Introduction

Naming is a linguistic universal; it is a central domain of social engagements in everyday life. It denotes identity, reinforces individuality, categorises its bearer and marks social connections and positioning through its symbolic character. In the African cultural context and beyond, personal names are not just ordinary labels of identification of their bearers; they constitute a body of knowledge that resonates name-givers’ social enterprise and cultural experiences. This justifies [8, p. 617] description of a personal name as “a property of cultural cognition systems” and the process of its bestowal represents the ideals of each society. A part of this cognitive mechanism is the use of naming to exercise agency and to express gendered subjectivities. In this regard, names and naming are tools for the exercise and maintenance of power [41]. The act of name bestowal itself is a reflection of power and control over the named, and a cultural capacity to act with agency [9, 31]. This aspect of naming can also be activated when naming practices become gendered processes that highlight power relation between the sexes. Vernier [60] argue that such power dynamics reinforce images of greater prestige and privilege for men and marginalise women. Names also serve as proxies for gender labels and stereotypes [2] which are inherently political. Naming can be used as a tool for manipulating power relations between men and women and gender is naturalised within societies through a process of reproduction and maintenance [18]. According to Peterson and Ruyan [47], gender is actually a system of power that does not only divide men and women as masculine and feminine but typically also places men and masculinity above women and femininity, and operates to value more highly those institutions and practices that are male dominated and/or representative of masculine traits or styles.

In this study, I demonstrate how institutionalised naming practices are enacted to produce gender stereotypes, and how this ideology is sometimes resisted. In Bette and Owe cultural contexts, girls are given names that adhere more securely to traditional gender preferences to enact boundaries. In these traditions, young girls are socialised through the prism of typical gender stereotype especially their future role expectations in heterosexual marriage, motherhood, child bearing and familial relations through their personal names. They are groomed to be submissive, co-operative and agreeable through their names. Watson [62, p. 620] captures the experience more aptly when he states that “…daughters are born looking out; they belong to others.” The consequences of this type of patriarchy result in inequality and discrimination against girl-children. The study further demonstrates how names sustain inequality that deprive girl-children of equal participation in the affairs of their communities in comparison to boys. The study aims to broaden our understanding of how naming systems conform to oppressive category of gender, and how the women themselves help to entrench this androcentric order that privileges men and marginalises them. The study further interrogates this practice from the theoretical plank of “doing gender” [63], which constructs gender as a fluid category that is enacted in interactional situations to depict essential sexual natures.

Naming and Gender Relations in Nigeria

In many cultural traditions in Nigeria and other parts of the world, names are embedded in language and culture [39], and are believed to exert tremendous influence on the lives of their bearers. Names define the character and psychological development of their bearers [36, 20]. There are many subjective considerations that inform the choice of personal names. These may include circumstances of birth [59], order of birth [19], traditional occupations of parents [39], and historical events (like famine, war, bumper harvest, or outbreak of epidemic) [59]. Another important factor is the biological sex of the child. Alford [4] corroborates this position when he stated that names are used to effectively categorise individuals as male or female. This evidence reveals that naming is a way of constructing gender. This is usually reinforced through the institutionalisation of gender binarity. Ngade [41] argues that personal names convey the sex of the individual, and gender identity involves the construction of one’s self-image as regards belonging to a specific sex or identifying with a particular sexual orientation. This position reinforces how biological sex and gender are understood in the cultural contexts where this study was conducted, a child’s name is linked to his or her biological sex at birth, and this name determines his or her gender throughout life. Obasi et al. [42] however aver that in other climes, a name which is linked to a child’s assigned sex may differ from gender identity especially among transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) adults who may seek to have expression of their authentic gender identity in later life. This claim shows the relationality of gender as a fluid and dynamic category [11], even in naming and it illuminates what people do or undo and not who they are in terms of essentialist biological standard.

Among the Yoruba in south-western Nigeria, Orie [46] reports that gender distinction in personal names is usually marked by the interaction of phonology, syntax and semantics (grammar) of the Yoruba language. Masculine names have the tone pattern (Low Low High), containing monosyllabic verbs and having a semantic category denoting bravery and intentional possession. Feminine names on the other hand, have (Low High High) tonal pattern with monosyllable verbs and semantic class that represents nurturing. He further maintains that the differences in the frequencies of the names are based on markedness, that is, irregular and uncommon considerations. Onukawa [44] demonstrates gender distinction in Igbo names that contains a religious concept, Chi (personal god). He avers that such names reflect preferences in semantic hierarchy and deeply ingrained gender biases.

In other cultures, certain names like patronyms (extended from father to first son) exist which are hereditary family surnames like the symmetry of Okon vs. Okokon, Etim vs. Etetim, Edem vs. Ededem among the Efik people in south-eastern Nigeria. These names/surnames are regarded as “great masculine choices” [25, p. 74]. They convey family lineage, trace the history of family ancestors and are passed down from one generation to another. Certain family names are also derived from place names and are usually gendered. This category of names may be sourced from names of farms, local neighbourhood, street names, buildings, beaches, industrial sites, landscape precincts, geographical features as well as cultural and natural heritage. This class of names is used to give clues to local history, humanise a place and heighten understanding of heritage resources [39]. Such place names are usually adopted as family surnames for their male members. Among the Efik, names like Ésùk (beach), Ákài (forest), Íkọ́t (clan), and Ínwáñ (farm) are popular gendered family surnames [34].

Some cultures in Nigeria, example Efik, Ibibio (South-east) and Tiv (North-central) appropriate animal names as personal names in their onomastic traditions. Certain salient features of some animals, example, bravery (lion), invincible strength (eagle), aggression (hawk), toughness (crocodile), and endurance (frog) are admired, personified and gendered [35, 30]. In these cultures, male members bear animal-related names who also share features of masculinity that fit into the standard model of traditional patriarchy. The names create the gender which is judged against the standard of men. Female members are bestowed animal-related names that reflect qualities which such animals symbolise like beauty/outspokenness (parrot), flexibility (nightjar) and tolerance (snail). Such names are not only to embody their ascribed gender roles but are expected to define their life trajectories and experiences as future wives and mothers [38]. This category of names illuminates how animals have been re-inserted into the framework of indigenous knowledge system of the African people. It decentres human beings in the classificatory structure of naming and puts animal at the centre of cultural identity and social reality.

Essentially, occupation names adopted as personal names are equally gendered as these are mostly hereditary surnames of some families. In the Tiv naming practice, for example, there are occupation-based names like Iwá (blacksmithing), Ishù (fishing), Or-sùlè (farmer), Or-táto (hunter) and Or-kásùá (trader) [39], and in the Ibibio naming system, there are occupation- related names like Ékọ̀ñ ùdọ̀k (carpenter), Ótóp (hunter), Ọ̀kọ̀ (fisherman), Òdòm (blacksmith) [59] which are patrilineal names. These names represent family occupations and sources of economic empowerment. The names establish deep connection between family/individual and their lines of trade and a means of publicising family business [25]. This evidence reveals that women were not identified with any specified line of occupation as a result of their prescribed stereotyped roles in many patriarchal societies [6]. This is however not to say that women in precolonial and postcolonial Nigeria were consigned to entirely passive roles in the gender hierarchy. In some cultures in Nigeria, women were neither powerless nor subordinated, rather, they assert themselves as agents in deconstructing gender norms and sexuality [37, 26]. Asserting themselves as agents is usually understood against the backdrop of woman-marriage or female husband phenomenon [1, 5, 24], where a woman legally marries another woman to exhibit social and political power and to access status, right and authority within the society. This institution also enabled women to redefine the relationship between power and gender. Such women were not conformist who acted on the dictates of men but were able to neutralize inequality through their socio-political and economic influence.

Doing and Undoing Gender with Naming

This study gains theoretical insights from an ethnomethodological perspective on gender, often characterised as ‘doing gender’ [63] which conceptualises gender as a socially constructed category in everyday human interactions. It entails the alignment of an individual with gendered socialisation and expectations in a particular social setting. According to this social constructionist framework, gender is a socially situated accomplishment with a fluid character unlike sex which is a rigid biological category. According to West and Zimmerman [63, p. 135], “doing gender involves making use of discrete, well-defined bundles of behaviour that can simply be plugged into interactional situations to produce recognisable enactments of femininity and masculinity.” This means that gender relation is based on the performance of essential sexual roles in different cultural context. This conceptual approach therefore emphasises differences in terms of gender-appropriate and gender-inappropriate behaviour in accordance with culturally approved standards. In essence, doing gender is activated based on normative standards of one’s gender category. West and Zimmerman [63, p. 146] further postulate that “if we do gender appropriately, we simultaneously sustain, empower, and render legitimate the institutional arrangements that are based on sex category.” Doing gender is therefore a theory of conformity [16].

A strong opposition to the notion of doing gender was the integrated approach of undoing gender [16, p. 107] which argues that “…doing gender has undermined the goal of dismantling gender inequity by…perpetuating the idea that the gender system of oppression is hopelessly impervious to real change and by ignoring the link between social interaction and interactional change.” This perspective to gender construction emphasises resistance against conventional norms and how to redress power dynamics and inequality between men and women brought about by structural differences. In other words, undoing gender argues for the deconstruction of gender through the disruption of existing gender relations. While doing gender focuses on exhibiting appropriate gendered behaviour, obeying institutional gender rules and the production of inequality, undoing gender is concerned with the disrupting gendered behaviour, breaking gender rules and challenging gendered power relation and oppression. Goffman [23] rightly maintains that in doing gender, men are simultaneously doing dominance and women are doing deference. This evidence details the fact that doing gender aligns actively with existing gender norms that reinforces patriarchy. It explains the exclusion of women in the concerns of their society on account of their gender. Undoing gender, on the other hand, attempts to break down walls of differences, subvert heterosexual motif and patriarchal oppression. It agitates for agency and rights for both genders on account of responsibility, and discursively creates space for the performance of gender based on choice and freedom.

Daily performative and interactional choices were imposed on some participants in this study by the construction of circumscribed gender roles which are traditionally associated with their normative femininity through stereotyped naming practices. In this context, such participants were doing gender by conforming to institutional gendered ideology and “reinforcing the essentialness of their gendered selves” [63, p. 137]. Other participants exhibited resistance to traditional gendered norms thus challenged patriarchal dominance and oppression, and refused to be victims of structural and cultural forces of heteronormativity [58]. Prevailing norms about naming in local cultures seem to affect conditions and rights of girl-children. Doing gender, therefore, constrains young women’s sexual expression and at the same time promotes the construction of patriarchal masculine scripts and undoing gender seeks freedom and disconnects the girl-child from practices that reify oppressive regime of gender.

Methods and Participants

Data for this study were collected through a nine-month qualitative ethnographic fieldwork in two geographic locations in Nigeria: Obudu (Cross River State, South-east), and Kabba (Kogi State, North-central). The Obudu people are called Bette while the Kabba people are the Owe. The choice of Bette and Owe was informed by the fact that gendered naming practices are still active and prevalent in their cultures than in any other part of Nigeria. The research was approved by the Ethical Committee of the University of Calabar and participants offered informed consent for all interviews, observations, conversations and recordings in writing. The primary sources of data collection were participant observations, semi-structured interviews and informal conversations. Thirty participants were selected in both areas (N = 30) by two field assistants who also acted as the liaison between the researcher and the participants. The participants were selected based on their willingness to participate in the research, as bearers or givers of gendered forenames and as people who are deeply knowledgeable in the culture and traditions of Bette and Owe respectively. The demographic characteristics of participants such as gender, age, education, occupation, marital status and religion were also documented. 10 participants (33%) were males and 20 participants (67%) were females. Their ages range from 15–62 years. 12 participants (40%) were graduates of higher institutions, 5 participants (17%) were high school graduates, six participants (20%) did not proceed beyond primary education level and seven participants (23%) did not have formal education. They claimed to be educated informally. In terms of occupation, eight participants (27%) were civil servants, 18 participants (60%) were self-employed (engaging in farming, trading, hunting, pottery, hair-styling and motorcycle repair) and four participants (13%) were students. The marital status of participants also varied. Twenty participants (67%) were married, six participants (20%) were either divorced or separated and four participants (13%) were single. Twenty-five participants (83%) participants said they were Christians and five (17%) did not belong to any organised religion.

I employed participant observations in an attempt to gain a close and intimate familiarity with the participants and observed their practices through intensive involvement with their natural environment over an extensive period of time [56]. This approach enabled the researcher to study the participants in greater detail and to gain access to varied information regarding gendered naming practices. It also helped the researcher to develop rapport and foster open conversations in order to gain deeper perspectives in understanding gendered naming in the two communities of practice. The researcher interacted with the participants deeply on the sources of gendered names, local history that informed this regime of names and how such names have reified (or challenged) gender inequality. Semi-structured interviews allowed the participants the freedom of self-expression given the benefit of open questions which may be a follow up to other questions. This approach allowed a question to be adapted or changed based on a participant’s responses. It enabled participants to explain in some depth to enable the researcher to generate qualitative data. It also increased validity by encouraging further probe for deeper understanding or clarification. It enabled the researcher to develop a deeper understanding of the situation and allows him to reflect on the participants’ roles, preconceptions and behaviour during the interview [45]. Using this approach, the researcher probed the motivations of gendered personal names. Participants shared opinions, ideas and perspectives on the meaning of their names. This collaboration also allowed participants to share their reactions and perceptions freely about their names. Questions were asked on what they would do differently if they were to rename themselves anew, and at what point did they feel their names were gendered or not? Ultimately, I inquired about what they felt about living up to the expectations of their names, and how they would think about other women who took gendered names. I also sought to know how other people within the same cultural environment evaluate them with these names.

The study also adopted informal conversations (or small talks) with some participants. This approach afforded the researcher the opportunity to interact with the participants to dig into their personal experiences and perspectives as gendered name bearers and givers to gain other contextual information which were hidden in previous modes of enquiry. The researcher interacted with participants on issues of naming practices, people’s beliefs, influence and attitude towards names. The elasticity of this mode of elicitation helped the researcher to identify new experiences shared by the participants. Additional textual data were sourced from Betiang [7] for Bette, and Alexander [3] for Owe. An audio recorder and field notes were used in recording and documenting data. Data were coded into relevant categorical frames, checked for accuracy, themed and transcribed. The theoretical framework, therefore, limits the scope of the relevant data to only gendered female forenames. The descriptive and analytical approaches were adopted in data interpretation and discussion. These approaches facilitated an engagement of the main features of data, and highlighted the perspectives, opinions and views of participants in their own words. I acknowledge a major constraint that was encountered in the field. The presence of a male researcher, two male field assistants and a recording device might have influenced the communicative behaviour of some female participants, who might have been constrained by stereotyped norms about sex and sexuality to say only what is permitted by their culture.

Results and Analysis

In the first part of the analysis, I present five recurrent and interrelated themes of gendered names which are patriarchy-conforming in Bette and Owe naming systems. These include the importance of a husband, future wifehood, value for marriage, child bearing/rearing and the experience of motherhood. These names are imbued with gender dynamics and enable their bearers to enact gender and its subjective relevance in their everyday lives [48, 52]. The analysis demonstrates how these names entrench normative femininity within the culturally specified domains of power and inequality. It also shows that this gender-based system of social classification is a reflection of the representation of women in male-dominated spaces in Nigeria. Significantly, the second part of the analysis shows how some women have demonstrated resistance to this patriarchal culture, and to gender policing more broadly through naming practices.

The first category of names in the data corpus expresses the value or importance of a husband in the future life of the girl-child. This consciousness is registered in her mind as an essential component of her socialisation and which she carries for the rest of her life. The names are meant to eulogise the role of a husband in the social universe of the girl-child- something she should grow up to desire. Examples of this category of names are demonstrated in Table 1. The names extol the virtues of a husband as one who has a legal status and is incomparable (possibly with one who co-habits, a boyfriend, a man-friend or a sugar-daddy), and essentially, a husband can also exalt the virtue of marriage. Based on the findings, a husband is believed to give an authentic identity and legal status to his wife. He is believed to be a priority (to a woman) because there is an age limit at which a woman can still be attractive to potential suitors and if she fails to be engaged, she would be stigmatised and labelled especially in the African context. Marriage, therefore, brings honour and success, and gives the woman a voice. When asked to explain the motivations for the names in Table 1, a participant (Bimbo: Female 34) reiterated that a girl-child may be so named at birth to grow up into her natural role as a future wife. According to her, this is because a newly married wife enjoys so much privileges and is duly recognised and respected in the society. It is therefore the vision of the name giver to strengthen this kind of gender socialisation through naming. According to this thinking, a wife belongs to many women’s groups where she freely asserts herself and articulates her opinions on issues affecting women in the community. Such a sense of belonging is also believed to give the woman the honour and entitlement of being held in high esteem given the influence of her husband and his family. In this way, names and naming become part of the several sources of the reproduction of gender inequality because male children are not given gendered names in Owe.

Table 1 Gendered names that reflect the importance of a husband (Owe)
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Going by any of these forenames, the girl-child is emotionally prepared for a future life with an anticipated future husband whom she grows and cognitively learns to appreciate and value as part of her perceived personhood (as a prospective wife) and as a matter of cultural requirement. In the cultural context of Owe, the worth of a woman cannot be respected if she is without a husband. A husband is believed to be his wife’s most prized asset. He protects her from shame; bestows honour respect and recognition on her. A participant justified the choice of the name, Éhíghuntòkó ‘There’s nothing comparable to a husband’ as follows:

A girl child is bestowed this name because a husband is the best gift (from God) a woman can ever have. It is what qualifies her as a woman in the first place because she derives significant benefits from her status as a potential married woman; it gives her access to many privileges; it brings honour and esteem to her and her family (Martha: Female 48).

The account above confirms how naming is used to reinforce heteronormativity or to socially imprison women [14]. This participant claimed that marriage is a status symbol for the woman in this community of practice. The husband offers economic security and protects the rights and feelings of his wife. The wife assumes the husband’s social and legal identity and bears his surname. Heterosexuality is part of the traditional conception of marriage [15], and has all the essentialist trappings that engender male dominance. By virtue of being the bread winner or the primary income earner, the husband is traditionally the head of the family. Pratt [49] identifies some of the characteristics of traditional heterosexual marriage to include unequal power, rigid sex roles and low level of companionship which are evident among the sample population in this study. Daly [14] argues that heterosexual marriage is a form of male-centric institution that perpetuate patriarchal oppression. Based on my findings, the enforcement of heterosexuality for the girl-child through naming is a means of guaranteeing male physical rights, social privileges and economic dominance.

The next category of gendered names includes the one associated with the notion of future wifehood. In African societies, it is widely believed that personal names cognitively affect their bearers’ behaviour, attitudes and life trajectories [38, 20]. Therefore, this class of names is used to prepare the girl-child for future productive and procreative extension of familial and patriarchal bloodline as a wife. The names are represented in Table 2 below. During observations in these communities of practice, women were usually saddled with domestic and child care (bearing/rearing) responsibilities, and the man only brings income for family upkeep. This is the traditional sex role differentiation which is not flexible to guarantee equality. This state of affairs enacts inequality and reflects how women are directly marginalised in heterosexual marriages which are mainly rooted in patriarchy.

Table 2 Gendered names that are influenced by future wifehood (Bette)
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For names like Ú-gió-u-kiémá ‘The wife values her husband’, Úmbu-ushù ‘She prospers the home’ and Úngié-a-kpé-ùshù ‘She is beloved of her husband’ and others in this category. They were given to female children to live up to the tenets and expectations of the names as future wives. A participant justifies the choice of these names as follows:

Marriage is an essential obligation in the life of everybody in our society. Every girl-child is a future wife, and her name is a constant reminder of her role as a dutiful wife that represents traditional values and customs. She grows up with this knowledge that enables her to fit into the principle of ideal womanhood. It is the name that guides the bearer into this orthodox wifely devotion. She starts early in life to imbibe strong feminine qualities such as obedience, loyalty and faithfulness which are taught by the example of her mother (Lizzy: Female 52).

This explanation reinforces the view of a girl-child as a wife in the making, and details how naming is used to confine and circumscribe her freedom, and prepare her to act out essentialist traditional gender roles as a “future wife”.

Another closely related theme in our gendered name data is the notion of marriage. Examples of these names are demonstrated in Table 3 below. Participants believed that the institution of marriage is as old as humanity itself. Some see it as a divine obligation while others view it as a cultural requirement and a means of reproduction especially in the African context. To them, reproductive entitlement is indispensable in African marriages because children are sources of stability in marriage.

Table 3 Gendered names based on the notion of marriage (Bette)
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Among the Bette people, marriage has a variety of social meaning. The payment of brideswealth by the groom’s family to the bride’s family is symbolic in many respects. First, it legally recognises the couple as a social unit; it guarantees the husband the rights to the sexual and economic services of his wife, and also gives him the rights to the children born to his wife [33]. In this culture, female children are given marriage-related names to also reflect the lived experiences of their mothers in marriage. In this way, naming is used to navigate and negotiate tension or existing peaceful atmosphere in marriage. A name like Á-kọ́ng-libéh-úndi-yé ‘You don’t talk about another’s marital affairs’ is bestowed to reflect value categories and moral code. According to a participant:

This name was given to a girl-child whose parents have had a serious problem that almost led to a divorce. A third party got involved to reconcile the conflicting parties but was rather escalating the crisis by talking to everyone about it. Unknown to him, the couple resolved their differences, bonded together and named their next child after this experience (Constance: Female 40).

This account demonstrates how naming has been used as a vital reflection of experience and values which are used to teach or project acceptable behaviour to members of the society. The participant reiterated that such a name for a girl-child is used to sanction attitudes like gossiping and backbiting and to encourage the cultivation of positive social values.

For other names in this category like Áwhóbiwóm ‘She’s more than any material possession’ depict the name-bearer as a source of wealth to her family when she is married. Á-shì-bé-bọ́ng ‘She is appreciated’ and Úngbéb’kièmá ‘One who is beloved of her husband’ represent the image of women who were fulfilled and satisfied in their marriages. Such women are believed to achieve what a participant (Ana: Female 32) called “emotional and social well-being” in their homes. They are happy with the status quo by adhering to the prescribed feminine gender ideals and endorsing sexism. These names are given to their female children by their husbands with a sense of entitlement to celebrate them for their investment in ‘ideal womanhood’. A name like Úbémbé ‘She knows how to marry well’ reflects the capacity of the girl-child to have a satisfying marriage in the future, and Úngìeushíbékpé ‘With character, she gained acceptance in marriage’ speaks to the value of good character in marriage. A participant (Agnes 48) informed me that a girl-child in particular is taught core ethical values like respect, social justice, civic virtue and responsibilities to oneself and one’s family which are essential part of her socialisation, and which she is expected to take to her marital home.

Another closely related category of gendered names found in the data corpus is the one that connects to the experience of childbearing and childrearing. These names are illustrated in Table 4 below. In the context of Africa, childless marriages are usually stigmatized, and have many social consequences. The birth of a child, on the other hand, is usually greeted with pomp and pageantry in the family given the premium placed on children in the society. Dyer [17] recounts that children are the greatest priorities in African marriages, they secure conjugal ties, offer social security, assist with labour, confer social status, secure right of property and inheritance, provide continuity through reincarnation and maintain the family heritage. This class of names is therefore used to reiterate the value of children in marriages, and the society more broadly.

Table 4 Gendered names that based on the experience childbearing/rearing (Owe)
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Childbearing marks the beginning of biological parenting and often comes with emotional demands and social responsibilities. It entails the process of raising a child from the stage of infancy to adulthood, and the majority of the responsibility usually rests on the shoulders of the woman. For a name like Ọ́mọ́múnígbón ‘Child rearing teaches wisdom’, it was averred that child rearing is a process which enriches the woman’s experience in every aspect of her feminized life. This is why childbearing and rearing are considered as feminine gendered roles in African societies. The names in this category are used to express the social and cultural significance of children. For instance, it is believed that entry into childbearing is symbolically a guarantee to greater wealth, beauty and materiality. In explicating this point, a participant maintained as follows:

Children are given this kind of names to resonate their importance in the society. We say that they are better than wealth, clothes or beauty because when you raise your children well, there is nothing in the world they cannot give to you in terms of wealth, power or influence. There was a powerful woman in this community who was childless and when she died, there was nobody ‘to hide her face’ (give her a befitting burial) and she decayed (Modupe: Female 51).

This explanation justifies the premium placed on children in the Owe community, and the social status they can assist their parents (particularly mothers) to attain. In the Owe religious context, a befitting burial of a deceased facilitates his or her transition to the afterlife, and a deceased is said to decay, if he or she is not remembered after death. One who has children, therefore, does not decay. It is because of the indispensable role of children in the family and community that they are also regarded as ‘ancestors’. Among the Owe, children are generally regarded as reincarnated ancestors, and are often named after such transcendental beings. Children are precious gifts that dignify their parents and cleanse them of shame. These names are given specifically to female children because according to a participant, the future of childbearing and rearing rests squarely on their shoulders. On probing further why only girl-children are given these names, the participant remarked that:

It is the woman that bears children and cares for them until they are of age. She is given this name as a charge that she has a duty to her prospective family and the society to bring forth children and cater for them until they become responsible men and women in the society (Ireti: Female 42).

From the above position, it is evident that childbearing is an important reproductive phase in the future life of the girl-child which she has to fulfil in other to derive the true meaning of marriage as a result of traditional attitudes and cultural values placed on motherhood.

The last category of patriarchy-related names involves names that are used to extol the virtue of motherhood. The names are presented in Table 5. The social logic for the bestowal of this class of names is for the girl-child to familiarize herself with pre-scripted roles of motherhood which is salient in her future marital life given the broader cultural expectation of her gender role.

Table 5 Gendered names that express the concept of motherhood (Owe)
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Motherhood is a life-changing experience that marks the transition from girlhood to womanhood. This is why Olayiwola and Olowonmi [43] remark that womanhood in Africa can only be attained through motherhood. This implies that motherhood is an evidence that one has attained the status of a ‘real’ woman (one that is not barren). This further justifies the claim by McQuillan et al. [32] that parenthood is normative and childlessness is deviant. Motherhood is the aspiration of every woman in Africa and beyond. It is a positive life-event and a unique experience that is central to contemporary gendered expectations of women [21, 50]. These names are used to express the ideology of motherhood as an institution. Through the bestowal of these names, marriage and motherhood are honoured, appreciated and celebrated. Based on this ideology, a mother is everything; she radiates with love, and is outspoken. She is wealthy, recognised and well-received. She has friends and relatives and occupies a central place in her family and community. Speaking on the preference for this category of names, a participant remarked as follows:

In our culture, we celebrate our mothers because of the stress and anxiety they passed through, and the sacrifice they made in raising us. They play essential reproductive roles in sustaining our humanity. These names are, therefore, a reflection of joy and satisfaction our mothers derive from their investment in us. The names are incentives for one (a woman) to naturally want to become a mother (Abike: Female 37).

This account points to the fact that motherhood in the Owe cultural tradition is a source of empowerment and greater strength to women given the key role they play in the development of the family and the society as a whole [29, 57, 61]. It details how the mind-set of the girl-child has been circumscribed to a future role she has to perform as a mother. This perception ideologically privileges the heterosexual culture and constrains her from gaining space and possibilities to construct an alternative gender identity. The stereotyped ideology has remained congruent and static for the woman to fit into. In other words, motherhood is an essential trait that is socially expected to define a woman’s gender role in the context of Owe. In this way, gender and sexual identity are still largely viewed as biological essentialism.

Resisting Patriarchal Naming Practices

This section explores gendered naming practices which are products of resistance to sexist naming tradition. This regime of names deploy subtle nuanced discursive strategies to foreground notions of agency, freedom, rights and choices to negotiate gender and sexuality under conditions of patriarchal dominance and inequality. A close observation of the names in this category reveals that they were bestowed by the women themselves on their daughters’ to resonate their challenges and experiences in marriage. Based on our ethnographic evidence, this category of names were used to depict cruel or unpleasant personal memories or unresolved tensions in participants’ marital homes. This class of names is furnished in Table 6. Names like Béngye-bé-mbé ‘Wives are no longer there’ and Béngye-bé-ndé ‘Wives are difficult to find’ were used to speak directly to husbands who may not have value or respect for the wives anymore. According to a participant,

A woman uses this kind of name as a form of protest against maltreatment by her husband and/or in-laws. Such names are used to address the challenges of marriage more aptly. Through the naming of her girl-child, she is indirectly communicating her deep emotions and displeasure in that marriage (Shina: Female 35).

Table 6 Gendered names that show resistance to patriarchy (Bette)
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A bearer of Béngye-bé-ndé ‘Wives are difficult to find’ recounted that her mother was a frequent victim of domestic abuse by her father. She gave her the name at birth as a warning to her own father to stop maltreating her because if she decides to divorce him, he may not find a virtuous wife to replace her. This account reveals that naming is not just a mode of indirect communication, it is a tool for the preservation of personal memories and experiences. It also demonstrates that such names are by-products of oppression and victimization, and confirms more directly how women have been maltreated in heterosexual marriages. The account above details the fact that some gendered names are used to criticise men and make allusive reference to their oppressive activities.

Names like Á-kpè’ashí-yé ‘She is undervalued’ Á-shì-bé-bọ́ng-yé ‘She has worked without appreciation’ and Á-mor-u-shú ‘She rejects her home’ are small acts of resistance to maltreatment and social injustice in heterosexual marriages. When women do no longer earn the respect of their husbands or are undermined by their in-laws, these names are bestowed. On the justification for these names, a participant reported as follows:

This type of names are used to express bottled up anger and dissatisfaction women must have endured for so long in their marriages which they could not overtly voice out to their husbands due to inequality of power and resources. Such names are indirectly used to registers their grievances, and also to plea for a change of attitude towards them and their children (Bukky: Female 52).

This account demonstrates that though women may not have a sense of agency in their marriages, they have other means of articulating their discontentment. As a result of low level of companionship and significant affective ties (to their children), women’s voices are not often heard in the structure of monogamous or polygamous marriages. Naming is utilized as a form of indirect communication and a resource for plea over circumstances women do not have control. For a name like Íngíe-kèn ‘The only wife’, findings reveal that it was also used as a form of resistance against polygamy. The name-giver was not favourable disposed to her husband taking another wife and in a bid to legitimise her protest, she named her daughter so. The name is a subtle form of communication to her husband and in-laws that she remained the only wife of the man. It is also a pointer that she could not recognise the other woman as a legitimate wife.

For those whose names were generated out of protest, they were required to learn from the experiences of their mothers. An interesting dimension to this category of names, especially those that were used to fight patriarchy, was seen as better alternatives to divorce. A participant argued that:

It was better for a woman to endure her pains quietly in her matrimonial home, name a child after such an ugly experience and move on in her marriage than to divorce her husband and become a subject of mockery (Wonah: Female 46).

This position reveals that beyond using these names to sustain male dominance and subjugation of women, these names were also employed as an antidote to divorce and separation. The participant further maintained that such a palliative measure was a traditional mechanism for conflict resolution, and extremely reduced incidences of family crisis especially divorce.

For names like Alor-ye ‘She does not mind whatever comes’, Á-bè ákè ‘She has chosen her marriage on her own conviction’, Ú-nde-gyía ‘She made her own choice’ and Úmbùzí ‘One who has given herself out in marriage’ were given to female children by mothers who defied all odds against parental advice to have agency over choices of their husbands. A participant reported that most marriages in their community were usually arranged by families on behalf of the potential groom and bride. Some children often rebel against such parental choices and opt out on their own volition to make their alternative arrangements. Female children born by such ‘rebellious’ mothers were so names to reflect their resistance to forced marriages. This is a proof that women still created small spaces for the contestation of hegemony in spite of their disadvantaged position.

Narratives of active resistance and dislocation of gender stereotype at the individual level were also prevalent in the Owe gendered names’ inventory. This resistance brings about the capacity to empower women and establish new conception of feminism. Names like Ínúmòtólè ‘I follow my mind’ and Ínumífín ‘I know myself’ are self-representations that index deep sense of autonomy and individuality. A participant recounted that this class of names encapsulates “deviant” voices of women who have challenged a culture of silence and hegemony. The names are instruments of resistance by women who desired freedom to be in control of their bodies. They are also forms of ‘rebellion’ against structural forces that tended to oppress women. A name like Ásíhónmí ‘My sojourn has favoured me’ was given to a girl-child by her mother who refused to marry her parents’ choice of a husband but rather opted to travel elsewhere and settle, and subsequently got married to her heartthrob. She therefore decided to use her daughter’s name to “tell her story to the world.” According to this participant (Omoniyi 38), she had used her own case to establish new slants to the discourse of gender inequality, and to inspire other women to “take their destinies in their hands.” She believed that her resistance to stereotype was a way of promoting change and social conditions for gender equality. Significantly, names like Éhónìmóbání ‘There’s no one I opposed’ and Mémùbéséghón ‘I did not treat them like that’ are emotional expressions that speak against marginalisation and maltreatment of women in the Owe cultural context. These names undermine the force of normalization and deny women space to neutralise gender inequality. A participant traced the root of this regime of names to deep-seated constraints imposed on women by existing sexist culture in order to enhance their freedom. In all the examples, women gave these names to their girl-children to perpetuate the memory of their shifting attitudes and experiences in heterosexual marriages.

Discussion and Conclusion

In Bette and Owe societies in Nigeria, the naming of female children is a cultural product and a powerful tool for the entrenchment of patriarchal ideologies that privilege the namer and subdue the named. The naming practice has become very rigid or fixed in terms of the presentation of sexually-linked roles in heterosexual culture and the pressure to conform. In constructing an understanding of the practice, I identified five core inter-related themes under which these names have been categorised. These are the desire for a husband, the concepts of wifehood, marriage, childbearing and motherhood. Based on interviews, female children in these cultural traditions are bestowed gendered names for a number of reasons: First, the names are meant to ingrain in their consciousness an appreciation of normative heterosexuality as the only form of sexual orientation permitted by their culture and accessible to them in later life as these names speak to the dynamics of heterosexual marriage more broadly. The choice of names is mainly shaped by cultural influences and existing gender ideologies and practices where traditional gender roles are clearly defined and practiced. This means that gendered names were mainly based on heterocentrist belief that heterosexuality is superior, normal and natural than other forms of sexual orientation. Significantly, these names are used to activate a process of gender socialisation whereby behaviour is shaped to conform to the expected social roles for the girl-child [2]. In this way, the institutional structure has set the stage for doing gender. The outcome of doing gender is the discrimination of the girl-child which according to [55], is a well-documented reality that reflects serious gender-based differences, inequality and neglect.

Again, parents project their vision of the future for their children through gendered naming which are used to sustain the expression of gender-linked behaviour to guide female children to fit effectively into their gender expectations and beliefs associated with their gender category. Consequently, the name-bearer begins to develop gender-linked personality in conformity with her essential sexual nature which ultimately leads to the development of her gendered self. Based on my observations, gendered names in Bette and Owe were also bestowed for the retention of individual identity and ethnic cultural traits. These names are particularly useful in the development of individual identity and in the preservation of ethnic identities. In this respect, gendered naming is bound to social norms and standards [52], and the practice is passed down from one generation to another. The girl-child is expected to align with traditional gender roles from birth by virtue of her biological sex and in this way, “her body is in the grip of very strict powers, which imposed on it constraints, prohibitions and obligations” [22, p. 36]. The subject does not have any control over her body as a result of a deep-seated cultural belief or orientation that considers gender as a biological given, and gender roles as fixed and stable. Where the reproduction of this hegemonic ideals on sex and gender is the norm, the girl-child faces untoward social and historical oppression through the resources of her name. This justifies the claim by Butler [11] that it is the society that inscribes on our external physical bodies our internal gender and sexuality. This also details the fact that the practice of assigning gender roles to female children through names is interpretable in the cultural norms in which they are socialised [40].

From the researcher’s interactions with participants, where the girl-child is given a name that is associated with her gender role(s) at birth, she is cognitively confined to act out only those roles which include but not limited to innate domesticity, motherhood project, lack of social freedom and agency, and lack of equal sexual standard, and property rights. In this way, she is doing gender by “subscribing to the gendered norm of inequality” [54, p. 495]. She therefore becomes vulnerable and often at the behest of the “patriarchal dividend” [13, p. 142] thus corroborating Butler’s [11] description of the body as a personal “prison” for individual identity. In Bette and Owe societies, the traditional conception of gender roles as simplified natural roles with certain prescribed code of behaviour for each gender in deeply ingrained in the social and historical contexts of their societies, and has enormously facilitated the institutionalisation of the practice of gendered naming, which makes female children to be superficial to the concerns of their society [27, 28]. Such an ideology aligns with the notion of doing gender which sustains a functional sex role category that is not focused on equality [51]. For participants who choose to behave differently by not aligning with sexist norms and gender expectations, they were undoing gender by resisting traditional gender scripts. They have thus demonstrated that the concept of gender is not a stable category but fluid, reproducible and changeable. Their efforts were subtle attempts to reduce differences in the gender structure that privileges men.

For the majority of participants in this study, their “gender is always necessarily sexualised” [12, p. 143], and they are tied to what is ‘normative or natural’ within their sociocultural contexts. As a result, their performance of gender is congruent with cultural expectations considering their sexed bodies [64]. There is widespread endorsement of stereotyped binary gendered culture through the agency of community women which is a subordinated group. These girl-children have become disempowered with limited public space and sexual expression. I seem to align with the position of Rubin [53, p. 102] who states that “the elimination of the oppression of young women can be achieved by the elimination of obligatory sexualities and sex roles”. In this connection, there is therefore a compelling need for a new rhetoric of equality and progress, and this can be achieved through reformed traditional and public sexuality education that will transform gender as “an innovative affair…that is put on daily with anxiety and pleasure [10, p. 531]. Significantly, these traditions also desire alternative prescriptions for the naming of female children, such that would not inhibit them from fulfilling their full potentials or reclaiming their femininity. Gendered naming practices among the Bette and Owe people of Nigeria have far-reaching implications for girl-children and women generally. The practice is supportive of the construction of gender stereotypes which result in unequal access to educational opportunities, economic options and political participations which always place women at the fringes of their society. This ideology has also permeated their consciousness and influenced their perception of any change process targeted at gender equality. Future research may investigate the intersection of religion, gender and naming in the Bette and Owe onomasticon. Religious influence, especially from the Pentecostal movement in Nigeria is prevalent and seriously threatening the namescape in many Nigerian cultures. This will open a new vista of understanding the socially relevant qualities of names in the context where they are given and used; it is an essential aspect of the onomastic capital in the sociological exploration of names.