The origins of "Badger Run"

Ajay Sutton

 

Let me preface this with a bit of a rant. I was never fond of the "modern" method used by South Africans for naming for a place -- Soweto, Sasolburg. Horrible in the extreme. My parents, Malcolm and Angela, called their house Malang. Bevath or Bevaj didn't have quite the same ring. I hated the Anglicized pronunciations of names in another language - Gans Bay, Wallfish Bay -- and the mispronounced place names, originally in a native language, used to irritate me. Umtata for M'thatha (derivation of "take", I wonder), anything with a click or "tl" or "hl" sound.

Then we got to America where, after driving around for a few years, we came up with the theory that if Americans hadn't had politicians, geological features, grandparents, or arrived from some other place of which they had fond memories (but decided to leave anyway!), there wouldn't be any place names in the US - we'd all be in Ca'nada - a place of nothing.

We're surrounded by "Rock Canyon Ranches", "Stony Hills/Valleys", "Desert Vistas" all reached by roads called "Lee Downing Trail", "Antrim Trail", "Ewing Trail" ... name a neighbor and the developer named a road after him. Our egos just didn't extend that far.

Finding a Native American Indian name is one we actually considered. Using an Indian language, however ancient, to call the ranch "Rocky Canyon", "Dry Wash" or "Mountain View" didn't have much appeal to us. Truth be told - although we're in Indian territory, we're way too far from water and a good supply of firewood for any ancient civilization to have had any settlements in the area. Those people had brains and lacked motorized transport! Calling the place "Grey Bear's Hunting Ground" in ancient, unpronounceable Aztecan-Tanoan in honor of a long dead fellow who may or may not have ever caught/killed anything here didn't work for us either.

So we tried another approach. We wanted a name that indirectly referred to us (the old ego thing), had another meaning and rolled of the tongue. It would have been a wonderful bonus if the name also had something to do with the wildlife in the area without being too obvious.

So "Badger Run". Well, the B of Bev and AJ gave us the first syllable.

In Iran - a "badgir" is the name given to a wind-tower, a chimney-like protuberance which catches wind and, after optionally cooling it over some water, directs it into the house. We were really trying to find a non-power-using, water-conserving method of providing cool air in the house and this was the best method  we had come up with. In the final event we decided it was overkill for our environment - but the original set of house plans included a "badgir" on the west side.

So we had badger. In the Navajo tradition, a badger is a totem animal representing a healer, user of herbs ... considered by the Pueblo to be a medicine chief -- making the badger an instant hit with Bev. Badger was forced into this world 3 times, according to Navajo tradition - returning to "First Man" twice because he was too nervous to remain here. The Zuni Indians considered him the strong guardian of their area. On the minus side, the badger is/was also considered to be the weak-willed little brother of the bear and/or a symbol of aggression. I could go on about the Celtic symbolism, but enough already!

We decided we liked Badger. To round it off, we added Run. It rolls off the tongue, is original, and suggests, to us anyway, our departure from South Africa.

So I'm sorry that the name is pronounceable, vaguely British, with only a passing reference to the local culture. It is better than "Drie Rots Droog Stroom", Camel Rock, Turtle Rock, M'Sebenza Mkulu, Aiziko Manzi (Man, my Xhosa/Fanakalo is bad. I can't even spell 'nothing'!) or a myriad of other names that suggested themselves to our slightly whacky senses of humor but would have required explanation and coaching in pronunciation to every local who saw (and could read) the sign.