Shona Names

O ne way in which a Shona may make an allegation of wizardry is in giving a name to a child or, even, to a dog. Apart from the mutupo and chidawo , the clan and sub-clan names which a Shona inherits from his father, he has a name by which he is ordinarily known and which is normally given him when he is born. He may, if he chooses, rename himself in later life. On occasion, the name used in later life may have originated as a nickname. This may replace entirely any previous name. These days, of course, many names are of European, usually Biblical, origin. The mutupo and chidawo are, unlike the isibongo of the Ndebele, never used as surnames when dealing with Europeans, the name chosen by the Shona as a surname usually being their father’s or grandfather’s given name. This is, of course, a new phenomenon and nothing really equivalent to the surname was known in the past.

Linguistics · Shona · African history and culture studies · Philosophy