Named after vanishing Pacific islands

very summer when Tony Paul was a child in Kwajalein, an atoll in the Pacific nation of the Marshall Islands, his parents sent him and his siblings to spend time with their uncle on a remote chain of islands their ancestors once called home.

During the day, they darted across shrub-covered dunes and waded through turquoise waters. During the evening, they spearfished in the lagoon or hunted coconut crabs. And every night, before they went to bed, their uncle pulled out a battered guitar and sang old Marshallese pop songs. “They were the best times of being a kid,” said Paul. “It was a chance for us to learn a lot of Marshallese ways.”

Paul later moved to Majuro, the Marshall Islands’ capital. It became difficult to visit the islands of his childhood. When he met Ellen Milne, who would later become his wife, they discovered that she too could trace her family’s lineage to islands near there.

When it came time to choose their second daughter’s name (Milne-Paul’s mother named the first), they named her Elenak, after the second-largest island in the chain. They hoped they were “giving her something that connects her to her Marshallese roots”, said Milne-Paul. Later, when their youngest son was born, they named him Tarlan, after an ancient coral head in Kwajalein’s lagoon.

The surge in place-based names – which is hard to quantify due to a lack of any hard data – is largely due to the growing likelihood that Marshallese children will one day leave their home. Education in the Marshall Islands is poor, few students who graduate can find jobs, and most jobs that do exist pay little: the median annual income is $9,600. As the country is a former American colony, its citizens can live in the US without a visa. Between 2011 and 2021, the country’s population dropped from 53,158 to 43,594.

This is further complicated by the climate crisis. The low-lying atoll nation is already feeling the impact by way of intense droughts and more frequent flooding from king tides and outbreaks of mosquito-borne illnesses. Saltwater is increasingly soaking into the land, spoiling crops and freshwater supplies. A 2018 US Geographical Survey study indicated that if moderate greenhouse gas emissions continue, sea level rise will make Marshallese freshwater supplies undrinkable by 2035 and cause annual floods of the majority of Marshallese land by 2055. As a result, Marshallese migration is expected to accelerate.

As Milne-Paul comes to terms with the impact of the climate crisis on her islands, she has grown to realise the deeper significance of her children’s names. “It would mean so much more that it’s an island that used to exist, and no longer exists,” she said.

Among notable Marshallese whose children share their name with local islands or plots of land are the country’s highest civil servant, Kino Kabua, and its most famous poet, Kathy JetñilKijiner, who named her daughter Peinam, after a parcel of land belonging to her mother’s family. She hopes that by naming her daughter after the place, she can ensure its legacy endures, even if the land itself sinks, and it helps Peinam feel tied to the islands.

Milne-Paul agrees. She intends to stay, but for Elenak and Tarlan, “should they leave, they’ll still be connected to this country”.