What Is in a Yorùbá Name?

When, at the close of the sixteenth century, William Shakespeare asked—rather philosophically, if also derisively—in the voice of one of the eponymous characters in the tragic play, Romeo and Juliet, ‘What’s in a name?’, (perhaps unfortunately) the English playwright did not have a Yorùbá critic to respond. What a monumental discourse that question could have sparked! This is because, for the Yorùbá people, that which we call a rose by any other name might not smell as sweet—it might give off an entirely different note. To the Yorùbá, everything is in a name. A name is given to determine a person’s identity—cultural, communal, familial, religious and so on. It is also given to determine their fate, character, attitude and outlook. A name holds an important place in Yorùbá culture as it is both spiritual and transcendental. Because of this spiritual reverence for names and naming, neither is ever accidental nor instinctual. Rather, a name is considered, taking into account the circumstance of birth and the parents’ conscious expectations for what they hope their child will grow up to be. It is this circumferential intricacy and nodal significance of names and naming in Yorùbá culture that British-Nigerian poet Theresa Lola seeks to express, execute and trace in her second full-length collection of poems, aptly titled Ceremony for the Nameless.