Aspects of Traditional Tiv Naming Practices: a Sociocultural Account

Sociolinguistic ISSN: 1750-8649 (print) Studies ISSN: 1750-8657 (online)

Article

Aspects of traditional Tiv naming practices: A sociocultural account

Eyo Mensah, Kirsty Rowan, Akase Tiav, and Jighjigh Ishima

Abstract Naming in the African cultural context serves both referential and connotative functions as a unique means of identity construction which contains important cultural meaning and metaphysical presuppositions. Among the Tiv people of Benue State, North-central Nigeria, personal names reflect social relations and reveal major insights into their history, philosophy, language, spirituality and worldview. Naming practices in Tiv are indicative of the community’s social existence and redefine the essence of its being. This article explores the interaction of the Tiv people naming system with their sociocultural experience and physical environment. We investigate how naming intersects with social class distinction (wealth vs. poverty), emotions, occupations and topography, and examine their sources, social categorization and socio-onomastic significance. This study is theoretically rooted in Goddard’s (2006) ethnopragmatic paradigm which examines the locally relevant construction of cultural and contextual meanings in the interpretation of language. Data for the study were sourced from two Tiv communities of Gboko and Makurdi in Benue State, Nigeria through participant observations, personal interviews and conversations with name-bearers, -givers and -users. We conclude that Tiv personal names reflect the sociocultural environment and provide prominent sites for the creative expression of the Tiv social universe and lived cultural experiences.

KEYWORDS: IDENTITY, PERSONAL NAMES, ETHNOPRAGMATICS, SOCIAL STRUCTURE, TRADITION, ENVIRONMENT, TIV, NIGERIA

Afﬁliation University of Calabar, Nigeria email : [email protected] University of London, United Kingdom email : [email protected] Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Nigeria email : [email protected] Benue State University, Makurdi, Nigeria email : [email protected]

SOLS VOL 13.2-4 2019 209–230 https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.37820

1 Introduction

Naming in the precolonial and postcolonial African traditional contexts is a viable tool for the construction of identity. It provides a cultural space for socialization and shapes how people perceive their social environment, and project their sense of beliefs, values, emotions, attitudes, traditions and general way of life. Identity is carried into every cultural and conversational encounter and names are significant strategies for constructing, negotiating and reinforcing these identities (Jackson, 2002). Further, an individual’s name is a badge of his/her individuality, the means whereby they identify themselves and enter into a truly subjective existence (Bosmajian, 1974). In Africa, names are not just imbued with enormous cultural meanings but serve as accurate pointers to the ideology of the name-giver (Clarke, 1992). A name-giver’s past experiences, religious orientation, and social relationships may significantly influence the choice of his/her children’s names. According to Suzman (1994), African personal names are pointers to a range of circumstances that were relevant at the time of the child’s birth. Beyond the circumstances of birth, African names may also perpetuate memories of deceased family or community members. Names may also be used to project the local values and codes where the ethos of the society rests. Personal names are further connected to cultural phenomena such as collective identity, social class distinction, religious affiliation, positive and negative character traits, and practically every human virtue (Daniel and Daniel, 1998). The dynamics of the social and cultural environment can influence, to a large extent, the choice of names that parents (or other name-givers) give to their children. Anthroponyms are important devices for self-definition and identification in all cultures, for example, among the Netsilik Inuit in Arctic Canada, women experiencing a difficult delivery would call out the names of deceased people of adorable character. The name being called at the point of birth was thought to enter the infant’s body and help with the delivery, and the child would bear that name thereafter (Haviland, Prins, Walrath and McBride, 2008:128). This practice reveals that names are associated with spiritual beliefs, metaphysics and superstitions. Names constitute an essential part of belief systems, which have close associations with the religious character of a people. From the Umbundu (Angola) perspective, names are tools with which people reward the life they have received from their relatives. Names serve to perpetuate the wide kinship web while also stressing the concept of the extended family system. Each child represents one of his or her living relatives and ancestors from both parents who have equal value as each parent contributes to the existence of the child (Robbins and Larkin, 2007:204). Names can be used to strengthen kinship relationships and family bonds, and in this way, they function as a means of promoting and sustaining the lineage system from one generation to another.

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The present study adopts Goddard’s (2006) notion of ethnopragmatics, which is concerned with a culture-internal account of speech practices. It involves the understanding of speech practices based on locally constitutive culturally specific meanings that make sense to the people concerned, and which takes into account the indigenous values, beliefs, attitudes, social categories and emotions of a community of speakers. Among the Tiv, personal names are cultural resources, and naming is a culture-specific discourse practice. Even though these names may contain enormous semantic elements and properties, their interpretations are, however, based on cultural peculiarities that can only be properly contextualized and understood from an ethnopragmatic perspective or what LoCastro (2012:5) refers to as ‘anthropological pragmatics’. This conceptual framework forms the basis of our analysis and discussion of findings. This framework offers an account of naming within the Tiv social structure from an insider perspective. Tiv traditional names are indigenous speech practices and communicative acts which are culturally encoded and appropriated through the prism of the Tiv worldview. Among the Tiv people, names are understood from the total experiences of their social universe and cultural traditions. This complements Lombard’s (2011) claim that names are an integral and inseparable part of traditional culture that perform important sociocultural functions. The sociocultural space provides an avenue where naming practices are carried out as a means of group and individual identities and as forms of future expectations, anticipated fulfilment, and a reflection of historical experiences. This article is an ethnographic and sociolinguistic analysis of aspects of Tiv traditional naming practices, taking into account how social inequality, emotions, occupations (traditional and modern), and resources within the physical environment are given representations in Tiv names to index time-honoured beliefs and norms that exist in Tiv society. The Tiv people number about five million based on Nigeria’s 2006 census demographic data (Ibrahim, 2012). The Tiv language is classified as a Southern Bantoid language of the Benue-Congo family within the enlarged Niger-Congo phylum. It is the most prominent member of the Tivoid group of languages in terms of population of speakers.

2 Names and naming in contemporary onomastic literature

In the last two decades, the study of personal names in Africa and beyond has received sufﬁcient attention as a focus of social enquiry and scholarly reﬂection in the onomastic literature, especially in the South African namespace. The scope of studies on names and naming practices covers wide-ranging interdisciplinary perspectives, such as sociological, historical, (socio)linguistic, anthropological, psychological and philosophical dimensions. Apart from enacting their identity

212 SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDIES functions especially in individuating their bearers as unique entities, African personal names have social, cultural and cosmological implications which are handed down from one generation to another. For example, among the Mbeere, a North-eastern Bantu-speaking people of Kenya, personal names are used to show respect for age categories or generational sets (Katakami, 1997). A child is named after another person and his/her name is constructed to reflect his/her gender, order of birth, and the time of marriage negotiation. Disruptions to this naming practice are found when there is an occurrence of death or any other significant event in the child’s family before the child is born. Wild animals are also significant in the naming practices of the Mbeere people. Every child born on a particular day is named after a wild animal, as it is believed that the child’s parents must have encountered a wild beast in the course of the child’s conception. This particular belief functions as strengthening the relationship between an individual and his/her physical environment. This practice emphasizes the importance of wild animals as sources of food and income that sustain the local economy of the Mbeere people, and reflects the fact that traditional knowledge about these animals is preserved in personal names (Katakami, 1997). Personal names can be used to support human interactions as a vehicle of communication. Using Bono (Ghana) culture as a reference point, it is found that Bono names have enormous communicative values in aiding the composition of dirge, praise poetry and drum language praises. These names are highly symbolic and tell stories of the circumstances, the location and the order of a birth (Ansu- Kyeremeh, 2000). Similarly, Mensah and Mekamgoum (2017) highlight the communicative significance of Ngemba (Cameroon) personal names which are used as alternative forms of narratives to mirror past experiences and conflicts that were encountered by the name-giver. Ngemba names are imbued with significant historical resonances which are communicated to reflect cruel and sometimes pleasant personal memories, unresolved tensions and lived experiences of the name-giver. In this context, personal names are expressive symbols and have conceptual content that reflects on and is reminiscent of historical experiences and deep-rooted emotions (Mensah and Mekamgoum, 2017). In his examination of Vatsonga (South Africa) personal names and naming practices, Chauke (2015) emphasizes the prevalence of the phenomenon of name-saking, where children are named after important family figures, both deceased and living, as a mark of honour. This practice reflects the belief that the child will grow up to imbibe the attributes of his or her namesake. In this way, the naming practice perpetuates the lineage system. Rossi (1965) maintains that the aim of

ASPECTS OF TRADITIONAL TIV NAMING PRACTICES 213 this naming pattern is to sustain effective ties between the name-bearer and his or her kin who are one or two generations apart. In some cases, children can be named after non-family relations such as parents’ friends, admirers, political figures or mentors who the name-giver has considerable personal regard or affection for. This is when names are said to index a positive affect (Rossi, 1965). Anchimbe (2011) discusses the phenomenon of name avoidance as a positive politeness strategy in Cameroon. He maintains that the way that this naming strategy occurs reveals the social stratification of societies, their network of inter- personal relationships, negotiations of power, superiority and balance of age and social status. According to the study, name avoidance promotes social bonding, opens up the group’s solidarity and bridges social distance. In Nigeria, many cultures (Efik, Ibibio and Igbo) also practice name-avoidance for a number of socio-pragmatic reasons, particularly in showing respect and deference to age, solidarity and group bonding (Ukpong, 2007). In Efik, for instance, a man or a woman may be addressed not by his or her own name but by reference to being the father or mother of his or her first child, for example, Ete Bassey ‘Bassey’s father’, Eka Ajoe ‘Ajoe’s mother’ and so on. This practice is seen as a form of status symbol given the importance of children as products of marriage in the society. Children give glory to a home and are symbols of the continuity of life. They sustain the family lineage and strengthen the community’s heritage. Mensah and Silva (2016:67) describe children in Efik society as ‘(…) the source of strength and stability not just to the particular family they belong but to the community as a whole. They sustain family lineages and are potential sources of economic empowerment and the greatest assets to the family.’ This naming practice allows individuals a sense of pride and increases self-esteem as they are thus identified as parents. It is evident that names and naming re-echo enormous social, communicative and historical significance in African cultural and spiritual spaces. The multi- dimensional relevance of African names is that they identify generational categories, and are modes of communicating past experiences. African names connect people with their physical and spiritual environments and strengthen links between kinship relations. Certain names can also be avoided to balance the social order and enhance cordiality. The enterprise of naming in Africa, therefore, represents creative cultural symbols that reflect the lived experience of the African people. African names are used to connect people, expand relationships and cultivate a new mode of engagement that can facilitate a broader understanding of Africans as a people.

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3 Methods, data and participants

Data for this study were mainly sourced through six-month ethnographic field- work at Makurdi and Gboko in Benue State, North-Central Nigeria (popularly known as the Middle Belt). Data elicitation techniques included interviews, participant and non-participant observations and metalinguistic conversations. Respondents who are name-bearers, -givers and -users were randomly sampled in the two communities, and thirty respondents participated in this study. The ages range between 40 and 75 years. We noted their socio-biographical data such as age, gender, names, occupation, religion and education. Some of these variables had a direct bearing on their names, given that Tiv personal names are derived from a wide variety of sources. For instance, some names are gender-specific, while others are related to occupation and religion. Some names are derived from contact with Western education and Christianity. Questions were asked on the motivations for naming, sources of names, meaning of names, local histories and narratives behind names, and the general functions of names in the Tiv communities. At the informal level, we engaged in interactions with respondents who were friends, family members, and acquaintances to two of the researchers. Such platforms provided natural documentation where names were mentioned or introduced. We sought to know the sources and meaning of these names and how they interact with the physical environment, social experience and cultural contexts of Tiv society. Conversations also elicited the social structure and cultural organization of Tiv society and the place of names and naming in it. Many Tiv names were said to be richly imbued with religious ideologies and cultural traits, and we sought to understand their ethnopragmatic readings and interpretations. Data collection was primarily through audio and video recordings. These were complemented by field notes to document transcripts of interviews. This led to a corpus of three hundred general Tiv personal names that were generated in the field. In addition to this, one hundred names were obtained from two school registers in Gboko and Makurdi metropolis, namely Bristow Secondary School and Gboko and Govern- ment College Makurdi. Out of these names, 127 names were selected for the present study. Two of the researchers (Tiav and Ishima) who are native speakers of Tiv also drew on their experiential knowledge of Tiv indigenous names and culture. As Tiv–English bilinguals, they assisted in the translation of the Tiv name data into English. Data were coded and categorized into relevant social frames, and were accordingly transcribed and annotated. Names have been analysed descriptively based on their social and cultural significance as well as their ethnopragmatic underpinnings.

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4 Data analysis and discussion

Tiv personal names reﬂect the social, political, economic, religious and cultural ideals of the Tiv people. They are semiotic codes that resonate the essence of the Tiv people. They personify the total milieu of their subjective existence. Atel (2004) posits that the Tiv’s outlook on life and their worldview can be discerned from the different aspects of their cultural life, some of which include religious values and customs, the notion of personhood, individual and collective responsi- bilities and value for human life. These form the sources from which Tiv personal names are broadly derived. In the analysis that follows, we are concerned with aspects of Tiv traditional naming practices. A great deal of the narratives in these names revolves around the themes of social inequality, emotions, occupations, and topography, and they indicate the Tiv community’s relationship with their social structure and physical environment.

4.1 Sociocultural factors in Tiv naming practices An essential social consideration in Tiv naming patterns is the experience of poverty which the name-giver must have endured. Based on our ﬁndings, the concept of poverty in the Tiv cultural context does not only entail a lack or scarcity of material resources but also embodies physical limitations like poor health and limited capacity or access to education, leading to insecurity and general inequality within the social class hierarchy. According to a respondent, postcolonial Tiv society witnessed a preponderance of abject poverty in the land due to certain social, economic and political imbalances. Families depended on agriculture for food and income, but the under-utilization of their rich natural resources, land ownership and control by the bourgeoisie and lack of support to farmers kept many people below the poverty line. Poverty can therefore be used as a social categorization for Tiv names. Examples of such names are presented in Table 1. We ﬁnd that Tiv parents preserve and immortalize their experience of poverty in their children’s names with the expectation that they will challenge and overcome this condition and make their life more meaningful and virtuous. A respondent argues that since poverty in Tiv cultural semantics is a metaphor for illness, infertility and illiteracy, this category of names is used as an antidote to counteract the effect of this social malaise. From an ethnopragmatic account, this category of Tiv names functions as a subtle rejection of poverty. Through these names, the name-giver is implicitly denouncing poverty in the life of the child/name-bearer. This category of names is a constant reminder to the name- bearer to work hard in life in order to make living more meaningful and change the dominant rules and relationships governing the way in which resources are controlled, distributed and transformed in society (Bebbington, 1999).

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Table 1. Tiv names that are based on the experience of poverty.

Name Gloss Í-cán Poverty Í-cán-wùá Poverty has killed (me). Í-cán-ѐr Suffered in poverty. Í-cán-kôr Caught in poverty. Í-cán-gándѐ Poverty has overwhelmed (me). Í-cán-bѐѐ Poverty has ended. Í-cán-kohol Poverty has embraced (me). Í-cán-kùmá Worthy to suffer (in poverty). Táv-á-cán Grew in poverty. Í-cán-hool Accustomed with poverty.

In sharp contrast to the phenomenon of poverty, the expression of wealth as a status symbol is an important social index in the Tiv naming system. Given the capitalist social structure of Tiv society, people are free to accumulate wealth and derive economic beneﬁts from land ownership and control. Examples of names in this category are in Table 2.

Table 2. Tiv names that depict wealth and afﬂuence.

Name Gloss Ínyárègh Money Tor-kumá Worthy to be king. Í-kpá-nyár Bag of money. Yá House Wán-Máto A small car. Shágbá Wealth Or-nyár A rich man. Shágbá-or A wealthy man.

One respondent informed the researchers that people name their children after luxury goods and descriptive phrases that depict wealth as a way of guaranteeing guilt-free pleasure and a healthy lifestyle. According to this respondent, it is either the experience of poverty or the wish for the splendour of afﬂuence and dignity that informs this category of names. Based on this interpretation, the ethnopragmatic reading of these names is that name-givers use them to either denounce poverty which has been a past (or prevailing) experience, and anticipate to be liberated and succoured from such an experience or boast about their abundance of wealth which they hope to perpetuate as lasting legacies. Closely related to the question of afﬂuence is the appreciation of the pleasure of life through naming. Pleasure, wealth and fame have intrinsic value in the Tiv community. Table 3 gives examples of these names.

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Table 3. Tiv names that depict the pleasure of life.

Name Gloss Tár-doo The world is good. Ùmá-doo Life is good. Tár-nyoho The world is sweet. Ùmá-nyoho Life is sweet. Nyám-nyoho Meat is sweet. Yá-doo House is good.

Based on our findings, the desire to prosper or be successful in life and operate in the realm of affluence justifies the choice of these names. These names constantly remind name-bearers to seek a virtuous life which will change the poverty- stricken predicaments of the name-giver or the past generation. Our corpus of Tiv names also includes emotion-scripted names which are based on strong feelings deriving from one’s mood, circumstances and relationship with others, which can include names that refer to positive or negative emotions. This set of names reflects the intense mental state that arises subjectively rather than through any conscious effort, and is often accompanied by physiological changes. Examples of these names are displayed in Table 4.

Table 4. Positive and negative emotion scripted names in Tiv.

Positive emotion Gloss Negative emotion Gloss names names Doo-shímá Love Zá-yol Worry Sѐ-wùѐsѐ We appreciate Jѐ-yol Travails Mímí Truth Í-tsѐr Misfortune Msáán-í-yol Joy Í-hom Hatred Msùr-shímá Comfort Zùngwѐ-m Pity (me) Í-kyôr Luck Ká-nyíon (It is) Painful M-zѐ-hѐmѐn Progress Nyíán-shímá Be anxious M-wùѐsѐ I appreciate Ngù-zùngwѐ-n Be gloomy

Mensah, Dzokoto and Rowan (forthcoming) argue that positive emotion names may have a subtle psychological impact on their bearers given the inherent social adjustment implications of their perception of and reaction to their names. Negative emotion names, on the other hand, are mainly symptomatic of family crises or tension. They may confer social bias on the bearers’ personality, identity or social presence. In the Tiv cultural tradition, positive emotion names represent values and socially conceived expectations that should guide and motivate the bearers’ behaviour and outlook in life, while negative emotion names are forms of protest against oppression, marginalization and cruel historical experiences of the

218 SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDIES name-givers. Children are, therefore, given such names as a petition to oppressors and as a reminder of malign past encounters. In our ethnopragmatic framework, this negative emotion class of names is used to communicate social disharmony and unpleasant experiences with the expectation that the name-giver has registered his complaints, and hopes to be liberated from future travails. For the positive emotion names, they function as desired virtues to drive the behaviour and personality development of the name-bearer, for example, Doo-shímá ‘Love’ is expected to radiate love and affection in his or her social relationships with others. According to one respondent, such a name-bearer is often seen as a role model who embodies selﬂessness and self-sacriﬁce. This study discovered that Tiv society expects the bearers of such names to always live by the dictates of their names, which can be considered as a form of pre-destination. Another subset of emotion-scripted names among the Tiv are those that are used as a form of consolation. Parents use their children’s names as a device or conduit for the relief of depression and grief. This is an emotional reaction to one’s social experience after a loss or disappointment. Names in this class are displayed in Table 5.

Table 5. Tiv names that are based on consolation.

Name Gloss Mlíám-bѐѐ No more weeping. Á-vá-doo It shall be good. Ká-doon It is going on ﬁne. Í-or-ѐmbѐr People have rejoiced. Tѐr-ѐsѐm-mlíám God has wiped my tears. Wá-shímá Be patient Tѐr-kímbí The Lord has paid back. M-dѐ-váán I have stopped crying.

These names are usually found in families that have suffered instances of infant mortality. They are a means of reassuring the name-bearer’s survival and stability (Obeng, 1998; Mensah, 2015; Sagna and Bassène, 2016). These names offer a form of emotional ease or relief in times of grief and tragedy usually occasioned by infant mortality. They are used to facilitate recovery from fear and doubt, and as one respondent stated, ‘such names are very useful in restoring balance and redirecting focus after losing a loved one’. Based on an ethnopramatic paradigm, this category of names is given to children as a way of generating an expectation that death would not visit them as it previously did.

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The broad experience of loneliness is also a recurring emotional theme in the naming practices of the Tiv people. Twigg and Martin (2015:255) describe loneliness as ‘lack of human contact’ and satisfying emotional relationships, which may affect the mental and physical well-being of the individual. Names in this category are shown in Table 6.

Table 6. Tiv names that are based on social inertia.

Name Gloss Wán-shío (There’s) no child. Ngù-tswѐn He/She is alone. Ángbíán-shío (There’s) no brother. Ngù-á-or-gá He/She has no one. Nám-or Give me somebody. M-ngù-á-án Who do I have? Íor-yѐvѐsѐ People have deserted. M-tswѐn-ѐm Loneliness Ngù-tswѐn He/She is alone. Í-or-wùndù Deserted Tár-kѐndѐ The world has deserted. Ngô-bѐѐ Brotherhood has ceased.

The names in Table 6 express a feeling of disconnectedness and a state of passi- vity which may correlate with poor health, anxiety, stigmatization and decreased satisfaction with life. This lack of relatedness with one another and one’s environment is culturally situated and propelled by the fundamental need for belonging and socialization. We discovered that families who have suffered repeated cases of infant mortality resort to giving these kinds of names to their surviving children as a death-prevention strategy. The belief is that these names function as strong appeals to the underworld spiritual parents who may be compassionate for their distressing conditions and allow the name-bearer to live. This is the subtle ethnopragmatic interpretation of these names based on our ﬁndings. Closely related to this category of names are those that express deep grief and sorrow in the contexts of domination and subordination. Names in this class are furnished in Table 7. The names in Table 7 represent the voice of the oppressed or targeted people who are lamenting over being subjected to some harsh exercise of authority or power by a dominant group. Names of this type are considered to be used to express anger and frustration (Babane, 2017). Hardiman, Jackson and Grifﬁn (2007:58) argue that any social structure that promotes this power dichotomy is ‘a system that maintains advantage and disadvantage based on social group

220 SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDIES membership and operates intentionally and unintentionally on the individual, institutional and cultural levels’. According to Williams (2012), oppression has structured and mutually reinforcing ways of reproducing inequality in the daily function of society and social institutions. In the Tiv cultural tradition, people are discriminated or maltreated by virtue of their identity or family circumstances. They particularly suffer oppression because of certain social, economic, cultural and religious circumstances. A respondent informs us that due to widespread extreme poverty, illiteracy and dire living conditions in Tivland, manual labourers who are engaged in farms, factories and construction sites are usually exploited and oppressed. They work for longer hours with very poor pay. Parents name their children as a form of resistance to his kind of injustice, inequality and oppression which may be differentially experienced in the Tiv socio-cultural milieu. These names are meant to strengthen the name-bearers to surmount the apparent predicaments, social realities and inequalities that the name-givers have encountered.

Table 7. Tiv names that are based on lamentation.

Name Gloss M-gbѐ-kenger I am looking helplessly. M-shí-váá-n I have been crying. Dѐm Leave me. Zùngwѐ-m Pity me. Mbá-i-or-gá They are not human. Mbá-sѐn They are laughing. Í-or-nyíon People are wicked. Ngu-váá-n He/She is weeping. Yá-víhí Home has disintegrated. Yá-sár Home has scattered. M-váá I have cried. Mbá-váán They are crying/lamenting. Á-dѐ-váán Let him/her stop crying.

Traditional occupations of the Tiv people are also important sources for the Tiv personal naming system. Some of these occupations have become families’ lines of business or trade. They generally reﬂect the interaction between an individual and his/her natural environment. Some of these names are gender speciﬁc and are predominantly male names. In the traditional Tiv society, it is customary for every family to be linked with a particular traditional occupation which they naturally adopt as their family name to project a unique form of identity. Examples of types of occupations which are used as personal names are shown in Table 8.

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Table 8. Tiv names that are based on traditional occupations.

Name Gloss Ọ̀ r-tọ̀m A worker Án-kpѐngá Trading Íwá Blacksmithing Kwázá Tin mining Íshù Fishing Or-sùlѐ Farmer Or-táto Hunter Or-kôr-ùn-íshù Fisherman Or-gbán-á-káá Wood carver Or-sôr-ùn-kwágh Herbalist Or-í-moo Singer Or-kùrá-n-ílѐv Shepherd Or-vár-ѐn-ywá Blacksmith Or-kásùá Trader

In Table 8, a name like Ọ́ r-tọ́m ‘worker’ is a cover term for all categories of workers. Among the Tiv, trading is essentially based on agricultural products. Hunting and farming are supported by the rich forest resources and landscape. Fishing is supported by the presence of the River Benue. The data in Table 8 show the diversity of traditional occupations especially in agriculture and craft, which are used in building an inclusive and economically sustainable Tiv society. These occupations are used to create avenues for identity construction, empowerment, social support and opportunities for entrepreneurship (Smith, Stephenson and Gibson-Satterthwaite, 2013). These occupations also protect Tiv cultural values, as these are passed down from one generation to another within the family. Due to the increasing contact of the Tiv people with Western influences such as education, colonialism, and the spread of Christianity, many modern professions have been introduced to Tiv society which also form a regime of their cultural names. Such occupation names appear in Table 9. The Tiv people are employed in these professions after specialized training in order to serve in the colonial civil service or the Christian missions in these capacities. People who were employed in these roles became esteemed role-models, and their professions are highly regarded by the local population, and as such became adopted as personal names by their admirers. This is with the expectation that if their children are named after these professions, they will grow to fit into these roles. As these professions are highly sought after in Tiv society, children are named after these professions as a means of guaranteeing future success in life. One respondent stated that when these modern professions were in their infancy in Tivland, they were mainly dominated by men, as women were confined to only stereotypical roles in society.

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Table 9. Tiv names that are based on Western professions.

Name Gloss Or-tѐsѐ Preacher Or-ívángѐlí Evangelist Ákáwѐ Secretary Or-twѐr Doctor Or-tѐsѐn Teacher Átѐsѐ Female teacher Or-jír Judge Or-shojá Soldier Or-dásѐndá Policeman Or-tyom Messenger Or-pásѐn-kwágh Pastor Or-tôô-n-ábávѐr Journalist

Some categories of Tiv personal names are used to highlight the importance of nuclear and extended families. The family is the bedrock that sustains the society. It provides the foundation on which the society grows. Based on our findings, Tiv families, which are mainly patrilineal, provide security and protection to their members. Each member of a family has his or her specified cultural roles that are based on a division of labour. The father provides financial stability and protection; the mother is involved in culturally ascribed codes of domesticity, child- bearing and child-rearing. Children’s roles are determined by their gender; male children stereotypically take after their father’s role and female children learn their traditional roles from their mother. Generally, children learn the norms and values of the society from their family, which also provides the platform for their initial character development. Names in this category are displayed in Table 10.

Table 10. Tiv names depicting the value of family.

Name Gloss Wán-hѐmbá A child is great. Wán-doo A child is good. Tѐr-doo Father is good. Án-gbián-doo A brother/sister is good. Ngô-doo Mother is good. Tѐr-hѐmbá Father is great. Án-gbíán-hѐmbá Sibling is greater. Mô-víhí-n-gá No child is bad. Tsѐ Offspring/progeny.

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The names in Table 10 depict the importance of children, parents and siblings. According to one respondent, this category of names helps to build trust, co- operation and loyalty, enhances a greater sense of belonging and enforces individual and relational identities. Children and parents are made to feel loved, valued and supported. Similarly, the extended family system also provides a viable source of Tiv personal names, as we can see in Table 11.

Table 11. Tiv names based on the value for the extended family.

Name Gloss Tyô-doo Paternal clan is good. Tyô-yímá Paternal clan has saved. Tyô-wásѐ Paternal clan has helped. Tyô-zѐndá Paternal clan has chased away. Ígbá-doo Maternal clan is good. Ígbá-yímá Maternal clan has saved. Ígbá-wáse Maternal clan has helped. Ígbá-zѐndá Maternal clan has chased away. Ítyô-vѐr Father’s kinsmen have blessed. Ígbá-rùmùn Mother’s kinsmen agree. Ítyô-hѐmbá Father’s kinsmen are the greatest. Ígbá-ná Mother’s kinsmen gave (it). Ítyô-kùmbá Father’s kinsmen have surrounded. Ígbá-á-fá Mother’s kinsmen will know. Ítyô-á-káá Father’s kinsmen shall tell. Ítyô-ngí Father’s kinsmen are there.

Based on our ﬁndings, this class of names is used to build networks and expand kinship relations. Members of the extended family are usually elderly parents of both parents (paternal and maternal grandparents) and their other relations. These names are used as a way to appreciate their roles in the past. One respondent asserts that the extended family is highly important in assisting children to cultivate family norms, culture and tradition. The extended family builds strong family bonds, shares economic responsibility and acts as caregivers. In the past, this has provided support structures and assisted the family to be committed, responsible and stable (Biblarz and Stacey, 2010). From our data, these names reveal the close familial bond and afﬁnity between the name-giver and his or her extended family. The extended family is eulogized as the greatest asset of the name-giver. It offers protection, blessing and help in times of need. One respondent remarks that the extended family system is still a predominant practice among the Tiv, where communality and co-operation with one another is the basis

224 SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDIES for harmonious social relationships. Communal lifestyle is the traditional way of living among the Tiv where most things are shared in common, and where one person’s problem is everybody’s problem. This philosophy of living binds the people together with their culture, tradition and social values. Each member of the society is mutually dependent on others economically, socially, and politically (Mensah and Eni, 2019). Therefore, personal names are used to sustain and reinforce this philosophy of communal living.

4.2 The intersection of Tiv names with the environment Some Tiv names are characterized by the topography and rich natural resources which come from the physical environment, living things and organic materials, such as plants, animals and fossil fuels. These topographies support traditional occupations such as farming, ﬁshing, hunting and blacksmithing. Examples of personal names in this category are shown in Table 12.

Table 12. Tiv names sourced from topography.

Name Gloss Ígyù-ngù Hill Án-wo Small mountain Án-wár Small river Í-jándѐ Swamp Sùá Fish pond Dùrá River Bѐr Lake Ífí River Tyѐkù Ocean Ù-wo Mountain Bár Cave Vándѐ Rock

These topographic names are related in some way to the natural environment, being important for certain resources like water, minerals, trade and so on. Some of these resources have been harnessed by the Tiv as rich tourism sites and are sustainably managed. A name like Kwázá ‘Tin’ reflects a natural resource which is provided by nature and exploited for economic gain. Children are named after these resources given their importance in enhancing the economic and social wellbeing of the Tiv people. A respondent maintains that they are essential in sustaining life and providing housing, infrastructure and economic/social mobility. Another respondent asserts that it is because these resources are highly valued by the Tiv that they decide to adopt their names as personal names.

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There is also a physical connection between animals and humans with varying degrees of interaction. In the Tiv cultural tradition, animals have a profound relationship with people and the environment. They are domesticated for food, economic benefit (poultry, livestock and fish production), protection, and companionship. Others are used for hunter-gathering, herding and tracking. In some other climes, it has been reported that animals, especially companion animals, have enormous benefits for human health; they assist the disabled and act as early warning systems for acute human conditions such as epileptic seizures (Wells, 2007; Edney, 1992). Examples of animals’ names used as personal names among the Tiv are illustrated in Table 13.

Table 13. Tiv names based on fauna. Name Gloss Nyí-nyá Horse Nor Elephant Ámbѐ Crocodile Bágù Monkey Í-kyѐgh Fowl Í-gyo Pig Anyám/Bѐghá Tiger/Lion Gáfá Buzzard I-gyùvѐ Eagle Ápù Vulture Ámbѐ Crocodile Nor-mngѐr Hippopotamus Í-côngo Fox Bágù Monkey Tsoghol Hawk Álôm Rabbit

Based on our findings, other reasons were adduced to justify the choice of animal names as personal names. As a result of the role animals play in Tiv human- centred society, such as being objects of sacrifice for religious and ritual purposes, parents give the names of these animals as their children’s personal names to project their religious leanings and ideologies. Other parents admire certain specific characteristics of these animals such as courage/bravery (lion), strength (tiger), resilience/invincibility (eagle), aggression (crocodile), and large size (elephant and hippopotamus). Ethnopragmatically, it is the desirable features or characteristics of these animals that give rise to the name-giver selecting them for their children to be named after (Rybatzki, 2012), and not the actual physical attributes of these animals.

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There is a category of Tiv personal names that is also sourced from plants. This includes agricultural produce and trees used for economic purposes. As many plants provide raw materials for local industries, they are equally sources of economic sustenance. Plants and trees provide food and shelter and have medicinal value in the manufacturing of drugs. Children are also named after crops as a way of identifying the particular crop farmed and produced by the name-giver or his extended family. These names are exempliﬁed in Table 14.

Table 14. Tiv names based on ﬂora.

Name Gloss Án-nùnѐ Locust bean tree Vámbѐ Silk cotton tree Í-shwá Beniseed Moù Cotton Ágbo Water yam Tùr Fig tree Átsáká Sweet potato Ábùn Groundnut Logo Cassava Álѐv Beans I-kyùrѐkѐ Maize Ámínѐ Millet Í-yoùgh Yam

One respondent informs us that these crops are cultivated for both human and animal nutrition, and that Tiv children are named after crops to celebrate the importance of such crops in a particular family’s history. They have been the mainstay of many families’ economy and livelihood. Í-yoùgh ‘Yam’ is unarguably the most important cash crop in Tivland; it is cultivated by most farmers in addition to other crops. Another respondent maintains that the cultural symbolism of these crop-names is fruitfulness, implying that as these crops bear fruits in and out of season, the name-bearer would, therefore, be productive and successful throughout their life. This is the deep ethnopragmatic interpretation of this category of names.

5 Conclusion

Naming is an essential component of the Tiv cultural script. It is a general statement that frames the attitudes, values, beliefs, emotions and assumptions that are widely known and shared among the society (Goddard, 2006). Tiv personal names are social dialogues and cultural narratives that represent the entire gamut

ASPECTS OF TRADITIONAL TIV NAMING PRACTICES 227 of the Tiv interaction with their lived experience and engagement with their physical and spiritual environments. Tiv names are core cultural symbols and modes of expression that give valuable insights into the Tiv social world. They permit an investigation into the Tiv community’s experience of poverty, wealth, and pleasure. Names also mirror indigenous viewpoints that reﬂect parents’ hopes for the name-bearers’ future wellbeing. Tiv personal names can reﬂect a wide range of emotional sentiment patterns in the context of Tiv traditional society. Some names are reminders of past relationships that may have resulted in social disharmony or in the experience of loneliness and oppression. Sociocultural factors such as high regard for the family and occupations (traditional and modern) provide a set of personal names that not only communicate the Tiv cultural identity but also facilitate the transmission of the culture from one generation to another. In this way, Tiv names are a form of indigenous oral education, recreating traditional ecological knowledge that reveals the name- bearers’ cultural roots. Another category of Tiv names shows the interaction of the people with their physical environment, which embodies a community’s relationship with plants, animals, landscape and natural resources, which are sources of energy, food, medicine and shelter. Using the ethnopragmatic paradigm, we have shown that the interpretation of Tiv personal names extends beyond their literary or semantic contents to the locally constitutive and culturally shared meanings which make sense to the Tiv people. We argue that Tiv names are culture-internal categories which are reinforcing and informative and which require ‘contextually delicate and culturally intricate understanding’ (Parmentier, 2009:275). There is, therefore, a deep interplay between Tiv sociocultural dynamics and its personal naming system, and this provides a window to demonstrate the value of ethnopragmatics and understand Tiv local traditions with greater depth.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers of this article who reﬁned our perspectives and sharpened the focus of our arguments. We wish to thank all the respondents who participated in this study, particularly Terhile Alagh and Judith Sunda for their encyclopaedic knowledge of Tiv names, language and culture. We appreciate Idom Inyabri and Eyamba Mensah for referencing and editing assistance. We thank Adiaha-Udo Gold, Pasuma Crystal and Heavens Nkoyo for data recording, transcription and annotation. Any errors that remain are ours.

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About the authors

Dr. Eyo Mensah is an Associate Professor of Structural and Anthropological Linguistics at the University of Calabar, Nigeria. He is a CAS Leventis Postdoc- toral Research Associate (SOAS, University of London, United Kingdom), AHP/ACLS Postdoctoral Fellow and Firebird Anthropological Research Fellow. He is the pioneer President of the Nigerian Name Society (NNS). Some of his latest publications have appeared in Sexuality and Culture (2019), Linguistics Vanguard (2019), Journal of Cognitive Science (2019), Journal of Asian and African Studies (2019), Journal of Black Studies (2019), and Names (2020). He is a member of the Linguistic Association of Nigeria (LAN), and West African Linguistic Society (WALS). He sits on the Editorial Boards of Sociolinguistic Studies and English Language Teaching. He is also a member of the Governing Council of the University of Calabar, Nigeria. Kirsty Rowan, PhD is a Senior Teaching Fellow in the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, United Kingdom. She is a member of the Anthropology and Language Committee of the Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI) and a Fellow of the RAI and the Royal Geographical Society. She conducts endangered language documentation on Nile Nubian languages, toponymy and culture and works with African heritage and diaspora communities towards the maintenance of indigenous languages. Akase Tiav, PhD is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Languages and Linguistics, Nasarawa State University, Kefﬁ, Nigeria. His areas of research interest include semantics, discourse analysis and onomastics. He is a member of the Linguistic Association of Nigeria (LAN). Justus Ishima, PhD is a Lecturer in the Department of Languages and Linguistics, Benue State University, Makurdi, Nigeria. He specializes in Syntax, African Linguistics and sociolinguistics. His latest publication has appeared in the International Journal of Linguistic and Communication. He is a member of the Linguistic Association of Nigeria (LAN).

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(Received 14th February 2017; accepted 6th December 2018; revision received 17th December 2018; ﬁnal revision received 19th March 2019)