How is one given a Native American name? Please answer all questions.?

I am very curious about Native American's as just recently I found out that my great, great, great, grandmother was a full blooded Cherokee named Darkest White Cloud.





I would like to find out a little bit more about the Native American's, not just my grandmother's tribe so if you could answer a few questions for me, that would be great. I will reward the best answer and those of you who do not answer all of my questions will not be considered.





- How did the children who were born get their Native American names?


- Did they hold a ceremony for them at a certain age or were they named at birth?


- How were the names chosen?


- What is the significance of the names?


- Were their different "types" of names?


- Could you give me some examples of names from different tribes?


- Did one's name have any benefits later in their lives?


- Any additional information?

How is one given a Native American name? Please answer all questions.?
Names are given in a Naming ceremony. A name can be given at any point in one's life. An elder is often ask for a name for a person (child or adult). The name is revealed to them in many ways, dreams/visions, personality/characteristics of the person, or the name of the persons past family member etc.





Now-a-days, young families sometimes give their child a Native name at birth. (which was not done in the past.) It is used like an English/government name. Most of these names follow the English convention of using a single word such as:





Nimki - thunder


Negonee - (he/she) leads


Wassagone' - flower


Bineshiinh - bird


Ma'iiangan - wolf





In the past, names that were given to a baby, often were not used too early, to address the child. Since the baby had just come from the spirit world, if their name was too well known they may be called back.





So people had many names or nicknames, throughout their life. This still holds true in many places, people will have an English/government name, a Spirit/Native name, but are commonly known by their nicknames.





We only use our Spirit/Native name when we pray, in our ceremonies or when we are honored in some way. Any other time we use our English/government name. Most family and fiends use our nicknames.





My name is Zhaawaabanokwe


Translated it can be said "Southern Morning Woman" or "Woman of the Southern Morning"





If it did not have "kwe" at the end, which means woman, It would be a man's name, "Southern Morning"





In early contact, English often used "maiden" which then was corrupted into "princess"





That is how names such as "Princess Morning Star" came about. The name more likely was, "Morning Star Woman".





Anishinaabe (Chippewa/Ojibwa)


=========





This site has more of an explanation of the Naming traditions of the Anishinaabeg.





Family Life - Anishinaabe


White Earth Tribal %26amp; Community College


http://wetcc.org/ailos/family_life.html


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Reply:As a full blood and ur discribing that granma is like four bloods away that practically makes you not cherokee. Unless of course her blood line was kept within the cherokee bloods.. otherwise you dont have to worry.. many fake indians will come out in the woodwork and mess with ur mind.. better to be happy with whut you have now..


todays indians are enrolled members and federally recognised.. you probably could find ur heritage/ but you wont get registered.. so your better off being outside..
Reply:What I have heard the children were name after what the mother had seen at the time of birth. But I could be wrong about that information.
Reply:Hi! I am Cherokee, living on reservation lands in Oklahoma. I do geneaology when I have time, which is rare these days!





If you are interested in learning more about Native Americans, their heritage, history, customs, geneaology, etc. then I welcome you to look at my list of research links. I have compiled this list over my years of scouring the internet for information. There are about 2,000 (give or take a few) different books and informational articles represented here.





I have published this list in an online news syndication called Associated Content for the benefit of the general public and anyone who is interested in Native Americans or related topics. I hope that you can find the information you seek! I would suggest looking at the link from the University of Virginia first, however, as this takes you to a huge, extensive, gigantic database with an unbelievable amount of information on all sorts of topics. They have a whole bunch of full text e-books and some even are regular books that have been scanned in, even some rare historical documents.





In any case, the link to my compiled list is below under "Sources". Please make yourself at home and use any or all information however you wish.





Good luck to you!





Amy
Reply:1. The children get the NA names from a NA family member.





2. I'm not sure. It could be either or depending on what all tribes you're talking about.





3. The names are usually chosen by a feature present in the child.





4. Sure. My friend's name is Istawatogla. It means "Bright Eyes" in Lakotan and hse was given that name by her grandmother when she was an infant. But her American name is Caitlin.





5. I'm not sure about this question, sorry.





6. Not that I can think of. But most folks with backgrounds other than American, usually have two names. All my friends that are Korean or Japanese or partial have a an American name (which is the name actually printed on their birth certificate) and a name from their other culture (which is what their family from that culture refers to them as). And sometimes it's the other way around, they'll have their cultures name as their actual name, but have their friends call them by an American name.





Hope I helped.