Saturday, February 22, 2014

What's in a name?

Zimbabwe is one of those countries where people name their children with a word.  It is actually a good way to learn some Shona vocabulary if you can remember some of the meanings of the names.  I've finally gotten used to some of the Shona names and they sound very familiar (Tarisai, Rutendo, Mufaro and Chipo which mean: look, thanks, joy and gift).  But a friend of mine has been collecting English names of local people which I hope you find as interesting and/or amusing as I do.  The first chart is names of people that she has personally met.   The second one is names that she has heard but has not personally met people with the names.

Beauty
Blessing
Bright
Brilliant
Carryon
Charity
Clever
Constance
Courage
Cute
Doubt
Effort
Evidence
Faith
Forget
Freedom
Friday
German
Gift
Givemore
Grace
Gracious
Harmony
Hope
Innocent
Joyce/Joice
Joy
Justice
Killer
Lactogen
Learnmore
Lovejoy
Loveless
Lovemore
Loveness
Luckmore
Marvelous
Mercy
Moreblessing
Never
Nono
Oneday
Onward
Patience
Precious
Prosper
Prudence
Rejoice
Shepherd
Talent
Textual
Trust
Truth
Trymore
Wonder
Wisdom
Wish
Zebra


Anyway
Benevolence
Best
Blessy
Cigarette
Confidence
Denounce
Fortune
Godknows
Habitual
Jealousy
Life
Loveday
Lucky
Matches
Member
Memory
Menass (Menace?)
Nomatter
Obey
Passmore
Perpetual
Reason
Righteous
Smiley
Superman
Takemore

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