Some thoughts on Names...

Hassan Ahmed Robleh,
Nouh Nour Mohammed,
Ahmed Robleh Nouh,
Nour Ahmed Robleh,
Ahmed Robleh Hassan,
Mahdi Nouh Abdallah...

All potentially employees in our hotel... All recognisable names out there in Djibouti...

Names, over here, are quite different from what we know in Europe. The structure we are used to (First Name followed by Family Name) has no recognition what's so ever here and is replaced by a First Name, Family Name, Father's First Name structure.

What makes things quite complex for me and my difficulty to memorise names is the fact that, more often than not, a family name could easily be someone else's first name, and inversely. For example, Nour, in arabic Light, could be both feminine and masculine, and could be both a first name, a family name or the person's father's name!

Even more complex! In Djibouti's small society (700k inhabitants more or less), and taking into account the number of kids per family (one father, sometimes multiple mothers), it is quite easy for a significant number of people 7-8 or more) to have the same fathers' name and identical family names!

Imagine for example someone called Ahmed Robleh Ismaïl... Ahmed, a religious name, is quite widespread. Ismaïl, similarly, is very popular. Can you guess how many people in Djibouti are called Ahmed Robleh Ismaïl?


Take, for a more practical example, our president, Ismaïl Omar Guelleh, reellected recently at the head of the Djiboutian Government (yes, the man in the picture). Our establishment has a number of people named Ismaïl, a number of people named Omar and one person named Guelleh, with different family or father's names, but quite often with at least one of them identical! Enough to run me and my ability to recognise names crazy! (Don't worry! I'll write some more about my positive impressions about the Djiboutian structure of government and the admiration I perceive for this man by the population at a later point in time).

The most surprising fact in the use of names remains however the way administration handles them; while in Europe, any names list would be sorted by family name, here, the most important element, is the first name. Our employee list, all staff lists, as well as any list issued by a national organisation is transmitted to us with the first name first.

This, in addition to making things complicated to understand for Europeans when they first arrive, is a way for people to stay close to each other, to call each other by first name and stay informal and direct. This helps work succeed and move forward. For example: calling another department and asking for Mr. Omar, will not give me access to Mr. Mohammed Omar Gueddeh, but rather to Omar. Talking to Omar will invariably happen in the first person (tu instead of vous) and help people have an informal, friendly yet direct and efficient conversations.

Next post, my impressions about food! :)