JEDDAH: Check your name — it might be funny in meaning. This is what many citizens of the Kingdom are uncovering to find their names embarrassingly bizarre, and are therefore changing them.

It is revealed that 50 citizens on an average are changing their names weekly. Consider these names: Hanash, meaning ‘snake,’ or Najar, a miser; and Nazel, a person descending downward, among several others that parents give to their children without knowing their actual meaning.

Finding such names “ugly” or simply “unfit in modern societies” many young men desperately tried to change their names. They found it quite difficult to communicate with others.

“Even after I changed my name, I still suffer from the implications of my previous name because some of my friends still use it in an attempt to be funny,” said Mohammad, formerly Hanash (snake), who changed his name immediately he cleared his high school.

Speaking to a local publication, Hanan said her “previous name was Hamamah, meaning ‘dove,’ which would put me in an awkard situation in school. Everybody ridiculed me until I changed it when I finished high school.”

Khalid Al-Ammri said that change of name is permissible. “Our beloved Prophet (peace be upon him) changed some of the names of those who converted to Islam in the old days such as Assi (rebel) to Abdullah, Harb (war) to Al-Hassan, and directed our nation to choose good names for our children,” Al-Amri said.

Abdulrahman Al-Zahrani, a student adviser, said that ugly names negatively affect their beholders and can inflict deep emotional harm on their personalities. He advised parents to change the poor names of their children to good ones before they are enrolled in school.

“The old generations use to boast about harsh and strong names which refer to the strength or even the rude nature of their beholders. But children today often feel depressed about such names,” he said.

Another student adviser, Ahmad Abdullah Al-Hassany, said that students of the first grade face ridicule if their names are bizarre, which can lead them to hate school.

Jamelah Saqa, a family adviser and professor of psychology at Umm Al-Qura University, said that our Islamic religion has given many rights to children that parents should take into account such as choosing a good name for them, because names leave strong impressions on their beholders.