“Are you really Holy?” or “Why Holyness?” is the most common question Holyness Mbise is asked whenever she introduces herself to new people. Several times, she has met men who walk up to her and say they want to prove whether she is “holy”.
When asked if she feels awkward introducing herself as Holyness, she says not at all. As she has gotten older, she’s gotten used to the reactions and now takes everything in her stride. She has also not felt the need to “prove her Holyness” to the men who have asked her to.
Does she know why her parents named her Holyness? “They don’t really tell me the reason, but my father is the one who suggested the name. He likes the English language, and he also loves the church, so I know it is a combination of those two factors. My brother and sister also have biblical names,” she says.
But Holyness is not simply an unusual name. Across Africa, names can carry stories about the circumstances of a child’s birth, the hopes of parents, the people a family wants to remember and, in some cultures, even what they hope to protect the child from.
Holyness Mbise is a student at the University of Dar es Salaam.
Photo credit: Pool
Winnie Bakili, a lecturer in anthropology and sociology, also a PhD candidate at Women’s University in Africa, says names such as Marvellous, Silence, Pride and Lovely are increasingly common in Africa.
However, while some names like Marvellous and Pride inspire a little wonder before you move on to other things, other names immediately stick out either because of their shock value or the surprising meaning they carry on the surface.
Remember that classmate with a name you didn’t want to say out loud because of the meaning it immediately conveyed? An anthropologist helped us to unpack the significance behind such names.
“Names are labels. Most of the time, they have meanings. Those meanings can be superficial, but sometimes they carry deep significance. Naming is part of how human beings categorise the world through language. We label things so we can store and communicate their meanings within particular cultural contexts. Names are therefore part of language and part of how we classify phenomena and aspects of both the natural and social worlds, including things we can see and those we cannot,” says Dr Khamati Shilabukha, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Anthropology, Gender and African Studies at the University of Nairobi.
Dr Khamati Shilabukha in his office at the University of Nairobi on September 16, 2026.
Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group
Dr Shilabukha says names that may sound negative to outsiders can carry entirely different meanings within the cultures that give them, and different cultures have different ways of naming.
“Among some communities, children are named according to the time of day when they are born. This is predominantly found among the Luo. Other communities name children according to the season in which they are born—whether it is the planting season, harvesting season, dry season or a period of famine. This is particularly common among some Luhya communities, including the Bukusu and Tachoni,” he says.
“Names in Shona like Nhamo (poverty), Tariro (hope) and Farai (happiness) reflected values and experiences. The specific trend of declarative or virtue English names like Holiness, Marvellous and Favour became more common with the spread of Christianity and formal education. So while the practice of value-based naming is old, the linguistic form and style is new,” she says.
Beyond recording the circumstances of birth, in some African cultures, a name can also be intended to influence what happens next. Names such as Mauti (Kiswahili for death) and Nyang’au (Kiswahili for hyena) persist in Kenya.
In certain contexts, names are protection mechanisms for children and communities. This explains why you may have heard a name and raised your eyebrow because you understand its meaning when it is translated to English, Kiswahili or your mother tongue.
“Names can be used to protect children from misfortune. In some cultures, when a couple has experienced the repeated loss of children, they may give another child a name intended to confuse evil spirits and prevent them from taking the child. This is where a name such as Mauti comes in. The belief was that by naming the child after death itself, death would not come and take what was already its own,” Dr Shilabukha says.
In other instances, the child may be given a name such as Darkness or one associated with a wild animal. Sometimes a girl may be given a boy’s name, or a boy a girl’s name. The idea is that the spirits believed to be responsible for taking children will be confused and leave the child alone.
There are also instances where people give a child a name that describes the person they are named after, rather than using that person’s actual name. That is why you may come across names such as Bidii (meaning hard work) or Fortunate.
So, why not simply use the person’s real name in these instances?
“That specific characteristic represented by the name may have been the quality that made the person memorable or popular. In other cases, a person may have many people named after them, so the family chooses a name that captures a particular characteristic of that person and creates a distinction. Names such as Kazungu or Bidii can therefore carry a story about the person being remembered,” he explains.
There are also communities where children are named after people who have died. This can be understood as a form of reincarnation. If the deceased was considered good-natured and was known to possess admirable characteristics, the family may name a child after them so that those qualities can live on. There is a belief that some of the person’s characteristics will be reborn in the child.
In countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany, certain names are banned. They include Adolf Hitler, Jesus Christ and Osama Bin Laden. So, can you name my child whatever you please? Are there names that are banned in Kenya?
Synthia Ochieng is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya.
Photo credit: Pool
According to Synthia Ochieng’, an advocate of the High Court of Kenya, the law does not restrict how you can name a child, or specify what is allowed and what is not. It simply says that every child has a right to a name and, to the extent of particularisation, the Births and Deaths Registration Rules provide for a first name, given/middle name and a surname/last name. The Births and Deaths Registration Act also says that the name of the child should be registered within six months.
“Concerning culture, nationality and religion, in my opinion, that goes back to the Constitution. The Constitution gives everyone freedom of religion and cultural beliefs. It also allows us to practice our language and culture, but the limitation is that these beliefs and practices must not be inconsistent with the Constitution,” Synthia says.
“The Constitution, in Article 28, also provides that everyone has the right to dignity. To that extent, you cannot give a child an undignified name. If someone gave a child a name considered undignified, an advocate could go to court and argue for a dignified name,” she adds.
Synthia also refers us to the Black’s Law Dictionary, which defines a name as a word or phrase that identifies or designates a person or a thing. “This explains why you have not seen someone whose name is written as a number like 007. The name has to be a word or a phrase,” she says.
Personal names across the world continue to evolve, and while there are clear efforts in some lineages, cultures and communities to maintain history through names, the practice continues to change based on personal preference, religious affiliations and aspirations.
Some of the factors driving the growing number of people with virtue-signalling names, Ms Bakili says, include religion. Christians who ascribe to Pentecostal or even evangelical churches popularly use names that express faith, testimony and prayers. Parents name their children Miracle or Blessing as a testimony to what God did. Other times, such naming is driven by parental expectations for their children.
“Every parent has a purpose for their children’s future, so they use names as declarations of hope for the child’s future, for example, Success, Marvellous, Princess. The name becomes more like a prayer. The other factor is language shift. English is usually seen as a language of prestige in the African context, so schools and churches make English virtue names feel modern and elevated,” Ms Bakili explains.
“Sometimes names mark a break from purely traditional names and place the child within a Christian, urban or globalised community. There have been debates about these emerging naming systems eroding cultural identity,” Ms Bakili says.
So, the next time you meet someone whose name surprises you, pause before judging it. You may simply be witnessing the latest chapter in the long, evolving story of how Africans name themselves and their children.
