Namicit Nanshall: Do You Have a System for Naming People in Your Phone Book?

The silence was interrupted by the phone of the young man sitting next to me screaming “Oya Shakitii Bobo”, some people’s choice of ring tones, though… I said to myself as I stole a glance at his screen and made out the word “Mother” on the caller ID which I read as “Mother!!!”
Many thoughts went through my head, like why would someone save his mum’s number as mother? It sounds too formal for me.

Arriving at our destination after five hours of travelling, a woman brought out her phone to make a call. I observed that she is placed a call to ‘My Sweet Loving Daddy’. From the conversation I presumed she was talking to her husband. I stopped to think of how husband changed to daddy. It’s her phone and it’s her hubby…not my business.

Another day, I was strolling down the street with a sister after an evening service, she decided to call her husband. The name on the screen was “Bro. Harrison”.

This was too much for me! Why would you save your husband’s number as “Bro.”!? I decided to seek the opinion of a friend, and she analysed that the husband was a brother at one point before the dating and marriage, and she never bothered re-saving the name in a more endearing way. OK.

After that conversation, I went through my phone book to see how I save numbers, starting with my parents-A’ma and A’ba.

My siblings numbers are saved with their pet names-Edede, Boyi and Misese, My friends vary a lot, it could be their real names or nicknames, for instance, one of my friend’s number is saved as “Little Dove” – because that was how a prospective boyfriend addressed her. She found it annoying, while I found it hilarious.

My classmates had an extension of our course code attached to their name e.g. Raphael C.S.

My colleagues at work also have an extension of the office affixed to their names-Johnson FBC.

My tailor has Tailor before his name; I have Keke 1,2,3 and also Keke KD 1,2,3 for times when I travel out of town.

My boss number, hmm, it is saved as “My boss”, “Dictator” or “Head of my office” depending on how nice or unnice to me he is at a particular point in time. Changing his number to a mean name is my quiet way of taking out my anger at him.

I save the number of any annoying guy asking me out as “Do not Pick” I had 2 of that as at the time of this survey. And while I was carrying out this survey, I came across a number saved as “Expectant Lover” I honestly cannot recall who the person is and why I saved the number that way.

My personal numbers are saved with my name and the network extension “Nammytel”, “Namtn”, “Nammysalat”, “Namglo”.

If I get to know someone through another person, then I save the second person’s name as an extension of the first’s person’s name e.g Suur’s Becky.

For my Christian family of faith, I add the prefix, Bro. or Sis. Before their names.

And that’s that about my phonebook

I had a friend who saved the number of guys she didn’t like that asked her out as Goat 1,2,3,4 etc.
My mum had a ward who was too fat that his walk seemed like a waddle so she saved his number as “Tunde WAD” (walking and dancing). He once stumbled upon it and asked her the meaning, she said it meant Wale Adenuga Development, because he bore a close resemblance to an actor on Super story.

I think the way a number is saved reflects our relationship with the individual.

It is paramount to stress the importance of everyone having ICE (In Case of Emergency) numbers because we sometimes do not save numbers in a way that strangers going through our phonebook can easily identify, grouping a few numbers as ICE enables anyone going through our phonebook to know easily who to contact in case of an emergency.

So, what’s in your phonebook?

Photo Credit: Ron Chapple | Dreamstime.com