Naming as a marker of identity on Nairaland

Bibliographic Data

ID7559515
AuthorsSaheed Oke Raheem (Obafemi Awolowo University), Akinmade Timothy Akande (0000-0002-4519-7711, Obafemi Awolowo University, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume17
Issue3-4
Pages191-210
Publication date2019-10-02
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAfrican Identities (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1472-5843 • E-ISSN: 1472-5851
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14725843.2019.1661829
OpenAlexW2977350109
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited19

Names are very important in every culture of the world as it is by one’s name that he or she is first of all known and identified. A name can say a lot about an individual: it can inter alia say something about the appearance of a person, about his behavior and about his family background. It is against this backdrop that this paper was aimed at investigating naming as a crucial instrument of expressing different forms of identity. The data for the study were drawn from Nairaland, a discussion forum dominated by Nigerians at home and abroad. By drawing insights from different sociolinguistic works and by selecting extracts purposively from the forum, the data were presented and analysed. The analysis showed that while personal names were used by discussants to indicate religious and ethnic identity, pseudonyms and diminutives were used on the forum as strategic means of expressing and linking up global youth culture. The study concluded that naming is the most important marker of identity

Aesthetics · Art · Ethnic group · Linguistics · Media studies · Nigerians · Political science · Sociology · Anthropology · Law · Linguistics, Language Diversity, and Identity · Multilingual Education and Policy · Names, Identity, and Discrimination Research · Psychology · Social Psychology

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