A Sociolinguistic Study of Personal Names in Balochi Culture

Abstract

This paper focuses on the personal names of Balochi culture and regards naming practices as an important aspect of the Baloch culture. Personal names are studied in this paper within the perspective of linguistics anthropology. In this paper, the focus of the study is limited to the names of people living in district Kech of Balochistan province. It is hypothesized that Personal names of Balochi culture are not arbitrary labels, but they have sociocultural tags, functions, and meanings. The date to complete requirement of the objectives have been collected through the voter list and some personal names were obtained from the primary and secondary schools of different cities of district Kech. The qualitative method has been used for analyzing the concerned data. They borrow personal names from different cultures due to religious, political, and ideological reasons however, they have always clothed them in the garments of their national ideology. On this purpose the paper discusses the typology of Balochi names including the names taken from the names of days and months, plants and tree, and circumstantial names. It also discusses about compounding naming practices of Balochi culture which are derived from the combination of two single units of words in Balochi language. The Balochi personal names through classifications and categorization show that the choices of Balochi personal names are based on social and cultural considerations. It was observed in the typology of personal names in Balochi culture which shows that how social belief and cultural practices influence the choices or selections of personal names.