Abstract:
In Africa, especially among the Akan in Ghana, names are not mere arbitrary and
meaningless labels, rather names have indexical relationship to socio-cultural meanings
and functions, places, time, people and events. It is even unethical to call people not
using their proper names. What this means, is that, a name gives an identity to a person.
This is underscored by the Akans’ maxim, 'edin pa yέ sene ahunya' meaning “good name
is better than riches”. This epitomises that the Akans attach much importance to names.
According to Agyekum, African and Ghanaian names are quite different from that of
western societies where people take their fathers’ last names. While western names are
predictable, African names are generally not predictable, for until the child is born and
under what circumstances it is born, the name cannot be determined with accuracy.1 All
these go to prove that, names are not just a tag but strongly related to temporal, personal
and social indexes.
