What Does My First Name Mean?  

Teaching Tips

1. Discussion:

Have an opening discussion with students about first names. Leading questions can be: 

• How do parents decide on names for their children? (in some cultures babies are named after live relatives, in others, babies are named after dead relatives, sometimes babies are named after important people or events, etc)
• Do first names mean something about the person who bear them?
• Do people have prejudices about people bearing certain names?
• Do your first names suit your character?
• Can you imagine having another name?
• What language is your name in?
• What names are popular?
• Why do people have nicknames?

2. Researching 

Some students may feel that they already know the meaning and language of their first names. Encourage them to do the research on the internet in order to get additional information about what they already know. Explain that names can sometimes have other meanings than the ones they know about from their parents.

Basically the students should be looking out for the meaning (or meanings) of their first names and the language of that name.

Here are a few sites that can be helpful:

Simply access these sites on the internet and then type the student's first name in the search box.

Andy's Name Meanings   http://www.andythenamebender.com/name-meanings/

Boys and Girls First Names   http://tools.oxygen.com/babynamer/babyblurbs.cfm

Hebrew First Names   http://www.tricityjcc.org/resources/parenting/babynames/

Search for Your Name   http://www.zelo.com/firstnames/search.asp

Names From Many Countries   http://www.behindthename.com

Students can also access a search engine like Google and type "meaning of the name [first name]" to get additional resources for their research. For example, in Google, type..

Meaning of the name Jonathan

Or

Origin of the name Jonathan

3. Creative Work:

Students should write their first names, expressing the underlying meaning of their first names in an artistic and decorative way:

For example, someone whose first name means "gift" could decorate the letters of his/her name with packages and presents.

Students can draw, find graphic images on the internet, or use WordArt to do this part of the project.

Students should scan their work and save the file as a jpg or gif file. They may then submit these images together with their answers to the questions about their first names

4. Submitting:

Students create a page which contains the answers to these questions.

·         What is your first name?

·         What language is it in?

·         What does it mean?

·         Is there anything interesting or unusual about your first name?

·         What city/country do you live in?

·         How many people do you know who have the same first name as you?

·         Does the meaning of your first name suit your character?

·         Do you like your name?

·         What other name would you choose?

Ideas for creating a page:

a)      Students can simply answer the questions in full sentences  and then add their graphic.

b)      Students can create a chart with the questions in one column and the short answers in the second column. The graphic can be anywhere they choose.

c)      Teachers might like to create a combined class page with all the names (perhaps in alphabetical order), graphics  and answers to the questions

5. Responding:

Encourage the students to  respond to each others' work and to read the others' responses to their work. Students can look through other students' pages and write messages to those having the same names or name meanings as them.

       6. Extension Activities:

Here are some ideas for extension activities connected to this project:

• Students can find out what names are most common in a certain country.
• "The First Name Behind the Song" - Find a song that has a first name in it. Find out who the person is, and why a song was written about him/her. eg. Who is "Michele" in the Beatle's song?
• Students can create a survey about names people give their pets.
• Students can play a game using nicknames. Each student writes his nickname on a piece of paper. All the names are put in a hat. Each student draws one name and has to guess who that nickname belongs to.