Rooted by my Name
VOLUME 1: WHAT’S IN A NAME?
IN THIS ISSUE
Rooted by my Name
I love my name. Ayaan in Somalia means ‘good fortune’ or ‘good spirits’, you will find Ayaan in many households, in almost every city, and is usually a girl’s name. Ayaanle is for boys. In Urdu it means ‘gift of God’, ‘reward’, or ‘generosity’. In the Quran, Ayaan is used for time; Ayaana Mursaha.
I lived most of my youth between countries other than Somalia due to the nature of my father's work. I came to Canada at the age of 17. I always felt lost in translation, I was never fully a citizen of any of the countries I lived in. One of the things that kept me rooted and well-aware of my Islamic and Somali identity was, and still is, my name Ayaan. I see Somalia to be my birth country; Canada, equally important, is my adoptive country. Navigating life between the two is easy for me, to some degree, because I know my roots and appreciate my new country with all of its challenges.
