What’s in a Name” – The ‘Amanda’ Mystery

“Dzina langa ndi Amanda.”
(My name is Amanda.)
[insert mysterious grins from adults or the pealing laughter of children here]

By Day 2 in Malawi, I knew there was something fishy going on with my name. Despite being far more pronounceable than some of the other Canadian monikers I’m chumming around with (“l” and “r” are pretty interchangeable sounds in Chichewa, making Alynne, Garrett and Colleen all exercises in hilarity ), my name rarely fails to prompt some surprise or amusement from whoever I happen to be getting acquainted with.
Armed with this suspicion, I decided to do a little bit of investigating.

I chatted with children with no real success.
I listened to the radio with some of the kitchen staff and made a surprising discovery.
I pulled in some help and got fellow EWBers (most especially one Graham Lettner) on the case.
I put some of my question-asking powers to work.

And before the month was out, my associates and I made a surprising number of interesting discoveries about the many reasons for the hilarity of being named Amanda.

• There’s an Amanda brand margarine. We’ve only seen it in one shop though, so as much as that’s kind of funny, it’s probably not the root cause.
• “A” is an honorific prefix in Chichewa, and “manda” is the Chichewa word for “graveyard.” So if I say my name slowly and deliberately, stressing the wrong syllables, it sounds like my name is “graveyard” or “Mr./Mme. Graveyard.”
• According to a book currently in the possession of one of the other EWB volunteers, amanda is also a title used by members of the Nyao in some of their activities (I know that’s pretty vague…still working on figuring out the whole Nyao thing…).
• Most people here introduce themselves by their first name or their first name and surname together. But if you wanted to introduce yourself by surname only, a man would say “A [surname]” while a woman would say “Na [surname]. So not only is my name “Graveyard,” it’s funny because I’m introducing myself as “Mr. Graveyard” (A Manda) instead of “Mrs. Graveyard” (Na Manda).
• Amanda Robinson (Or Robson, potentially) is the name of a radio personality on one of the big Malawi stations. I’ve been asked if I’m her a couple of times. Oh, the celebrity.
• Amanda and similar names like Tamanda and Miranda are fairly common Malawian names. Meeting a white foreigner named Amanda has actually given some people I’ve talked to pause not because it’s a weird name but because its weird for a strange person from a faraway land to have such a normal name.

Mystery solved. For now…