Name days

Your name day, at künü, is the feast of the saint whose name you received at baptism. In the countryside it counts for more than a birthday: the family goes to the Qurbana, the elders give their bata, there are boorsok and kümöch on the table and a horse-shaped at nan loaf, and a child of the house gets a ride, or a toy horse. The godparents, the suu ata and suu ene, are expected to come, and often to remember the lamb or foal they promised at the font.

Find your name day

Which name counts?

The name day follows the baptismal saint, not the name in your passport. Many Iradis have an everyday name and a church name: a boy called Bolot may have been baptised Gewargis, and keeps the feast of Mar Gewargis on 23 April. Church names come in several forms. The Syriac forms (Yohannan, Yawsep, Toma, Gewargis, Mattai, Narsai) are used in the liturgy and by the clergy; the everyday Turkic forms are Yuhanna, Yusup, Maryam, Luka and Janyl; and many families use Western or Russian forms. All of them lead to the same saint.

Every Janyl keeps the Feast of St. Janyl on 24 August, the great feast of this cathedral. Our Russo parishioners keep their imeniny on the days of the Slavonic use where these differ, and the families of the Guadalupe chapel in Semiz keep the Spanish names.

If your name has no saint of its own, the parish priests give the advice priests have always given: take the saint whose name is nearest to yours, or, if none is near, the saint whose day comes first after your birthday, and keep that day. If in doubt, ask the priest who baptised you, or write to the cathedral office.

The days are those of the cathedral's calendar of saints (the calendar page lists the feasts and fasts of the year). When a great feast falls on your name day, your saint gives way to it, and the family usually keeps the name day the next day.