What’s in a name is an arguably controversial topic. My father explained to me once the prophetic insight to it and why each of my siblings got a christian name and a well-thought out second name(Nkatha,am told is a good name). Half a century ago they didn’t have the privilege to choose own names hence a child at a certain age would adopt a christian name of their choice.
My father remorsefully recounts that he took up “Julius” which he thought a fancy name because a teacher in their village had the same name. This was highly regretted later when he discovered there wasn’t a special meaning to it anyway. Others got names given by a catechist upon successful completion of catechism classes. Ever heard in your village people called names that they can hardly pronounce right. Feature this: Elizabeth pronounced as lisabet, Zipporrah as cibora or Isabella which becomes sabera.I don’t get why they choose these names for children who could hardly write. This worked to complicate matters since most names sounded like tongue twisters
Of course the second names or surnames were funny too e.g. mwamba(thief, garrison), mwendia(seller), kirai(basin) etc.Fast forward to our generation and you got names that are weird e.g. Amreet Nadia etc. Others stick to ethnic names like Nkatha Riungu or Ciku Mwangi etc. I hear that some of these names are influenced by a couple of factors.E.g. a mother who is a Soccer fan may adopt the name of the best player in her team for her child.
On religious front, names being linked to curses or generational struggles have made christian parents adopt names like Zawadi, rehema upendo but am worried at the combination of the names.A friend told me of a church mate who called her child,”UPENDO WA BWANA”. funny as it may seem,it’s true. Think of that,couldn’t just upendo do. How complicated the life of this child at kindergarten years,the scoffing from the friends and all!
I know some of us in high school rated the names of people to the kind of families they came from. Am not suggesting we get plain names like” Jane,Elizabeth etc for our children but would moderate,simple,gracious names harm? I personally would call my child a name like Victor and move on or an ethnic one like Nkatha Riungu as long as the name doesn’t mean a hyena or a sorcerer.Remember the guy in the bible Jabez,whose name meant pain?
What does your name mean? Does it define your personality or who you are? Of course we may not have the privilege to deregister it at the registrar of persons so we can only love it.
WRITEthinking 