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Ghana's Name Registration Wahala

Feature Article Ghana's Name Registration Wahala
JAN 28, 2018 LISTEN

The recent confusion about registrable Ghanaian names at the Birth and Death Registry may be worth looking into to settle a local issue for our Global Village. The Registrar of Births is not saying anyone cannot choose whatever name they want to call their children, but please do not say that a month-old child should be officially called ‘Honorable,’ Ohemaa, Nana, Maame, Owura, Awuraa etc as one of their real names when these are in fact titles that they have not yet been earned. What is the sense in creating a “duplicate entity” in same house through indistinguishable names? Some parents even go as far as changing the baby’s day-name to match their godparent’s!

Unofficially a child could be called any name and described anyhow the parents choose, however, officially title-names, and nicknames are not taken as names anywhere. And note that we are also considering the normal situation where a child’s name is registered within the first three months of age rather than waiting to be thirty years old, and have acquired all forms of titles/descriptions for themselves! Travels and migration will not let Ghanaians do as we please without recourse to the international best practices. The advanced world that Ghana has been learning from to date has first names, surnames, middle names as their mode of identifying humans. And let us note that there is just a small limit to the number or description of names one can adopt as middle/other names, but titles are titles; they are given when earned.

Thankfully and incidentally, Ghana has all these too; the only difference is that Ghanaians and Africans do not take these thing as seriously as those in the advanced countries. Obviously because we have not , as learners appreciated the importance of identification yet. However we can easily appreciate a problem that would arise if all Ghanains were called Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah for example, may be because it is a prestigious name or any reason for that matter!

With our heavy investment to have a national identification for Ghanaians, with GPRS address for improved business environment, we do not only have to understand these names but also be concerned about their spelling and presentation. In Ghana the equivalent of the “first name” of the Europeans is our “day-names” as Kwasi/Akosua, Kwadwo/Adwoa, Kwabena/Abena, Kwaku/Akua, Yaw/Yaa, and Kofi/Afua. These are names that are ascribed by virtue of one’s birth day, so has little control on. Those having Christian/English names have the option to use either as first names.

The second but even more important name is the “surname” or family name. The Europeans get theirs from the father in the nuclear family same way as the wife automatically adopts her husband’s name. Our formal education which promoted English/Christian names, also urged the adoption of the family names too, making compound names (which comprises the given and family names) common. The Ghanaian “given-names,” such as Boateng, Ɔsɛe, Paintsil, Ofori, Addo, Ampadu, Ofɛe, etc. are those of a relative, friend, one's hero/heroine or fancy.

The other types of name are the Descriptive or situational names which describes either the sibling-position, or the memorable conditions of the child met. Maanu, Mɛnsa, Anane, Anum, Nsia, … Nkroma, and Badu, are the second to tenth positions especially when all-male or all-female are born in succession., Ahenkan, Afriyie, Kuma, Panin, Ata/Ataa, etc, indicating, royal first-born, lucky-birth, junior, senior, and twin respectively. These ones are liberally adopted, for all of them would have their own given-names also, which are sometimes referred to as “Box-names” because their situational names become more commonly used and so overshadow the former.

Other type of names are titles or achievement-names like, Osagyefoɔ, Okununi, Otumfoɔ, Oseadeɛyɔ, Nana(Chief), Nena (grandparent), Opanin, Obenfo, Owura, Awuraa, Otitenanin, Ohwɛfoɔ, Obosomfoɔ, Okristoni, Odiyifoɔ, “Doctor”, Paapa, Mama, Maame, Awo, Agya, Ahoɔfɛ, “Old-man”, “Mother” etc. these obviously ought to be achieved through ones real-life efforts. Oftentimes children named after those bearing these titles are erroneously dashed these titles too with the assumption that calling those children raw names would be disrespectful to their godparents.

Accolades or praise-names, are associated with the real traditional names; accolades are attributed to names depending on their origins and are called occasionally to boost morals and congratulate. Examples are “Amanfo” for OFORI, “Hweehɔɔ” for OSƐI, “Akoto” for SƐIWAA, Daaduam for AMPADU, etc. some people adopt these in combination with their real names. Nicknames, are liberally adopted by the persons themselves for reasons best known to themselves; they also may be forcefully given by friends or close family members for any reason. Then gradually the victim either succeeds in banning it or allows it to remain. Eg General Mosquito, Kabila, "Osmosis", Ɔwɔ, Abrɔhene, Obaatan, “Taller”, “Killer”, “Ameeba”, etc.

It is noteworthy that any nickname could be adopted as a name, as an adult, through a legal “Change-of-name” process while former documents remain valid. Even nicknames could be permitted as “Other names” for registration among a child’s name, but titles obviously have to be earned, but a three-month old baby rarely earns titles. Furthermore, even a title earned is not technically a name. So also, for the sake it decency and non-provocation, Beauty, Ugly, Dummy etc. not be accepted out discretion for a child's official name

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