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Help[Opinions] Re: African names
in reply to a message by Ohad Yigal
Well of course there are scores of different cultures and languages in Africa.
In Omaha we have many refugees from South Sudan who are from the Nuer ethnic group. Almost all female names in Nuer culture start with Nya- or Nyi-, a femininizing prefix. Some examples are Nyadet (woman-goats), Nyanyoch (girl born during the flood year), Nyawech (woman village dweller) and Nyibol (second child born after the twins). In the Nuer language the Ny- in these names is pronounced as in the English word "canyon", but in Nebraska it usually ends up being pronounced to rhyme with "buy a" or Maya as in Maya Angelou.
A Nuer male name which is fairly common is Tesloach, "happy heart", also sometimes spelled Teathloach or Tethloch. Another male Nuer name is Gatbel, "son of corn", given to boys born around the time of a successful harvest.
In Omaha we have many refugees from South Sudan who are from the Nuer ethnic group. Almost all female names in Nuer culture start with Nya- or Nyi-, a femininizing prefix. Some examples are Nyadet (woman-goats), Nyanyoch (girl born during the flood year), Nyawech (woman village dweller) and Nyibol (second child born after the twins). In the Nuer language the Ny- in these names is pronounced as in the English word "canyon", but in Nebraska it usually ends up being pronounced to rhyme with "buy a" or Maya as in Maya Angelou.
A Nuer male name which is fairly common is Tesloach, "happy heart", also sometimes spelled Teathloach or Tethloch. Another male Nuer name is Gatbel, "son of corn", given to boys born around the time of a successful harvest.
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Intersting. The one sudanian immigrant (refugee, really) I knew in my town was named Emmanuel, so I assume he's not a muslim. Though there's abiut 150k sudanese and eritreans here in Israel, mostly in southern Tel Aviv.
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Almost all of the Nuer people are Christians, but they mostly belong to Protestant churches which have never encouraged them to use Biblical names or saints' names so they continue to use the traditional names of their culture.
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