Naming customs in Africa

It is not known when humans first began using names though the practice is certainly very old, probably extending far into prehistory. Although all cultures use names, naming customs vary greatly from people to people. In some cases they are very simple, such as those of many Indonesians who use just a single name. On the other hand, traditional Chinese naming practices were very complex. Chinese males were given different names at various points in their lives, in addition to a surname and sometimes a generation name.

Names serve several purposes. Most importantly they help distinguish us from one another. Imagine how difficult it would be to refer to people if we did not use names. Instead of saying Bob one would have to say something like the short red-headed man who lives down the street. Some names carry information about our roots, such as family or clan names. They are generally inherited. Names can serve other purposes as well, such as the Chinese generation name which identifies the generation of the bearer, or the names used by some African cultures which describe the order in which siblings were born.
Given names, what westerners call first names, are generally bestowed at some point after the birth of the child. This website looks at the etymology (i.e. the linguistic origin, or meaning) and history of all types of given names.

Africa is home to several language families and hundreds of languages. The people can be divided into over a thousand different ethnic groups. Some practice various tribal religions, others Islam or Christianity. This complex background makes summing up African naming traditions in a few paragraphs very difficult.

Traditional African names often reflect the circumstances at the time of birth. Names such as Mwanajuma "Friday", Esi "Sunday", Khamisi "Thursday", and Wekesa "harvest time" refer to the time or day when the child was born. Other names reflect the birth order of the newborn, for example Mosi "first born", Kunto "third born", Nsonowa "seventh born", and Wasswa "first of twins". Some names describe the parents' reaction to the birth (such as Kayode, Gwandoya, Abeni and Monifa) and still others are descriptive of the newborn or of desired characteristics (like Yejide, Dada, Chiumbo and Zuberi). Vocabulary words are also often used as given names. For example: Sefu "sword" and Tau "lion" (masculine) and Marjani "coral" and Ife "love" (feminine).

Most people in the north of Africa are Muslim and thus tend to use Arabic names. In central and southern Africa, as a result of European colonization, many nations are partially Christian and have French, English or Portuguese as an official language. These regions use European names extensively.