Names

The oldest names are those used prior to, and in the early stages of, European contact. Such names went out of use very quickly once the Roman Catholic Church arrived in the mid-19th century, so we have only limited records and memories of them. Some people are, however, using such names again.

In general, these native names were not gender-specific. A name could be borne by either a man or a woman. There was, however, a type of name, always ending in -nan, that was reserved for women. Examples are: Kw'ust'ah'atnan and Katis̲nan. There were, therefore, names of common gender, available to both men and women, and female names, used only for women, but no specifically male names.

Prior to European contact, a person typically had several names during his or her lifetime. At birth a child would be given a name, often a name that described the circumstances of birth, especially if they were unusual. A name like T̲s̲'oocheh “at the base of a spruce tree” would be given to a child born in the shelter of a spruce tree. As a child got older, he or she might be given a new name describing some characteristic of his or her appearance or behaviour. Still later, as an adult, a person might take a new name based on an experience in a dream. One consequence of this is that many older names seem odd or difficult to explain to us because we do not know the circumstances of the person's birth or what he or she may have experienced in a dream.

Some of the older names were given by pre-Christian prophets . These are names that are known to have been chosen by prophets. In the first part of the 19th century, there was what is now called the “Prophet Movement”, a religious movement, apparently originating in Alaska, led by native people who had had some contact with Europeans and had adopted certain ideas and practices of Christianity which they blended with traditional beliefs. One of the practices that the leaders, or “prophets”, adopted was baptism, including the taking of a baptismal name. In general these names have no known meaning, although some of them contain parts that sound like French or English words.

With the arrival of the Catholic Church, the native names began to be replaced by the names of French saints given by the priest at baptism. Examples are Belzeni and Albos. These names were often adapted, sometimes incompletely, to the sound system of Carrier. Some names have several forms reflecting different degrees of adaptation, For example, the French name Marie occurs both as Mali, in which the French /r/ was replaced with the native /l/ since Carrier had no /r/, and as Mari, in which the original French /r/ is retained, In addition to these names borrowed from French, a few names were borrowed from English.

The suffixes -yaz “small” and -cho “large” can be added to any name. They can have a literal meaning, with -yaz applied to a small person and -cho to a large person, but more commonly the former has an endearing sense and the latter is used to indicate that the person is important or respected. -yaz and -cho may also be used to distinguish two people with the same name, with -yaz added to the younger person's name, -cho to the older person's name.

In addition to a personal name, some people have one, or occasionally more than one, 'uza' name. These are an honour, perhaps more like European noble titles. Each name belongs to a clan and may be given only to a member of that clan. Occasionally, when it is considered desirable for a certain person to receive a name, that person will be transferred to the clan to which the name belongs. It is considered desirable for the new recipient of an 'uza' name to be a descendant of a previous holder, but such names are not directly inherited. The clan leaders have to decide who should receive a name, and they may decline to give a name to a person who requests it or who is proposed by his or her family.

In the case of the names of historical figures, we do not always know whether the name that has come down to us is a personal name or an 'uza' name.

Until recently, people had only one name: there were no family names. People began to use family names in the late 19th century. Often they took their father's given name as their family name. That is why many people's family name is an English or French man's name like John, Pierre, or William. In some cases, members of the same family took different names for their family name. For example, some children of William Austin in Grand Rapids took William as their family name; others took Austin as their family name.

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