DUSHANBE, January 13, 2016, Asia-Plus — Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) today endorsed a bill regulating the issue of giving names to newborns
Presenting the bill, the Minister of Justice Rustam Shohmurod noted that it banned to give newborns names humiliating human honor and dignity.
For example, the bill bans to name children after animals, products, and inanimate objects such as Sang (Stone), Safol (Ceramics), Zogh (Crow), Gurg (Wolf) and so forth.
It is not uncommon in Tajikistan to see such names among older generations. The reasoning behind the unusual eponyms can be attributed to the superstition that giving a child an unflattering name will make them less desirable, and thus prevent God from taking them away.
Under proposed amendments to Tajikistan”s civil-registry law, such names are out.
We will recall that the Language and Terminology Committee under the Government of Tajikistan and the Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan are jointly working on preparing a list of Tajik names. The list is expected to include more than 3,000 names that will be offered to parents.
Meanwhile, people of different nationalities living in Tajikistan may name their children in accordance with norms of their culture, the source added.
