Names as Repositories of Worldview: Empirical Evidence from the Morphological and Semantic Analysis of Tiv Personal Names

Abstract

Research in names and naming practices is gaining more grounds globally and the outcomes have been diverse. Despite this, there seems to be a consensus viewpoint that the primary reason for assigning names to people, places and things is to give them identity. While this well-known fact is recognized, the purpose of the present article is to examine the phenomenon of worldview as expressed in personal names. The article looked at the questions: Does the study of the internal structure of personal names in any way add to our understanding of the meaning and motive of such names? Or does it reveal any significant information about the bond between language, thought, and sociocultural practices? Data were drawn from oral and literature sources and analyzed descriptively. The approach involved critically examining the syntactic and semantic features of sampled personal names and making informed observations about them. The outcome of the analysis showed that Tiv philosophy and worldview are expressed in personal names and other oral genres of language such as proverbs and wise sayings.