So what do you get in Nigeria when you
take Sunday, God's Gift, Whoknows, Noisy
Place and, of course, Goodluck? Could be a
family gathering.

This Sunday's inauguration of President
Goodluck Jonathan will do more than
officially bring an end to a landmark
election period in Nigeria.

It will also highlight what is perhaps a
little known feature of the country's
culture: names with a story behind them.
Whether in local dialect or in English,
many Nigerian names hold meaning as
subtle as a whack on the head.

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7 May Children in many parts of Nigeria are
given names at elaborately arranged
ceremonies, replete with food, drink and
celebration. They range from the religious
- Godswill, Godspower or God's Gift - to
the downright curious, such as Brown
Question.

"People don't just give names - names tell a
lot," said Austin Nwagbara, a lecturer at
the University of Lagos.

He points out that many African cultures
believe that "your name follows you, like
Goodluck."

Easy to dismiss such nonsense, right? Well,
not so fast.

Consider the president, whose name many
say has matched the trajectory of his life.
"I called him Goodluck because althoughy
life was hard for me when he was born, I
had this feeling that this boy would bring
me good luck," his late father Lawrence
Jonathan was quoted as saying in a recent
biography of the president.

His mother Eunice said although she had a
history of lengthy labour in childbirth
stretching for several days, Goodluck was
born in record time - the very day she
went into labour.

But the plot thickens.
Some argue that Jonathan, a zoologist from
a family of canoe makers, owes his entire
political leader to ... yep, you got it. The
53-year-old leader has benefited from a
series of events that have advanced his
career by default.

He became governor of his native Bayelsa
state in 2005. He had been deputy
governor and took over the office after his
predecessor was impeached on money
laundering charges.

A couple years later, he was selected to
run as vice president under Umaru
Yar'Adua, a northerner who needed to
balance his ticket.

Jonathan himself, in one of the US
diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks,
purportedly acknowledged he was not the
most experienced candidate for the vice
presidential job and was selected to
represent the oil-producing Niger Delta.

Flash forward to 2010. Yar'Adua dies in
office after months of illness, and Jonathan
is sworn in to replace him.

And then April 2011: The power of
incumbency behind him, Jonathan easily
wins the presidential election.

One of his friends, Amalate Johnny Turner,
told AFP that Jonathan "never dreamt
becoming what he is today."

But enough about Goodluck and his
fortune. The phenomenon goes far beyond
the president in Africa's most populous
nation.

A child's name can be influenced by
circumstances of birth, cultural or
religious beliefs, expectations and
philosophy.

Some of the other interesting birth
certificates include native names that
translate roughly to phrases like "noisy
place" for a child born in a noisy
environment and "along the road" if a
baby comes out before the mother makes it
to a hospital. A child born of parents
embroiled in a feud with another family,
can go by a name meaning "cannot buy
your family's love".

English versions of names with a story are
also abundant.

One government worker answers to the
name Brown Question. His grandfather,
then a traditional adjudicator settling land
disputes, named his son Question simply
because his work involved asking lots of
them.

Believe it or not, he says he was made fun
of because of it once or twice growing up.
Naming a child is an elaborate, ritualistic
affair in Nigeria.

On a recent working day, guests filed into
a white marquee pitched in the middle of a
street in Lagos' ghetto of Mushin for a
child-naming party. Smoke wafted from a
cooking fire where food for the guests was
being prepared.

According to the tradition of Yorubas, the
ethnic group dominant in Nigeria's
southwest, naming rites have to be
conducted exactly eight days after birth.
In the mainly Muslim north of Nigeria,
most names are culled from the Koran, but
some carry surnames denoting their home
towns, such as ex-president Shehu Shagari,
from the town of Shagari.

Some names among the Igbo ethnic group,
predominate in the southeast, indicate
days of the week a child was born. The
same is sometimes true for Yorubas.
So you could find yourself on a Saturday
night hanging out with Sunday and
Monday, planning to visit Mr. Gusau from
Gusau and hoping to find Goodluck and
Godswill.


http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/call-me-goodluck-nigerian-names-and-the-stories-they-tell-2290313.html

And so on and so forth, in my case, ''THE LORD IS MY STRENGHT'' had been following me

Ezedon:
And so on and so forth, in my case, ''THE LORD IS MY STRENGHT'' had been following me

umm r you sure. I don't be believe name having influence on owns like automatically. good luck was coincident. I have seen my lucky with baddest luck. many rich name in povalty.

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