What’s in a name

Tagak Curley posted on Facebook recently about the names that Inuit used to give Qallunaat.

He wrote, “Most days seemed like they were fun. Most Qallunaat that came to work to live in our small communities were often named in Inuktitut.”

He noted that one Hudson’s Bay Company manager had been named Nipikittualuk; this would have been because he spoke so softly.

I posted two comments to Tagak’s post. The first was that a tourist visiting a fishing camp in Nunavik a number of years ago was completely bald except for a small patch of hair on the top of his head. Inuit named him Qikiqtalik — the one with an island.

The second comment was that in the 1960s, Finn Schultz-Lorentzen, an administrator in Igloolik, was bald on top but had a full beard. Of course, Inuit called him Kujjangajuq — the upside-down man.

Nancy Karetak-Lindell suggested someone should write a glossary of such names. I remember that one Inuk compiled quite a long list of names for Qallunaat. I think it was Joe Tigullaraq, some years ago.

Reading Tagak’s post caused me to remember some of my own research into names, done years ago. Here is a section on the names given to missionaries in Cumberland Sound, and especially at Blacklead Island.

The first missionary to spend a winter in Baffin Island was Brother Mathias Warmow, of the Moravian Church in Greenland. He spent the winter of 1857-58 with the whaling captain, William Penny, aboard his ship Lady Franklin near Kekerten in Cumberland Sound.

Unlike most of the white missionaries who would come to Baffin Island decades later, Warmow arrived with a distinct advantage.

He could already speak an Inuit dialect, West Greenlandic.

Writing about the first Inuit that he met, he noted, “As they understood me, and I them, very well, we were able to converse with but little difficulty.”

Many of the Inuit in Cumberland Sound understood a little English, having learned it from their interaction with Scottish and American whalers.

From the whalers, they had learned that a “minister” was coming to instruct them. And so, instead of giving him a descriptive Inuktitut name as they did with many newcomers, the Inuit simply called him “minister.”

This displeased Warmow, who noted that he would have preferred they call him by his Christian name, or its Greenlandic equivalent, Matiuse. There is nothing written about how Inuit at the time actually pronounced “minister.”

It would be three and a half decades before another missionary would come to Baffin Island. In 1894, Rev. Edmund James Peck arrived at Blacklead Island to build his mission there.

Peck arrived with the same advantage Warmow had had — he already spoke Inuktitut, having learned the language during eight years on the Hudson Bay coast of Quebec.

The Inuit gave him a name — Uqammak. It means “the one who speaks well,” and is derived from the verbal root “uqaq-” which signifies speaking.

Stories of Uqammak have been passed down through the generations and the name is still remembered today.

In 1894, Peck brought with him a 22-year-old layman, Joseph Caldecott Parker. As preparation for his missionary work, Parker had taken a few months medical training.

To travel to Blacklead Island, he signed on as doctor of the whaling ship Alert. At the mission station, he threw himself into the task of learning Inuktitut and made rapid progress.

He ministered to the sick, and the Inuit gave him a name, Luktaakuluk — “the little doctor” or “the dear doctor.”

Inuit words don’t normally start with “d” and “luktaaq” was the closest they could come to pronouncing “doctor.” The suffix “kuluk” is one signifying endearment or smallness. Unfortunately, the little doctor drowned in a boating accident two years later.

That same year, another missionary arrived at Blacklead. He was Charles Sampson and he remained with the mission until 1900 when he returned to England and resigned. He subsequently returned as a trader. I know of no Inuktitut name for him. They may have simply called him “ajuriqsuiji,” perhaps with a descriptive suffix added.

“Ajuriqsuiji” is the general term for a Protestant minister and can roughly be translated as “the teacher” or “the instructor.”

In 1898, Julian William Bilby arrived from England to join Peck and Sampson. He endeared himself to the Inuit through his devotion to language study and his interest in the local way of life and customs. He was rewarded with the Inuktitut name “ilataaq.”

“Ila” is a noun meaning “relative” or “friend;” “taaq” is a suffix showing acquisition. Perhaps his name should best be translated as “our new friend.”

T. Greenshield arrived to join Peck in 1901, the summer that Bilby left for furlough in England. He too immersed himself in language study and was popular among the Inuit. They graced him with a name that simply added an additional suffix to Bilby’s name, calling him “ilataaqauk” — “another new friend.”

That completes the roster of white missionaries to Cumberland Sound prior to the movement of the mission station from Blacklead Island to Pangnirtung in the 1920s.

The earliest missionary, Mathias Warmow, had simply been called “minister,” but all but one of the Blacklead missionaries are known to have been given Inuktitut names. The one exception — Sampson — may well have had a local name as well, but if so it has been lost to time.

Taissumani is an occasional column that recalls events of historical interest. Kenn Harper is a historian and writer who lived in the Arctic for more than 50 years. He is the author of “Minik: The New York Eskimo” and “Thou Shalt Do No Murder,” among other books. Feedback? Send your comments and questions to kennharper@hotmail.com.