Why “ianbek”?
The first part of the name is easy to explain … my name is Ian.
So, why “bek”?
I suppose I could have chose ianclaytor.com but it seemed a bit longwinded and I wanted a name that would reflect the fact that I was here in Central Asia.
So what were the alternatives?
Some of my (Russian) friends call me Ian Robertovich because my father’s name was Robert. In Russian everyone has three names:
- a Given name – which, when I grew up, was always referred to as a “Christian” name, (such as Ian)
- a Patronymic – taken from their father’s name … for men it ends in “vich”, (such as Robertovich), and for women in “vna”, (such as Ivanovna)
- a Family name – or “surname”, (such as Claytor)
Sometimes this results in interesting situations like Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin … It is very rare for someone to be addressed just by their given name, (only close friends and family use just the given name), or by the given name and the family name. Although many people now call me Ian Claytor, I still meet locals who can’t call me that and insist on using “Mister Ian” or “Mister Ian Claytor”, (or worse still “Sir Ian” – I haven’t yet been knighted, nor am I ever likely to be!). The polite form of address is to use the given name followed by the patronymic, so Vladimir Putin would be referred to or addressed as Vladimir Vladimirovich, and I would be Ian Robertovich.
However, ianrobertovich.com also didn’t fit the bill and, anyway, we don’t use patronymics in English.
There is also a tradition of giving people nicknames, or diminutives … so, for example, Alexander becomes Sasha; Vladimir becomes Volodia or Vova; Mikhail becomes Misha; Constantine becomes Costya; Nikolai becomes Kolya and Georgiy becomes Gosha. Of course, as Ian is a foreign name there isn’t an equivalent – although Ivan, (the Russian equivalent of Ian and John), becomes Vanya. Within the family, or close circle of friends, names are turned into terms of endearment by adding endings like “-ka” (as in Danka or Romka) or “-chik” (Vanchik or Romchik) … but, for some reason I wasn’t too keen on ianchik.com as a name.
Now, “bek” is often added to men’s names here in Central Asia, so you have examples like Askarbek or Kurmanbek … or Ianbek. It could just as easily have been ianbaike.com because baike is another term added to names here, but baikie is a term of respect reserved for elders and this seemed presumptuous.
So in the end, ianbek.com was the chosen name for the site.
It is short, identifies itself with me as an individual and it also has a taste of ”Central Asia.”
Bishkek