Wednesday, August 12, 2009

What is there in a name?

My given names, according to my Roman Catholic Church Baptismal Certificate stated Joannes Julius. Where was the name Joannes from? No one could enlighten me as to who suggested the name for me! Could Emol’s other name be Joannes? He was my uncle, my mother’s youngest brother. Emol died in his teens due to nohusian. (mysterious reasons). The name, Joannes, was incidentally taken by the late Emol’s nephew, Vivian. I did not mind I had that name, except that I did not use it. It was therefore not framed in my NRIC, the official tag-card for all Malaysian citizens. The names I sported on my NRIC was Joseph Julius Kinajil, Kinajil being my grandfather’s name. I also used a supplimentary NRIC which stated my alias names as Joseph Tangit. My alias is also stated in my high quality MyCard if its chip-piece was machine-read. My everyday name is Joe Tangit, otherwise, Joseph Tangit. Formally, my full name is Joe Tangit Kinajil or Joseph Tangit Kinajil. On all formal ducuments my name is Joseph Julius Kinajil @ Joseph Tangit. Sometimes, my name is reversed mistakenly as Joseph Tangit @ Joseph Julius Kinajil. Such a case was for my application for a personal Post Office Box No. 70, in Penampang. My gazetted name for my BSK Award from the State Government was simply Joseph Tangit which is my commonly used name as a Government Officer when I was still in service. My names as appended on all four University Certificates from England are the mixtures of Joseph Julius Tangit Kinajil. The Colombo Plan Scholarship Training Certificate from Australia is appended simply with the name Joseph Tangit. There was a time when I was seriously asked to abandon the use of the surname, Tangit, and to assume the surname, Kinajil, in its stead. I was given the impression that I may have to take a Deed Poll to effect changes. I had my guesses as to the reasons why I was asked to do so. I really kept quite about the order coming from an elder. If my guesses of the reasons were true, then I did not like them. Not at all! I was therefore thick-headed and continued to use, Tangit, as my surname, the surname I have given for my children and consequently then assumed by my grandsons, my sons’ offsprings. I am prepared to start a new family tree steming from Tangit as the source. If there are any of my 2 sons and 2 daughters who would prefer the use of Kinajil as their everyday surname, to concur with the rest of the upper and lower lines, then I would not put down my feet to bar them. They are free to manipulate the use of names familiar to them as long as they realise as to the theory, “what is there in a name!”