By any other name...

So, just what do you name a Progressive Muslim kid?
One of the slight disadvantages of not believing that Muslim=Arab is that one needs to make lifestyle decisions from a seemingly endless list of options. If you're not going to lock yourself in an abaya, you'll need to select a look that works for you, and buy or make clothes accordingly. Likewise, if you aren't going to limit yourself to names that appear in ahdith collections, the world is chock-a-block with possibilities. Every time I read my favorite Brother Cadfael mysteries, I wonder if the world is ready for a Muslim named Cadfael who keeps wondering why people ask him when he converted.

There is value, however, in having a name that links you to a community, especially one that is a distinct minority. A name like Ali, like a hijab or kufi, sparks conversations and sometimes gets you discounts. (Tee hee.) A name like Gregory doesn't mark one as Muslim, but it does challenge the notion that Muslim=Arab or South Asian, especially as some Muslims are still asking, “but what's your Muslim name?” or they simply assign you one at the mosque door.

What does a Progressive Muslim approach to life, including naming kids, look like? Despite what some detractors say, source texts do matter to progressives, but they are not viewed as creating a intellectual cell, from which the only possibility for freedom is escape, but a spiritual path, a way forward. Delving into sacred texts for values instead of simply marching orders isn't so much “cafeteria religion” as a middle path between adhering to commands one doesn't understand or even contemplate, and deciding that sacred texts offer nothing for modern life.

There are a few ahdith regarding names, some more reliable than others. Some discourage giving names with unpleasant meanings, or names that have implications too lofty for most kids to attain in one lifetime (see my favorite Muslim punk rocker, Shahjehan Mailk Khan of The Kominas). Skipping the lists of “Muslim names”, one can find names that have good connotations, but don't seem to impose unrealistic expectations. Is Rose any less Islamic than Warda? I confess I'm fond of the name Verity, which means “truth”. Is truth not something treasured in Islamic intellectual traditions, and honored in the Qur'an itself?

I'm also departing from the whole father having naming rights rubbish, which you'll find in a few fatawa, for two reasons. One is that if I've got to do the work, I want the decision making power. The other is that my husband has been a paltry excuse for a man. Either way, the argument for giving sole naming power to a father is specious at best. Propping up patriarchy may be something that Muslims do a lot, but it's not the goal of Islam.

Selecting a name that a child will at least tolerate, and will carry well as a child and an adult will always be a least a little tricky. That isn't helped by restricting options on national origin alone- but it might be helped by what progressive Muslims do often- to seek new meanings in old texts, and use them to forge our paths through life- even if we're blazing a new trail sometimes.

And if that doesn't fly, just tell kids they ought to be glad they don't have one of these names:
http://www.notwithoutmyhandbag.com/babynames/

Be Beautiful to Yourselves.