Parents name their children after vanishing islands

Every summer when Tony Paul was a child in Kwajalein, an atoll in the Pacific nation of the Marshall Islands, his parents sent him and his siblings to spend time with their uncle on a remote chain of islands their ancestors once called home.

During the day, they waded through turquoise waters. During the evening, they hunted coconut crabs. And every night, their uncle sang old songs. “It was a chance for us to learn a lot of Marshallese ways,” said Paul.

When Paul moved to Majuro, the country’s capital, it became difficult to visit the islands of his childhood. But he carried those memories. And when he met Ellen Milne, who would become his wife, they discovered she too traced her family’s lineage to nearby islands.

They named their second daughter Elenak, after the secondlargest island in the chain. They were “giving her something that connects her to her roots,” said Ellen Milne-Paul. Later, when their son was born, they named him Tarlan, after an ancient coral head in Kwajalein’s lagoon.

It was once rare for Marshallese to be given such names: most received the names of relatives. In recent years, there has been a rise in children named after the places from which their families come, one of the ways Pacific Islanders are grappling with economic challenges and climate turmoil.

The surge in place-based names is largely due to the growing likelihood that Marshallese children will one day leave their home. Education is poor, few who graduate can find jobs and most jobs that do exist pay little.

Because the country is a former

American colony, its citizens can live in the US without a visa. Many chose to do so: between 2011 and 2021, the country’s population dropped from 53,158 to 43,594.

This is further complicated by climate change. The low-lying atoll nation is already feeling the impact of intense droughts, more frequent flooding and mosquito-borne illnesses. Saltwater is spoiling crops and freshwater supplies.

The island’ most famous poet, Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner, named her daughter after a parcel of land belonging to her mother’s family. She hopes by naming her daughter after Peinam, she can ensure the place’s legacy endures, even if the land itself sinks. The name represents, she said, their choice “to be rooted to this reef for ever”.