Why are names important in African cultures?

Naming is a very important tool used among various African cultures to convey certain messages, either to an individual, family members or a community. While names can unite communities, they can also serve as a dividing tool in various communities.

Why do Caribbean people have English names?

Merchants, sailors, clergy and people in other professions immigrated to the island. Some were sent to the island as indentured servants. Others were prisoners who were sentenced to transportation to the island. The British surnames of all these people represent the bulk of the surnames found in Jamaica.

Why do Jamaicans have English names?

Hello Diana, Jamaicans have English surnames because their ancestors were slaves. When they were taken from Africa and sold to European plantation owners they didn’t have surnames and it was common for them to be given the surnames of their owners or else some other surname that the owner had decided on.

Why do Jamaicans have English last names?

SURNAMES FROM GREAT BRITAIN To encourage settlers to go to Jamaica to populate and develop the island, land grants and incentives were given. Others were prisoners who were sentenced to transportation to the island. The British surnames of all these people represent the bulk of the surnames found in Jamaica.

Why do people in Africa have so many names?

Many people in Africa have several names – for example a name from their ethnic group, a Christian or Muslim name, as well as a name depending on the day, or time of day they were born. In the Yoruba tradition, it is not uncommon for each parent and grandparent to contribute at least one name.

Why do some black names have distinctive black names?

From early on, then, some distinctive black names were tied to black resistance against white oppression. Distinctive black naming persisted through the centuries; the folklorist Newbell Niles Puckett turned up thousands of such names culling records from 1619 to the mid-1940s, names like Electa, Valantine and Zebedee.

What is the meaning of African names?

The African names have meanings that they hope their children will incorporate as charactersistics such as Jamila (beautiful) or Dakarai (happiness). Many ethnic groups included in the white classification name their children names from their ancestral origins.

How do African parents choose their children’s names?

Here are nine different ways African parents name their children: Among several ethnic groups, picking out names can be influenced by positive or negative circumstances the family finds themselves in around the time a child is born. Often, such names are complete sentences.