Reflecting on SA’s most popular names and cultural identity

When my mum was moving house recently, one of the musclemen doing the heavy lifting introduced himself as Gift. Later, my sister randomly called him Mpho, then apologised profusely.

He laughed: actually, that is my name in my language, he said. Gift was his second name and they both meant the same thing: Mpho Gift. Gift Gift.

Maybe my sister remembered this subconsciously from our brief Sesotho lessons in primary school back in the ’80s, which were uniquely confusing because one year we’d learn Zulu every week, the next year Northern Sotho, then perhaps Xhosa, all dependent not on a sincere attempt to teach us as many African languages as possible, but instead on the linguistic skills and timetables of the available staff.

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But still, what a beautiful name: a gift twice over. I thought about Mpho Gift again when I read Stats SA’s list of favourite baby names in SA, according to birth registrations.

The most popular name for boys is Lethabo, meaning happiness, joy, all the wonderful things that a new baby should bring. Lethabo is also the fifth most popular name for girls.

Meanwhile, the winning name for girls is Onalerona (God is with us) which is rather nice too.

But what caught my eye about this list was not so much the first names – which, given the nation’s demographic, are naturally African – but the second names. While 2 965 baby boys were called Lethabo, a whopping 8 125 were given the middle name Junior.

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Other popular second names for boys were Blessing, Prince, Gift and… uh… Jayden. For girls, Precious, Princess, Blessing, Angel, Faith, Hope, and Grace made the second name top 10.

Yes, middle names are mostly English. I don’t know why this is. Maybe it’s hangover from when black South Africans would have a secondary name – either by choice or enforced – that white people could pronounce, like Beauty, Gladys or Portia.

Maybe it’s a shrewd acknowledgement that a name that comes easily to Western tongues might be helpful in later life. Maybe it’s simply tradition.

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Either way, wouldn’t it be wonderful if non-black South Africans would return the compliment, celebrating our shared heritage by bestowing beautiful African-language second names on our children, like Nkazimulo (Glory), Naledi (Star) and Melokuhle (This is good).