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AfriGeneas Africa Research Forum
Posted from another list with permission of the author,
Richard Allicock richwyn@idirect.com
LINCOM EUROPA abstracts
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African Anthroponymy: An Ethnopragmatic and Morphophonological Study of Personal Names in Akan and Some African Societies
Samuel Gyasi Obeng
Indiana University, Bloomington
Names in African cultures are pointers to their users' hopes, dreams and aspirations; they may reflect their users' geographical environments, their fears, their religious beliefs, and their philosophy of life and death. Children's names may even provide insights into important cultural or socio-political events at the time of their birth. The circumstances surrounding a childs birth may be considered when a name is being chosen.
Factors such as the day of the week of the birth, the time of day (dawn, morning, dusk, afternoon, evening, night), the season of the year, the order of birth, the location a person is born, the specific circumstances relating to the child and to the childs family, the attitude of the parents as well as the gender of the child all play significant roles in the overall naming process and in the actual name given. If one's parents suffer or suffered from child or infant mortality, one is likely to have a funny, survival or death-prevention name believed to be capable of preventing and/or eliminating totally such deaths since it has the power of preventing parents in the underworld from causing the death of such children. Names in African societies may even be important indicator(s) of the bearers behavior and as pointers to the name-bearers' past, present, and future accomplishments. Personal names in Sub-Saharan Africa are therefore not mere labels showing which person (parti!cularly, which father) is responsible for a childs birth. There is also a close identity between the name and the name bearer such that the name links to the name-givers overall experiences. Structurally, African names range from single words, phrases, and sentences, to units larger than the sentence.
SOURCE: http://home.t-online.de/home/LINCOM.EUROPA/4315.htm
Examples from Nigeria:
In his article, "Edo Naming Ceremony," Dr. Omoigui lists examples of Edo names:
Onaiwu: This child will not die again.
Osamamianmianmwen: God did not forget me.
Ighiwiyisi: I shall not get lost in a foreign land.
Nowamagbe: He who is not harmed by members of his family cannot be harmed by outsiders.
Iyare: Safe journey
SOURCE: http://www.babyzone.com/features/content/display.asp?TopicID=9175&ContentID=1089
Below is a site for first names male and female across Africa. One can search for names or look at names alphabetically, and get pronounciation, meaning, tribe and country:
Here's a similar site:
and another: http://www.behindthename.com/nmc/afr.html
Here are books at Amazon.com on African names;
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0865432554/theafrocentricex/103-2786205-5521408