Project Surname
Project enacted to assign surnames to Inuit / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Project Surname was a project enacted by the Northwest Territories Council and Government of Canada to assign surnames to Inuit.[1] Project Surname was also known as Operation Surname.[2] These assigned surnames eventually replaced the disc number system, where numbers were assigned and kept on discs that people were obligated to wear from the 1940s onward.[3] Family surnames were not used by Inuit until this system was introduced.[3][4] Traditionally, children received multiple names after birth which reflected their personality, named for a dead relative or sometimes after a living relative. Names would be changed if they were not deemed to suit the child.[1] Project Surname was perceived as less offensive compared to the disk number system but was also criticized as paternalistic intervention from the Canadian government.[1]