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Raymond's avatar

Very interesting! I learnt something something new - the technology inspired names 🤣🤣🤣. Thank you for a well-researched post, Kim🙏

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Kim Chakanetsa's avatar

Thank you for reading and commenting Raymond. It is much appreciated!

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Russell Walker's avatar

Fascinating discussion of the origin of names. While they seem unusual and even amusing to me, the whole process of 'naming' is culture dependent and prone to external influences and changes. I really like the uniqueness of this convention. Thank you again for sharing.

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Kim Chakanetsa's avatar

Thanks for reading Russell. It is much appreciated. You are absolutely right the cultural context is so important.

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Betty Marmalade's avatar

Absolutely fascinating. I heard recently that in Denmark you have to choose from a list of approved names for your child, even if you are from another ethnic group, supposedly to stop children bullying others for having odd names!

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Kim Chakanetsa's avatar

That is interesting! I think in France too there is some provisional guidance to ensure the names don’t get too outlandish!

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Assaf Gidron's avatar

My partner is from Serbia and she told me that Romani people names there can also be like that. I remember the name 'Television' mentioned.

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Aisha Afrah's avatar

Really laughed at reading some of these names and loved the story behind them. As someone close to many Zimbabweans, I always found these names fascinating but as a Somali, these names remind me of some of our own traditional names for example, the name Fiidow meaning evening will be given to a child born in the ‘Evening’ and ‘Geedi or Geediyo’ will be given to a child born while the family were moving or traveling signaling the nomadic culture of the Somali people. There is also names like ‘Sheikh doon or Abti doon’ which means the mother was in labour for too long till the Sheikh or religious man came so the child was waiting for their arrival. The one good things was that Somalis never adopted any of their colonizers languages which meant, none of these were translated to English or French or Italian and they all colonized my people. Otherwise, you would’ve come across ‘strange/crazy Somali names’ on TikTok lol. Thanks for this, Kim.

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Kim Chakanetsa's avatar

Aisha! Thank you for reading and sharing this insight. I didn't know much about traditional Somali names and how they are given. Love a name that acknowledges a woman in labour! I find naming conventions to be so fascinating!

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Aisha Afrah's avatar

Me too! I always ask the story behind a name or even it’s meaning. Sometimes I feel like people feel so much pressure to live up to their names and might eventually grow to hate it. But what I forgot to mention last time is how epic Somali nicknaming is. Check this article out: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26354143.amp

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