What does your name mean?

If you're Pakistani, you're most likely to have an Arabic name and as such there will be a meaning too. Most would have been given their names by parents or uncles or aunts or grandparents. Sometimes even having hidden reasons or stories behind the name being used. Muslims are given names with good meanings behind them in order to provide a good influence on their life.

My full name means 'beautiful morning'.

If you're unsure of what your name means you can look it up on this Muslim names website, here. Or, if you don't have an Arabic name then you can choose your very own Arabic name by using the first initial of your first name and surname. For example, 'Thomas Jones' might become Tahir (meaning pure, clean, chaste, modest) Jalil (meaning great, revered).

So, go ahead and try it!

Inputting unknowns in family trees

What do you do when you don't know the name of an ancestor but you need to add them to your database? Well, previously I had been recording 'unknown' for both first names and surnames I didn't know. But then I decided I didn't want all these 'unknowns' crowding my family tree so I started to look around to find ways of cleaning up my database.

I'm currently using Legacy 7.0 as my genealogy software, as you all know. So, I've decided to go with the following rules (not set in stone, mind you!) :

First name unknown

If first name is unknown then add the relationship to the person you are linking them with e.g. if Azhar Yasin's wife is unknown add her to the database as "Wife Yasin"

Surname unknown

If the surname is unknown then add "--?--" e.g. "Rukhsar --?--"

Or, you can go find out the name of the missing ancestor :p

That should keep those pesky 'unknowns' out of your hair for a while but then you'll have to deal with the 'husbands', 'wives', 'brothers', 'sisters' etc. But for me, I think it's a better solution to adding unknowns to your database.

How would you standardize the unknown people in your database? Give me your feedback by leaving me a comment.