NIGERIAN NAMING TRENDS

Nigerian Naming Trends.

Parents who married in the 70s and 80s typically named their children Bible names, Arabic names, or English names. Those who married in the 90s and 2000s favored names of pastors and imams. Today, couples increasingly name their children after footballers or even AI references.  

In the 90s, naming a child Junior was tantamount to declaring wealth. I’d wonder,  Are there no names left that parents resort to Junior especially for families with deep cultural roots.  

Ironically, parents from the 70s and 80s who gave their children Hebrew or English names now grab microphones to lament how modern children can’t speak their native languages and how our culture is dying. The same person criticizing this likely named their own child Junior. 

Now, if new couples ask their parents for baby name suggestions, they’re promptly offered their pastor’s name. But this misses the point. After all, prisons hold many Davids arrested for rape and murder, and countless Abraham's scamming people online.  

Our cultural names carry blessings, prayers, and ancestral protection. If Hebrew names truly held all the power, we’d all be naming our children "Jesus".

When elders say give your children good names, they mean names rooted in cultural significance, spiritual covering, and intentional blessings not just foreign or religious labels.

E dey shock me say the person writing this lamentation na Jonah be em name 😭🤣

Until the moment when will shall dance in white Greater.

Oyugbo Osagie Jonah 

Oyugbo JONAH Osagie