Mark, son of Fredric

November 11, 2025

Mark Hedinger

The more I learn about the diverse ways of life of people on planet Earth, the more I realize that nothing is easy in intercultural ministry!  

Take people’s names for example.  

Sounds easy – right? I mean don’t the cultures of the world all give names to people the same way? 

Well. . . no. Nothing is easy – including how people are named! 

In my native US culture, women often change their last name and take their husband’s family name when they get married. 

In Viet Nam, people can choose to change their last name to honor a king. A little while ago I was seated at a table of Vietnamese people who all shared the same last name. “Are you all related?” was my question. “No, our families all changed names to honor the same king” was what I learned.  

Then there is the Latin American naming pattern – all people carry their father and mother’s last names, and no one changes names when they marry. So in the English-speaking world I am Mark Hedinger and my wife is Karen Hedinger. In our Latin American world, I am Mark Hedinger-Howk and Karen is Karen Hutchinson-Baker.  

How do people know who is married to whom? It is not readily visible in names so. . . you get to know people and learn that way! 

Or there is the custom in Ghana where people’s first name is given based on the day of the week they were born. If you know a “Kofi,” for example, you know he was born on a Friday. 

My Ethiopian friends do not have a “family name” like we do in the West. Instead, they repeat the names of several generations of ancestors. I would be Mark son of Fredric son of Raymond son of Fredrick. . .  

All of these customs (and many other naming patterns) show us that human culture is complex. Nothing is simple! There are so many different reasons for giving a name, and so many reasons people have for changing their names. Names of people in different cultures also give us insight into how they understand “self” and its relationship to their collective identities, values, and honor systems.  

This complicated intercultural mosaic of naming patterns can be confusing for humans, but it causes no trouble at all for our God. John 10:3 gives us the wonderful news that our Lord is the Shepherd who calls His own sheep by name. Maybe we are confused, but He is not! 

Mark Hedinger, DIS, is Executive Director of CultureBound. Mark and his family spent 12 years living and teaching in Mexico. Since then, he has taught in many international locations and leads culture training programs at CultureBound. With his Spanish language background, he serves in a multicultural church in Portland, Oregon.