Enque-Bahriy

My grandfather’s name was not always Zera-Yohannes. When my grandfather was about 25 years old, he aspired to become a priest. My grandfather was a very intelligent person, always on the top of his class. Becoming a priest is one of the greatest honors in Ethiopia. However, there was one small problem. His name was “Enque-Bahriy”. In the Ethiopian Amharic language, Enque means diamond and Bahriy means behavior. The name Enque-Bahriy literally translates to diamond behavior. In English, people would call it “best behavior” or “great behavior”. You would think that most people would desire to have such a fantastic name. However, there is an Amharic word called “Enko”, which means monkey. People always used to tease him about his name and call