BN TV: Do You Know What Your Nigerian Name Means? BattaBox Wants to Know

In Nigeria, a person’s name is particularly important, not just because you’re stuck with it, whether you like it or not, but because the meaning of the particular name given to the baby says a lot about the child. Therefore, it is not unusual for parents and even grandparents, to have chosen a name for their new family member before he or she is even conceived, let alone born!

You can usually tell what tribe a Nigerian is from, whether they are Hausa, Igbo or Yoruba just from his/her name.

Take the name Adaeze for example, which means princess/senior daughter of the king. A foreigner may think ‘What a nice name’ but just from those 6 letters, a Nigerian will be able to tell that:

• Adaeze is Igbo, and
• She is the first daughter born to that family.

Here’s another example… You meet a young Yoruba man with the name Taiwo. A non-Nigerian might think…’What an interesting name’ but a Nigerian would not only assume that Taiwo has a twin but they would be certain that his twin is named Kehinde.

Why? Because those two names are usually given to Yoruba twins – Taiwo being the older twin, and Kehinde being the younger twin.

Do you know what YOUR name means?

BattaBox‘s Odunayo hit the busy Lagos streets to find out if people know what their name means and if that meaning, accurately matches their personality. Here are some of the answers she received…

“Adeniyi means there is value for crown,” one gentleman states.

“What does Favour mean?” Odunayo asks a young lady.
“I don’t know…favour or good luck,” the lady answers.

What does YOUR name mean?

Watch the Video