Four great books about names

My children’s names tell important stories, just as so many of our names do. Ashkenazi Jewish children are often given the names of relatives who are no longer with us: I am named after my great grandmothers, my son is named after his late grandfather and his late great grandfather. I value sharing the story of their names with my children; it feels like a way to bring family members who aren’t here anymore right into the room with us. I like to tell my children the stories of who these people were that they were named after.

Sometimes, though, names can feel complicated for kids. Thankfully, picture books can help with that.

A Name Like Mine by S.C Sandore tells the story of Shekelya, an African American girl who experiences discomfort and upset when others cannot pronounce her name. Eventually, she comes up with a name song, a kind of short jingle, which she can share with her classmates and teacher as a way to help them learn how to say her name. The book ends up with Shekelya feeling validated, respected and admired. A Name Like Mine has a lovely rhyme scheme, too, making it a pleasure to read aloud.

The book really calls attention to how important it is to pronounce a name in the correct way. If you are unsure, you should always ask how to pronounce a name; this simple act can go a long way into showing respect and acknowledgment of differences and of the diversity among us. This is an important lesson for young children (and for all of us) to learn, and the book offers a great entry point. The author of the book used her own experiences from childhood as a inspiration when writing the book, which is an interesting point to share with kids, too: sometimes our experiences prompt our writing - our stories burn up inside of us ….we need to write about them and spill them all onto the page! Sharing a story with others helps us, and it helps others, too.

There are some great books which focus on how we were given our names, and I want to share just two of them in this post. I’m sure I’ll share more of my favorites in a later post. Leon Ben-Tzion The 14th is about a boy named Leon who likes his name until he starts school and comes to the conclusion that everybody else’s name is more ordinary - he starts to suspect that his name is, in fact, a Grandpa name, and he certainly doesn’t want a grandpa name. But when he realizes that the men he was named after are/were awesome men doing incredible things in the world, he begins to think that his name might not be so bad after all. The book is a Sephardi story, honoring Sephardim naming traditions. Sephardim often name a child after a living grandparent, as is the case in this book. The whole book is a joy, but my favorite page is the last one: “And so, after thirteen generations of grandfathers, a new page was added to the book: the young Leon Ben Tzion who, brave as a lion, carried on his family’s extraordinary name.”

I love Alma and How She Got Her Name by Juana Martinez-Neal. Alma has a lot of names - she thinks she has too many! However, when her father explains to her that each name has a special significance and she learns the stories of the relatives she was named after, she begins to feel an immense sense of pride. The book was inspired by Martinez-Neal’s own experience growing up in America in an immigrant family, when she heard the stories of family names often.

Martinez Neal’s graphite and colored pencil drawings are gorgeous; they are so divine that they won her a Caldecott Honor.

In the end pages, the reader is invited to find out the story of their own name and to tell a story of their name, too. This is a perfect jumping off point for any classroom study on names.

When I was in the classroom full time, the simple task of learning each other’s names was an important part of our first week routine, every fall. I would often have the kids research the story of their name (s) as a homework project. Why did your parents choose your name? Is there any special significance to your name? Tell us the story of your name! The projects were shared with each other once complete, and it was an eye-opening way for the children to learn about each other’s families, cultures, backgrounds and even religions through sharing the story of his/her name (s).

I used to start off the Names unit of study by reading my class the book Chrystanthamum by Kevin Henkes. First published in 1991, the book is a classic, because the issue of a child having a name which provokes teasing or/and name calling is a forever issue.

Chrysanthemum was one of the first mainstream picture books to raise the idea with children that more unusual, interesting names can be thought of as a gift rather than a curse, and that there’s a story behind every name - a story to embrace and share proudly. Thankfully, the market of books on this topic is growing all the time; so much so that I think I will need to write another post on this topic in the future: watch this space.