For this Inuk woman, her name Ilupaalik was 'buried' when she got married

CBC North is doing a series on the history and significance of Inuit names. Traditional names hold great respect and honour. There are long-held Inuit beliefs that people take on the characteristics of their namesake, and that spirits live on through them. Many Inuit have close connections with the person who named them, as well as people who have the same name. 

Therese Ilupaalik Ukaliannuk was born north of Igloolik, Nunavut, in 1940, in June she believes.

She was given two names: Therese Ilupaalik (pronounced ill-loo paah-lik). 

"I have only two names, my baptismal name and the name of a person," she said in Inuktitut in Iqaluit, where she lives now.

Like many Inuit, she has been known by several other names in her 80 years.

She was named after her great aunt, her father's maternal aunt, Ilupaalik. 

Being named after her great aunt had significant meaning. Her father would call her "Ajakuluk," which means aunt in Inuktitut.

Therese was married to Lucien Ukaliannuk at the time of Project Surname, so she was given her husband's last name: Ukaliannuk.

Project Surname was proposed by the N.W.T. Council (later known as the Legislative Assembly) in the late 1960s as a way to move past "E-numbers" — identification numbers assigned to "Eskimos" since the 1940s to keep track of Inuit for medical and census records, etc. Through Project Surname, Inuit were told to select and register surnames, or family names, along with their given name.

"Things seemed to change … I was being called Therese Ukaliannuk, it seemed as though my dear name had been buried," Therese said of her name Ilupaalik.

"I felt as though I had changed, I felt different as though my dear name had been put in the background," she said in Inuktitut.

"People would say Therese Ukaliannuk and I would reply 'I'm not named for Ukaliannuk but for Ilupaalik.'"

"I was once told, it is because he is your husband that you have been given his name."

In Inuit tradition, she also shared her name with another person. For Therese, that was Louis Ilupaalik.

They called each other "Avvakuluk," which means that they share the same name.

Therese also had a connection with a man named Guy Makkik, who was born on the same day as her. They called each other "Ikinnguti," which was an indicator that they were born on the same day.

Now that her husband has died, she may consider reclaiming her name Ilupaalik, she said.

"I really would like to reclaim it," Therese said. "I would not mind reclaiming it at all, I no longer would mind being called Ilupaalik."