2,030 Abibisika (Black Gold) Points

Rank: Unranked Obibini

“In the early 1970’s several books focused on African names, and they attempted to meet some of the above categories ( i.e, name meaning, origin, pronunciation, etc), but most fell short because they were very slim in content. However there were exceptions, one being “Names from Africa”: Their Origin, Meaning, and Pronunciation (1972) organised by Ogonna Chuks-Orji with the assistance of Barbados-born scholar Keith E. Baird, published by Johnson Publishing Company, an African American owned and operated publishing company based in Chicago, Illinois.

In the description of the book, it reports that it was written for people of all ages; parents looking for names for their children, for any person that would like to acquire an African name to substitute for or add to his/her given name; and for students in Black Studies programs who may want to adopt a name that is meaningful to them. Furthermore, the book targeted the new African consciousness within the African American community, and thus, the author (Chuks-Orji) reports that he undertook the compiling of the book as a result of numerous inquiries for African names from people in”…..all walks of life who were interested in using them for themselves, their children, and their friends,” thus he introduces the topic by writing that “the giving of names is of great importance in Africa” and that people are named after events, happenings, great things, the days of the week, or the order in which they were born.

Continuing, he writes that if parents wanted a son in Nigeria they may call him “Ayinde” (a Yoruba name) meaning “the one we prayed for”; in Ghana, if a boy is born on Saturday, he is called “Kwame” (an Akan name); and in Tanzania, the second born of twins are called “Doto” (a Zaramo name). In short, the book set the standard on how a book on African names should be organised and introduced. Fast forward to 1998, Johnathan Musere and Shirley C. Byakutaga in African Names and Naming compiled some 2,500 personal names from eastern, central and southern Africa (many appearing in print for the first time) with entries showing how African names relate to ceremonies, prayer, proverbs, mode of birth, deity, spirits, ethnic affiliation, and within the overall dynamics of family relationships.”