36 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 33 



NAMES 

 NAMING A CHILD, ORIGIN OF NAMES, PERSONAL NAMES 



With rare exceptions, it was the father who named his child. The 

 name was selected in several ways : Either the father selected it and 

 talked his choice over with the mother of the child and then bestowed 

 the name unceremonially by merely saying that this was the child's 

 name ; or a close relative, such as the grandmother or uncle, said that 

 a child should be called by a certain name and then the father be- 

 stowed it, again unceremonially ; or the name of someone outside the 

 extended family, possibly, known as a I'aku (namesake), was selected, 

 and his name was given the child at the I'akutun (naming feast). In 

 rare instances the I'aku bestowed the name also. More often a boy's 

 name is bestowed at a I'akutun than that of a girl. There are both 

 masculine and feminine names. 



A 70-year-old PanguipuUi man had named his children uncere- 

 monially. He said that his grandmother came to his ruka on each day 

 that one of his children was born and asked him to give the child the 

 Araucanian name that she suggested and that he did so : "When my 

 first child, a son, was born, she told me to call him Rayenllarjka 

 (flower magic stone — magic stone used by machi). I gave him this 

 name on the day he was born. We had no ceremony or celebration of 

 any kind. I merely said that Rayenllaijka would be the boy's name. 

 When the second son was born, she told me to call him Melillaqka 

 (four magic stones). So, I called him that several days after his 

 birth. She asked me to give my daughter the name of her mother, 

 and I did so." 



When a child is given its name at a I'akutun, the I'aku either an- 

 nounces that he will do so or the father of the child invites him to do 

 so. The following are essential elements of a I'akutun: the father 

 notifies the I'aku of his desire to use the I'aku's name and gets his 

 permission to do so ; the I'aku furnishes a slaughtered lamb or sheep 

 for the feast; either the I'aku or the father provides an alcoholic 

 beverage — formerly it was mudai, today it is chicha ; families of rela- 

 tives and friends are invited; the I'aku holds the child in his arms 

 while the father declares that the child will have the I'aku's name; 

 the I'aku then asks God to protect the child during its life; the day 

 ends in much drinking. An informant described the I'akutun thus: 

 "If a father wants to give his little son the name of an old man, he 

 sends a messenger to the old man to tell him that he would like to take 

 his name for his son. If the old man consents, a day is set for the 

 naming. The father provides chicha (formerly it was mudai) and the 



