SACRED MEANING OF DOUBLE NAMES

A person’s name is a talisman to remain with him since birth. Once given by the parents, the name turns into a thread that, along with the surname, connects a person with the clan, family and roots.

Parents choose this or that name following various motives: beautiful sounding, meaning. For someone it is important that a name is rare. Of course, double names could be classified as rare. However, they are rare, yet not isolated.

Speaking of double names, one can recall such outstanding personalities as Mengu-Timur, Orda-Ezhen, Aryk Buga, Muhammad Hafiz, Aisha-Bibi, Timur Malik, Jalal ad-Din, Ulugh Muhammad. Such names indicated the status, gender and dignity of a person.

One of the most famous owners of a double name is the President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. His father, Kemel Tokayev, a professional writer who knew how to use the words, had approached the choice of his son's name with all due diligence.

The president's name consists of two full-fledged Kazakh names. The first, Kassym, is given in honor of the ancestor of the entire Kazakh people. Kasym Khan was a Kazakh Khan, a Chingizid (a descendant of Genghis Khan) and ruled the Kazakh Khanate in 1511–1521. His father, Zhanibek Khan, was one of the founders of the Kazakh Khanate. The reign of Kasym Khan in the Kazakh Khanate was marked by prosperity and control over the vast territories of the Eastern Dasht-i-Kipchak.

And the name Jomart means “generous” in Kazakh. Giving such a name to a child is not a mere                       formality: the parents sincerely want him to grow up as a kind, generous person with an open heart. The Kazakhs called such people “Atymtai Jomart”, as narrated in the story by Ybyrai Altynsarin, a Kazakh writer and ethnographer, the author of the textbooks Kazakh Reader and Elementary textbook on teaching the Russian language to Kazakhs, and a brilliant translator of Tolstoy and Krylov. The character of the story, a wealthy man, periodically used to dress in rags and carry hay to the poor, guided only by love for people. That is how the word “jomart”, initially just a characteristic, turned into a proper name.