A DICTIONARY OF IGBO NAMES

This dictionary is the fruit of a five-year research work on the meaning of Igbo names, an indispensable resource material for all those who are interested in the culture of the Igbo ethnic group in general, and the cultural dimensions of Igbo names, in particular. Spoken by about 30 million people in southeastern Nigeria, Igbo is the mother tongue of diverse people groups who have their homeland in a block of territory delimited to north by the Edo-Igala-Idoma ethnic groups, Urhobo to the west, the Bights of Benin and Biafra to the south and the Ibibio-Anang to the south. These groups who live in the area so delimited are referred to as Igbo and use the Igbo language to communicate their experience of being-in-the-world as well as their overall worldview. Igbo names are not mere biometric elements or identification labels tagged onto the individual to distinguish them from others; they reflect socio-cultural, philosophical and religious beliefs. They are an expression of long-held societal ethos and often communicate personal life-journeys and life-time family experiences, or even those of the clan. Also, names could reflect parents' aspirations for their children. In other words, names have important meanings and often encapsulate the epistemology and life experiences of their bearers. Suffice it to say that Igbo names are the most important part of a person's identity. It is this wealth of cultural information that this dictionary places at disposal of its user's . The book is divided into two parts for boys' names and girls' names respectively; and each name has not just an English translation, but also a cultural comment as to its inspiration, as well as a pronunciation guide. These two parts are preceded by the technical and theoretical study of Igbo linguistics, phonetics and phonology presented in the introduction. This section is aimed at eliminating the difficulty non-Igbo speakers encounter in pronouncing Igbo words/names. The work is completed by a rich bibliography for further cultural exploration.