We were told by that by their fruits we shall know them. That is totally true; but how about knowing them before they start bearing fruits?
Okay, let me quickly say that this article has nothing to do with character and behaviour of any group. No!
The thing is that you can tell the region of the country a Nigerian is from with their English names. By the way, how did we get into the business of bearing English names? Not once, not twice; I have been asked my English name. Are you for real? You mean my native name is not enough for me?
Anyway, like they always say; let’s leave that for another day. So back to my gist, you can save yourself the kind of reputation you cut when you ask a fellow countryman where he’s from by just asking them their English names.
HOW TO KNOW IGBO PEOPLE
I love the way Igbo people name their children. Somehow, they figured out they could play with some rhymes in the process of naming their children. The English name of an average Igbo man is a mouthful and in most cases you will be required to shape your mouth in a certain way to enable the vowel sounds come out well. Igbo people are so head over heels with names that end in ‘US’.
I love the way these names are pronounced in the East or if you are in Lagos- in the spare parts markets.
If you are ready, let’s pronounce the names together. To make it fun, ask the Igbo man nearest to you to join in calling out these names. Here we go Ignatius, Cletus, Linus, Romanus, Cornelius, Festus, Livinus , Paulinus, Aloysius, Columbus,Silvernus, Magnus, Pius, Theophilus, Titus, Everistus, Jarious, Gaius, Chrisantus, etc .
There are other English names Igbo people do not play with. Names like Jacinta, Sylvester, Agatha, Agnes,Irene, Christopher, Paul, Cyprian,Lovina, Martin,
HOW TO KNOW BAYELSA PEOPLE
I don’t know exactly why Bayelsa people name their people the way they do. I have asked a couple of them; all they could do was to laugh it off. So I came to a conclusion wrongly or rightly that
Bayelsa people do not attach much importance to what or how they name their children.
They name their children whatever is trending
Life shouldn’t be taken too seriously
So a Bayelsa man wakes up from sleep, scratches his head, looks for what is trending or most discussed and sorry baby; that is your new name. Scream any English names you think are funny; you have just screamed the names of Bayelsans or names that could be given to Bayelsan babies in the nearest future. So ladies and gentlemen here are some of the English names Bayelsa people bear- Government, Dickson, Goodluck, Crude Oil or Crude, International, T-shirt, Facebook, Fine Boy, BabyFace, Subsidy, Collaboration(Collab), Exchange, Eagle, Amnesty, etc.
HOW TO KNOW CALABAR PEOPLE
Calabar people keep it simple. Why bother searching for a suitable name for your child when there are names that are always on your lips everyday of the week? So the Calabar man does the next rational thing; he goes Monday, Friday, Sunday and in some extreme cases he names Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
HOW TO KNOW RIVERS PEOPLE
Nobody can combine two English names more than the Rivers people. They always like their two English names placed side by side only separated by a hyphen. That is how come you hear names like Tom-West, Robert-Young, Philip-Williams, Rita-Mathew etc
HOW TO KNOW BENIN PEOPLE
If a Benin man doesn’t have an English name who will? I won’t say more than this and I’m definitely not referring to what you are thinking. So the Benin goes Precious, Promise, Happiness, Favour, Felix, Grace, Anthony, Mabel, Margret , Esther e.t.c
Other parts of the country have English names peculiar to them. Which have you heard and what part of the country is the name peculiar to?
