Naming in Beloved

In Beloved, we see 2 characters who declare their own names, these being Baby Suggs and Stamp Paid. They are both former slaves, changing their names at some point after they are freed. Baby Suggs names herself because Suggs was her husband's name, and he always called her Baby. She holds on to the hope that he will somehow show up in Cincinnati, and she is afraid that he won't recognize her if not for her name. Stamp Paid also creates his own name, for an even more tragic reason. His wife is taken from him by the son of his slave master. He wants to kill someone, even himself, but his wife convinces him to stay calm, telling him that he needs to be there when she gets free. Stamp Paid views the loss of his wife as a kind of payment to all slave owners, and he decides that he no longer owes anything to them. Hence the name, Stamp Paid. There is a very interesting contrast between the way the 2 characters name themselves, despite similar circumstances. Overall, it is easy to say that Baby Suggs names herself out of hope. She hopes that her Husband could come back, in spite of it being very unlikely to happen. At the same time, it seems like Baby Suggs understands that he is not coming back, and yet she keeps the name anyway. It seems like its the only name she has, she's hardly even aware of her official name. Stamp Paid seems to take his name for completely different reasons. He has, if anything, completely lost that unconditional hope that Baby Suggs holds. He thinks he has made his fair share of sacrifices for one of these goals, and so he throws them out entirely.

Comments

  1. CollinDecember 13, 2019 at 3:20 PM

    In addition, the theme of names and personality has been an important one throughout all the books we have been reading. It's interesting to see how Baby Suggs and Stamp Paid named themselves in completely different situations and the contrast between a name made through hope and a name made through spite. In a more optimistic view, I see the naming of themselves as a reclamation of their identity and a separation between themselves and the white control.

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  2. Eric RothDecember 18, 2019 at 10:06 AM

    I really like these analyses of names in the books we have been reading so far. But the names in Beloved are cool because they don't require deep research into their roots to figure out their meaning, but are relatively straightforward, like the irony of psycho loco in White Boy Shuffle. Stamp Paid's name might be my favorite because it reveals a tragic backstory of the loss of his wife to slavery, and how he believes he has nothing left that he owes to the white folk because they took everything from him. Overall, these names bring a lot of new meaning to the story and help to tell its interesting tale.

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  3. Anthony CDecember 20, 2019 at 5:32 PM

    I really like the use of Baby Suggs creating her own name as a metaphor for freedom. I think that this is a clever use of names to show a sense of liberation and control over one's life. Looking back at this scene after having watched the Toni Morrison documentary, I can't help but think about Morrison's description of the feeling she felt walking down to the pier after quitting her job as an editor and becoming a fulltime writer. She described this feeling of freedom perfectly in the documentary, and it was likely an inspiration for Baby Suggs' character.

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