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Nigerian Children Ashamed Of Their Names ? - Culture (2) - Nairaland

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Re: Nigerian Children Ashamed Of Their Names ? by Nobody: 10:03pm On Jul 13, 2009
Since I was born I've never seen any Femi being called Fee anywhere in this world.

why are people lying like rugs in order to prove some[b] Afrocentric babble[/b]?

Let someone with three heads tell me what's wrong with my name which I'm the one bearing.

or any adaptation I want to give it.

some people are halfway to lolo land them think say na pride.
Re: Nigerian Children Ashamed Of Their Names ? by beneli(m): 10:03pm On Jul 13, 2009
sugabelly:

So I don't believe you should have given your son a Hebrew name. There are no Hebrews, and I repeat there are NO Hebrews that would even dream of giving their children an Igbo name.

Sure, you might say insecurity is not the reason you gave your son that name, but it all boils down to the same thing: Why are Africans so ever-willing to give their children foreign names when foreigners would laugh at you in disgust if you even suggested an African name for their child?

And by the way, it is only if people insist on using their African names that foreigners will learn how to pronounce our names properly.

You raise a lot of thought provoking questions there, my sister. And some of the things you say cannot be faulted, especially about no 'Hebrews' dreaming of giving their children Igbo names. Like my friend beaf wrote some posts above 'a persons name is the first line of their identity', so the names we choose to give ourselves or to our children, must reflect in some way our identities and our beliefs.

Let's focus a bit on this 'identity thing.

Let me start by saying that who we are is not only about our biology and the 'culture' of our parents. Our identities are made up of so many other ‘blocks’ and debris and mortars of life,  put together during the process of our forming that whether we want to accept it or not  we cannot hinge our self-image only on traditional concepts. Our individual and collective identities must be dynamic yet retain those things that are fundamental to our existence. Those things that are not so important must change as we become better informed and more secure in who we are becoming.

So to respond to your comments about not believing  that I 'should have given (my) son a Hebrew name', you better believe it, because I did!

I have many reasons for this, some of which are too personal to share here. But let me just say that i believe in the God that called out Abraham from the rest of his Hebrew kinsmen. Though my convictions about traditional African deities are not strong enough, I still retain my surname, which contains within it the name of such a deity. My surname goes back many generations, perhaps to the time when the peoples that make up my clan started to come together. So it is part of who I am, in spite of who I have become. .

But my beliefs also form who I am. The promises fulfilled and dreams broken as I stumble through the maze of self-awareness and in the becoming of the man I am today, forms a platform on which I will spring into the future from the past. The God I have come to believe in has played a pivotal role in the fulfilling of those promises and in shepherding my soul in the valley of those broken dreams. So my choice of meaningful Hebrew names for my children is in a way my own testament to my belief, my convictions about God and the victories He has wrought for me.
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What I am trying to say, is that there is nothing wrong in being Afrocentric, which I am, and still believe in an un-African God. I see no contradiction in it. Honestly.
Re: Nigerian Children Ashamed Of Their Names ? by Nobody: 10:13pm On Jul 13, 2009
tpia.:

Since I was born I've never seen any Femi being called Fee anywhere in this world.

why are people lying like rugs in order to prove some[b] Afrocentric babble[/b]?

Let someone with three heads tell me what's wrong with my name which I'm the one bearing.

or any adaptation I want to give it.

some people are halfway to lolo land them think say na pride.

Then you haven't travelled widely enough. There are Nnekas that become Anika, Femis that become Fee. Hell, I know an Abimbola that is now Bim.

The fact that you have not met such a person does not make it a lie. There are freaking 8 billion people in this world and about 160-170 million Nigerians worldwide. I seriously doubt that you've met even half of them so don't you dare call me a liar.
Re: Nigerian Children Ashamed Of Their Names ? by Nobody: 10:18pm On Jul 13, 2009
chiogo:

What do you mean by nothing else? David, Isaiah, Esther, Jacob, Magdalene, etc are not biblical names?

Anyway, I get the other points you're making.

What I mean is that people like David for example are more HISTORICAL jewish figures rather than Christian religious leaders. David was a Jewish king. What has he got to do with Christianity? nothing. Except for the fact that Jesus was descended from his line.

There's really no Christian justification for naming anyone David. And even if you're a Jew (but not Hebrew) there's still no justification for naming anyone David because he was just a king somewhere in Hebrew history. If you're a non-Hebrew jew then you should be thinking about people like Moses and Abraham for religious purposes, but certainly not David or any of the other peeps from the Bible because they don't represent you culturally.
Re: Nigerian Children Ashamed Of Their Names ? by beneli(m): 10:26pm On Jul 13, 2009
There are a lot of Hebrew names with meaning that are not found in the bible. A little googling will convince you. The important thing for me, however, is the meaning of the name. How it sounds is also very important (obviously).

At the end of the day, the names we choose for our kids must be justifiable. If you're into only African names. Good for you. If you prefer Englsih, Italian, Native American, Hindi names etc. It's your choice. I have learnt that it doesn't neceassarily make anyone more or less authentically African.
Re: Nigerian Children Ashamed Of Their Names ? by Nobody: 10:33pm On Jul 13, 2009
sugabelly:

Then you haven't travelled widely enough. There are Nnekas that become Anika, Femis that become Fee. Hell, I know an Abimbola that is now Bim.

The fact that you have not met such a person does not make it a lie. There are freaking 8 billion people in this world and about 160-170 million Nigerians worldwide. I seriously doubt that you've met even half of them so don't you dare call me a liar.

and I repeat: I've never met a Femi who was called Fee. If you have, then find out why. Femi is one of the easiest names in this world to pronounce, so if you hear someone being called Fee, then maybe that's his girlfriend's nickname for him, and there's no need to start raining abuse on people just because they shortened their names.

I have a friend whose parents called her Bim instead of Bimbola right there in Nigeria.  Its their child and they can call her whatever they want- what gives you or anyone the right to start abusing them for their choice, as if they gave the child a really bad African name, which does happen.

Just because a name is African doesnt mean it cant make the bearer the brunt of jokes and bullying even from other Africans. And yes, parents can sometimes be irrational when naming children, since they pick names from their personal experiences without considering how it's going to affect that child later in life.

Being Afrocentric doesnt mean people must blindly swallow everything they hear.

America itself is full of names of places that were originally Indian (native American), and the current names are a corruption of the native American words that were mispronounced yet they stuck and people moved on with their lives.
Re: Nigerian Children Ashamed Of Their Names ? by Nobody: 10:40pm On Jul 13, 2009
I'm not talking about people that were given such names. I am talking about people that deliberately change their own name from the way they are used to pronouncing it to something that sounds more Anglicized because they are ashamed of their names.

There is a difference between a child originally named Bim and a child that renames herself Bim because she moved to America and decided that her original name was too bush.

And yes, you did call me a liar. You said you don't know why people are lying like a rug.
Re: Nigerian Children Ashamed Of Their Names ? by Nobody: 10:46pm On Jul 13, 2009
sugabelly:

I'm not talking about people that were given such names. I am talking about people that deliberately change their own name from the way they are used to pronouncing it to something that sounds more Anglicized because they are ashamed of their names.

There is a difference between a child named Bim and a child that names herself Bim because she moved to America and decided that her original name was too bush.

And yes, you did call me a liar. You said you don't know why people are lying like a rug.

yes, because you started with Chimezie. I pointed out there was a Chikezie who went on American Idol without changing his name.

You ignored that and started abusing other names which you dont like for your own personal reasons.
From there you moved on to Femi who you say was called Fee- that's something I never heard of because even a one year old child can pronounce that name.

Since I was born I've never heard a Femi in particular abbreviating their name and neither have I heard any oyibo or foreigner mispronounce it once they're told how to say it right.

People shorten their names all the time. i dont see anything wrong with it. Ikechukwu becomes Ike. Oluwasegun becomes Sege. etc.

What's the big deal?

And I'm yet to see any famous Nigerian overseas who shortened their name.
Re: Nigerian Children Ashamed Of Their Names ? by Nobody: 10:51pm On Jul 13, 2009
tpia.:

yes, because you started with Chimezie. I pointed out there was a Chikezie who went on American Idol without changing his name.

You ignored that and started abusing other names which you dont like for your own personal reasons.
From there you moved on to Femi who you say was called Fee- that's something I never heard of because even a one year old child can pronounce that name.

Since I was born I've never heard a Femi in particular abbreviating their name and neither have I heard any oyibo or foreigner mispronounce it once they're told how to say it right.

People shorten their names all the time. i dont see anything wrong with it. Ikechukwu becomes Ike. Oluwasegun becomes Sege. etc.

What's the big deal?

And I'm yet to see any famous Nigerian overseas who shortened their name.


I am not sure what you're talking about. I never said anything about Chimezie. You must be confusing me with someone else. Go read my posts.

Also if you read what i said properly you will see that I never said there was anything wrong with shortening your name.

I said there is something wrong with ANGLICIZING your name. Shortening and Anglicizing are two very different things.

There are short forms of almost every Nigerian name but those short forms are still recognized in their Nigerianness. I have a problem with people that change their names slightly in order to make them sound more ENGLISH or AMERICAN or whatever.

e.g. Nneka = Anika. or Ijeoma = Joanna
Re: Nigerian Children Ashamed Of Their Names ? by sjeezy8: 1:43am On Jul 14, 2009
WHAT im saying is i have a yoruba name and a christian name , but which makes sense as i am a yoruba who is christian but what is not right is when people have names like KINGSLEY, KATHERINE, CHARLES, LESLEY, ERIC, MORRIS, those names aren't from any tribe and have nothing to do with religion and to be honnest i've seen it more common with igbos,

For example If I MARRY an igbo girl, my children will have a yoruba name, an igbo name and a christian name, not random english names
Re: Nigerian Children Ashamed Of Their Names ? by Nobody: 1:54am On Jul 14, 2009
If I like I name my child Apple or Sunshine.

whether apple and sunshine dey Africa or not, no concern me.
Re: Nigerian Children Ashamed Of Their Names ? by davidif: 11:22pm On Jul 14, 2009
benelli,

It is your fault for not teaching your child to be proud of his heritage and his culture. Instead of telling what a great name he has, you simply succumbed to peer pressure just like others. If you cannot stand up for your identity, then you are not a man, sorry for being blunt but that is the truth.

Like someone said earlier, you would never see an oyinbo person EVER give there children a Nigerian.
Re: Nigerian Children Ashamed Of Their Names ? by beneli(m): 8:40pm On Jul 15, 2009
davidif:

benelli,

It is your fault for not teaching your child to be proud of his heritage and his culture. Instead of telling what a great name he has, you simply succumbed to peer pressure just like others. If you cannot stand up for your identity, then you are not a man, sorry for being blunt but that is the truth.

Like someone said earlier, you would never see an oyinbo person EVER give there children a Nigerian.



My son is only 5 years old, my friend!

Thanks for your lecture though. I didn't find it well thought through nor relevant.

PS: I HAVE seen Oyibo people give their children African names.
Re: Nigerian Children Ashamed Of Their Names ? by bayosgirl(f): 3:41am On Jul 19, 2011
My children will be given Yoruba middle names. I'm proud of it, and their father and I will teach them to be, too.
Re: Nigerian Children Ashamed Of Their Names ? by alju2u: 3:50am On Jul 19, 2011
Good for you ,it's very rear to see a yoruba bearing English names.
Re: Nigerian Children Ashamed Of Their Names ? by bayosgirl(f): 4:00am On Jul 19, 2011
Well, considering I'm American, it's not compulsory. I was actually the one to tell my husband I wanted them to have Yoruba names and he obviously agreed.
Re: Nigerian Children Ashamed Of Their Names ? by oludashmi(f): 6:29pm On Jul 19, 2011
sugabelly:

Then you haven't travelled widely enough. There are Nnekas that become Anika, Femis that become Fee. Hell, I know an Abimbola that is now Bim.

The fact that you have not met such a person does not make it a lie. There are freaking 8 billion people in this world and about 160-170 million Nigerians worldwide. I seriously doubt that you've met even half of them so don't you dare call me a liar.

Lie a little bit. . .not too much
You can never find a Femi turn Fee cos Femi had already been shortened from Obafemi, Adefemi, Oluwafemi to what it is. So, Fee or whatever, you will not find.

Just passing by. . . .
Re: Nigerian Children Ashamed Of Their Names ? by PAGAN9JA(m): 7:36pm On Jul 19, 2011
The names are ashamed of Nigerian children

1 Like

Re: Nigerian Children Ashamed Of Their Names ? by rowsey(f): 9:46pm On Feb 17, 2015
iice:
Oh is that one that is bothering you? Shortened names.

Haven't you come across those who change their names? I don't mean giving it a different pronunciation. I mean a totally different name with no relevance or similarity to their Nigerian names or even their English names.

I've met a lot of those ones grin grin
people have a right to answer what ever name they please,its no ones business
Re: Nigerian Children Ashamed Of Their Names ? by Nobody: 7:15am On Feb 18, 2015
Thats some ediots business. There is a single foreign name among my lengthy list of names, and i tell it out except when extremely necessary.
Re: Nigerian Children Ashamed Of Their Names ? by itstpia8: 7:16am On Feb 18, 2015
rowsey:
people have a right to answer what ever name they please,its no ones business

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