Please Name My Child (Scott)

My friend told me a story the other day that I have to relate.

Lauren is the American falconer who is here in Bayan-Olgii studying Kazakh eagle hunting. For the past few months she has been living in the remote countryside side-by-side with eagle hunters for weeks at a time. When she surfaces back in Olgii she is rife with stories and desperate for American-style food.

One particular story detailed a dinner she had with a family where the mother just had a baby. As they prepared to eat, the family told Lauren through a translator that they would really like her to name the new baby. Furthermore, they wanted the name by the end of the meal and it had to be something meaningful and also pronouncable by the Kazakh tongue. Needless to say, Lauren was a bit flabberghasted. She was sure that she didn't understand them correctly -- did they really want her, a 22-year-old foreigner who doesn't even speak their language, to actually name their child? Yes, that is precisely what they wanted.

Lauren said that she had a mini-debate in her head as she turned through possible names. She liked the idea of naming the child after a constellation. In her thinking, the sky is very important here in Mongolia and how could you not like a name like Orion or Leo? Well, the family could not pronounce any of the constellation-inspired names she came up with.

Finally, a bit thunderstruck, Lauren thought of the name Hunter, as in eagle hunter. She said she sort of timidly put it forward, completely unsure of the response she would get. After hearing the name and the meaning behind it, the father immediately made a motion and asked for the new child's birth certificate, to which he affixed the name Hunter.

Now, thanks to a 22-year-old eagle-hunting American, there is a child out here in the far west of Mongolia who will proudly carry the name of Hunter for the rest of his life. It's a story like this that makes you both scratch your head in wonder and yet love this country at the same time.