about
origin of nakuma
on an almost daily basis i am asked what my name means. here is the story behind it and accepted meaning.
the name
From 1977 through 1978 "The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams" aired on television in the USA. The show was about a farmer named James Adams who was accused of a crime he didn't commit and fled to live in the mountains with a grizzly bear he befriends. On 35 of the series' 36 episodes he is accompanied by one of his only two regular human friends on the show. This human friend is an Native American Indian named Nakuma.
During the same time as the show ran a woman in Connecticut regularly watched it and had an affection for all things Native American. Since she had this love she decided that she liked the name Nakuma and wanted to give it to her first born son. She did some research and found out that the name was from the Crow Indian Tribe but was unable to find out its meaning.
When I was born my mother named me Nakuma.
the meaning
As I grew up, it did not take long for me to want to find out what Nakuma means. I have done my own share of research on the web and by phone to no avail. This became frustrating and I began to doubt its Crow Tribe origin.
I began to search for Nakuma in other languages to see if there was any more information there. About 26 years after I was given the name, I finally found a complete character translation and meaning. I discovered the meaning in the Japanese Kanji writing system which is based on borrowed Chinese characters.
The literal translation of Nakuma in Kanji is name bear. It is made up of two characters: na meaning by name and kuma which means bear.
