13. Names of children.
Children are named on the chathi or sixth day after birth, and the parents always ascertain from a wise man whether the soul of any dead relative has been born again in the child so that they may name it after him. It is also thought that the sex may change in transmigration, for male children are sometimes named after women relatives and female after men. Mr. Hīra Lāl notes the following instance of the names of four children in a family. The eldest was named after his grandfather; the second was called Bhālu or bear, as his maternal uncle who had been eaten by a bear was reborn in him; the third was called Ghāsi, the name of a low caste of grass-cutters, because the two children born before him had died; and the fourth was called Kausi, because the sorcerer could not identify the spirit of any relative as having been born again in him. The name Kausi is given to any one who cannot remember his sept, as in the saying, ‘Bhūle bisāre kausi got,’ or ‘A man who has got no got belongs to the Kausi got.’ Kausi is said to mean a stranger. Bad names are commonly given to avert ill-luck or premature death, as Boya, a liar; Labdu, one smeared with ashes; Marha, a corpse; or after some physical defect as Lati, one with clotted hair; Petwa, a stammerer; Lendra, shy; Ghundu, one who cannot walk; Ghunari, stunted; or from the place of birth, as Dongariha or Pahāru, born on a hill; Banjariha, born in brushwood, and so on. A man will not mention the names of his wife, his son’s wife or his sister’s son’s wife, and a woman will not name her husband or his elder brother or parents. As already stated, a woman saying her husband’s name aloud is temporarily put out of caste, the Hindu custom being thus carried to extremes, as is often the case among the lower castes.