Abstract:
It is widely accepted that in all societies, personal name practices and cultures are
intertwined (Ngubane and Thabathe, 2013). However, this reality is more
pronounced in the African society where personal names are not just appellations
bestowed on individuals to identify them in the community but rather words that
reflect the world view of the people. This is also applicable to the Bιrfor people of
Ghana. Among the Bιrfor, the name-giver chooses a name that truly not only
identifies the child as a person, but reflects the socio-cultural context within which
the child is born. The study investigates the social-cultural significance of personal
names among the Bιrfor people of Ghana. It strives to discover the extent to which
Bιrfor personal names influence the socio-cultural perspective of the people. The
study discusses the typology of Bιrfor personal names. These include cult names,
clan names, circumstantial names, proverbial names, reincarnated names,
nicknames, colour names and bodily structure names. The study also examines the
naming system of the Birfor people. The study examines the relevant of the names
of the Bɩrfor speaking people with reference to their meaning, it again looked at
what calls for the selection of a name among the Bɩrfor and ascertains how names
are linked to the Bɩrfor culture. This work made use of basic research techniques
such as sampling (purposive, simple random, stratified and snowball sampling) to
sample respondents and communities to conduct the study. Data was however
collected through interviews (face to face) and open ended questions. The research
found out that names in the given language are influenced by two main sociocultural
indicators-the spiritual and the physical. Some particular names in the Bɩrfor
cultural setting have some gender sensitivity collocations in them while others do
not. It was observed that death dominates most of the Bɩrfor personal names from
the history of personal names yoe ‘names’ or k. ũ ‘death’ as a prefix to the name.
The study concludes that Bɩrfor personal names sometimes have an effect on their
bearers and other constituents of Bɩrfor. Therefore, the study recommends that every
Bɩrfor community should inculcate the habit of giving Bɩrfor names to their children
to promote their identity.
Description:
A thesis in the Department of Gur-Gonja, Faculty of Ghanaian Languages
Education, Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies, University of
Education, Winneba in partial fulfilment of the requirements
for the award of degree
Master of Arts
(Ghanaian Language Studies)