African names
As far back as my young mind could remember, i had a problem with my surname been called in class and so what do i do? Once my teacher is taking attendance, the moment she mentions my first name, i do not wait for her to call my surname name before i answer. Most times i answer before the completion of my surname. At that age i and my classmates didn’t care about the meaning. All we cared about was the sound and uniqueness of it . My classmates would mock me because of my surname. My surname means “peacemaker”, i learnt this while i was in the university but as a kid, my classmates and i took the name at a face value which literally means “house keeper or repairer". And so i was taunted as a kid by my classmates. They will always taunt me to come repair whatever thing that was broken be it chairs, pen, pencil etc. Apparently, i wasn’t the only one facing that challenge as my older siblings complained too.
At the university i had come to understand the meaning of my name and people at the university also appreciated the name better, i guess we became more mature . It surprised me to find out that my roommate at the university who was by the way three years older than me was suffering what i had suffered back then. Her surname was exactly the kind of name we loved back then in school. It was short and sounded very westernized ( Chinese) it was a three letter word.
Where her problem lies? It has no meaning. According to her, processing her registration was quite hard because every admin office she entered would always ask her to say her surname in full because is way too short and meaningless. Whenever she tells them that that is her surname in full they were always inquisitive asking for the meaning which her answers were always “i do not know". She appreciated my surname so much and so many other people at school did and that is because of the meaning.
There was a period finances was a huge problem at home. Dad had lost his source of livelihood and his health had gone bad. Mom was the only one catering for eight kids who were all in school. We had just moved from grace to grass. We could not afford the rent of the beautiful duplex we lived in which was situated in a government residential area. It was a place meant for the rich. Mom had to look for another house in a different area. While on the search for a flat, she came across a street. The name of the street captivated her... “ ifezuoke " which means “everything will be complete". Once she saw this name she said everything will be complete for her once she got an apartment in this street and so she channelled her mind on getting a house at “ifezuoke" she didn’t want a house from any other street but there.
She found a house a there but it was not a fanciful house, nevertheless we parked in.
I am African, a Nigerian and Igbo by tribe and i can categorically say that names mean a whole lot to us. There is always a story behind our names except for a few cases.
At the time when my father was born, there was high rate of child mortality. My grandmother named my uncle “Ozoemenna” which literally means may another death not occur. This name “Ozoemenna “ tells a story and this story is that a kid or in some cases, kids had died in that family at infancy. As a matter of fact, my grandmother lost three kids before the birth of my uncle.
My village is quite a rural place and so couples are still struggling with family planning. In some cases the withdrawal method which they are used to fails them and a baby comes into the picture. It is cases like that that gave birth to the name “Atuanya" Atuanya means that the baby was not planned for or in English parlance the parents thought they already “hanged their boot". “Asingibia” is another name given to kids that defiled family planning and it means “did i ask you to come”
During my first year at the university i came in contact with a girl by the name “Nwabundom” it is a name that tells of pain. It meant that the girl is her parents shade/shield . It was my first time of hearing that name and knowing what i know about names, i was heartbroken i knew deep down that the parents must have gone through a lot for them to call her their shade. A mutual friend told me that Nwabundom’s parents stayed for years through mockery and pain to have Nwabundom and she was her parents only child. An only child in a Nigerian society is considered a diamond.
Azikiwe is a name that is quite popular in Africa majorly because of Nnamdi Azikiwe who was a pro activist for the political movement in Africa. Azikiwe was quite popular yet i did not know the meaning up until October 2020 when the Nigerian youths stood up to bad governance in a manner that had never existed. They were adamant and unflinching to the many threats of the Nigerian government. It was at this show of bravery that a man exclaimed, “Azikiwe”
In that moment i had an epiphany. “Azi” means youth, that i have always known but that day i realized that Azikiwe literally means that youths are full of vigour.
I know of two friends whose names were changed to different names after they got involved in an accident that would have claimed the lives of many but in their case they very much survived it with scars that tell their stories. One was named “Chizobam" a feminine name which means “God protect me” the other was named “Chimdindu" which means “ i serve a living God”.
We African’s...Nigerian's more especially the igbo’s and yoruba speaking tribe are known to give names that have a story behind it. Though i am not so conversant with the yourba tribe but i know of a yoruba friend by the name “ Itunuoluwa" which means “ God's consolation or comfort”. According to her, her father considered her his consolation after his wife itunu's mother died at child birth .
I also know of a yoruba friend who bears the name “Abidemi" Abidemi simply means a girl child who was birthed in her fathers absence.
So i implore you today, if you have a African friend, a Nigerian friend more especially the tribes i mentioned you can always ask the meaning of their names as their might be a story behind it. Sometimes this story talks about the root of their very core existence. Like the name “Mkpuechina” which is by the way not a common name. Mkpuechina tells the story of lineage that was almost wiped out from the surface of the earth due to the death of the only surviving son or husband or a family that longed for a male child and eventually had one as the case maybe. In Igbo tradition men are considered as continuity and so once there is no surving male child in a family, the lineage will be at the verge of non existence once the daughters of the family leave for their husbands houses and so in some cases, a daughter of the family might be begged by the family to stay behind to procreate for the family “ ka mkpu ha yara ichi" or sometimes a lady is married into the family just so that she could birth sons so that the family will not go extinct. However this practice of “Mkpuechina” is beginning to wane out in the igbo society.
Also there are common names that have meanings but do not tell a story. Ok bye.

Nice piece. Thanks for sharing.