morning) and I’d get showered with “Kargi gogo!” Now, on my travels throughout Georgia when I run into people who try to ask me questions and I have no inkling of what they are speaking about, which happens quite frequently as you can imagine, I simply say “Ar vitsi qartuli” (I don’t know Georgian) and this still seems to bring forth those golden words “Kargi gogo.” Followed up by a quick “Itsit Rusuli?” (Do you know Russian?) To this I reply “Ara, vitsi Inglisuri.” (No, I know English).  And that is the end of that conversation. We part ways smiling and nodding, which happens to mean the same thing in every language.

At the moment, I have been reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. Yes, I did also go and see it in theaters (I know this is a fact you were just dying to know). And getting a little off the topic here but yes the movie, in my opinion, is just as good as the book (another fact you were just itching to know). Anyway, in the book, during her stay in Bali she says that the majority of people there give their children one of these names: Wayan, Made, Nyoman and Ketut. These names mean first, second, third and fourth. So, they name their child, whether girl or boy, one of these names according to the order of birth. And if they should have a fifth child, then they'd just start the cycle over again. I found that to be quite interesting. However, you can be certain that my future offspring will not have any of these names.