Part 3 - Further Abroad

"If you should have a boy, do not christen him John...'Tis a bad name and goes against a man. If my name had been Edmund I should have been more fortunate." John Keats is not the only one to feel this way. As a parent in Iranian culture, the most precious thing you can give a child is a good name. Maybe that's why Iranian women don't take their husband's names. Neither do Mongolian women, although that's about all these two cultures have in common when it comes to naming. Amelia Nurse talks to Nora Munhuu and Danaa Vandangombo, both of Victoria University of Wellington, about why most Mongolians suddenly have the same last name - and to Saeid Zahedi, Counsellor at the Iranian Embassy, about why names are increasingly important to Iranians.