The politics of personal naming in South Africa

Abstract

The relationship between naming and sociocultural meaning among the peoples of southern Africa is changing. A comparison of names bestowed in two time periods shows how patterns of naming reflect sociocultural changes, including the demands of a centralized bureaucracy and the urbanization of populations. The ways in which systems of naming responded to recent political events in South Africa is examined. In line with the traditional history-keeping function of personal names, there is a greater incidence of political names for children, especially boys, born after 1990.