Naming and Linguistic Africanisms in African American Culture

1. Introduction

Shakespeare once asked, “What is in a name?” The answer to this age-old question depends on the

particular culture from which it is framed: among many African cultures a name tells a lot about the

individual that it signifies, the language from which it is drawn, and the society that ascribes it. A

name may indicate the linguistic structures and phonological processes found in the language, the

position of the name’s bearer in society, and the collective history and life experiences of the people

surrounding the individual. African cultures have various ways of naming a child, ranging from the

Akan naming system based on days of the week to the Egyptian more cosmic one. Slavery,

colonialism, and globalization have all contributed to the exportation of the African systems of naming

into the African Diaspora. Among the various endeavors that African slaves made in becoming

African American in culture, orientation was the culture of resistance involving the process of renaming themselves, constantly reverting back to their African cultural forms, such as spirituality,

burial rites, and naming for inspiration and guidance, and thus reasserting themselves and reaffirming

their humanity in a hostile world. Through re-naming themselves, African Americans have continued

the process of cultural identity formulations and re-claiming of their complex African roots in the

continuing process of redefining themselves and dismantling the paradigm that kept them mentally

chained for centuries.

How has the African naming system been retained and modified in the African Diaspora, and how

has it adapted to the black experience in the Americas? More specifically, what influence have African

languages exerted on the American naming system in the United States of America? What are the

historical and cultural traits and origins of African language practice that can be said to motivate or

influence contemporary African and African...