LYNNFIELD – “Names here are more than words – they are histories spoken aloud.” With that simple yet profound sentence, linguist and educator Alma Barozzi captures the essence of her new book, “What Kind of Name Is That? African Naming Patterns and Traditions”: the third and final volume in her trilogy on global naming traditions.
Barozzi said she never thought she would study languages, as she was originally more of a math student. But a mathematical linguistics course shifted her career trajectory.
After that class, she said she was “hooked,” so she wound up switching majors “to the chagrin of my father, who said I should stay in math and sciences.” Barozzi added that “linguistics is not just studying languages. It’s more of a science behind languages, so it’s a more organized, methodical way of studying languages.”
“These books, they mark the culmination of a journey that began in my childhood,” Barozzi shared.
She was born in Romania and began learning foreign languages, like German, at 5 years old. She also took Russian classes because she said she had to as part of being in a communist country, but she switched to French in sixth grade because she liked it more than Russian.
Barozzi said she continued with French throughout her school years, and when her family left Romania to go to Italy, she picked up Italian as well. She said Italy is “where I started seeing people from other countries and hearing other languages and just learning about other cultures – and I found it fascinating.”
When she moved to the States at 14, Barozzi said she made some Mexican friends and took the initiative to teach herself Spanish. She added that once she switched her educational focus to linguistics, she started learning “unusual languages” like Navajo and Sanskrit.
From the echoes of tradition across Europe to the threads of ancestry and migration through Asia, Barozzi’s trilogy began with a deceptively simple question: “What kind of name is that?” What followed was an ambitious journey across continents and centuries.
“Let me just say: I never thought I’d be writing a book, let alone three,” Barozzi said. “It all started from my own curiosity. I was interested in people’s names, and I found myself asking people, ‘What kind of name is that? Like, where are your ancestors from?’”
In this final volume, readers enter the richly layered world of African names – names shaped by oral traditions, spiritual beliefs, linguistic diversity and profound social meaning. With over 2,000 languages and hundreds of ethnolinguistic groups, Africa offers an array of naming systems, many of which reflect birth circumstances, ancestral heritage and transformations across a lifetime, according to Barozzi.
From the praise names of the Yoruba to the clan-based surnames of the Somali, and from Portuguese-influenced names in Angola to day names in Ghana, “African Naming Patterns and Traditions” reveals how many names are not merely labels but repositories of ancestral memory, colonial encounters and linguistic creativity.
According to Barozzi, a name may express a mother’s joy, a family’s loss, a community’s hope or a nation’s resistance. Barozzi said, “This final volume invites you to listen to the names that live across Africa – names that speak of resilience, kinship, spirituality and joy.”
Barozzi added that in Africa, names often tell stories in ways that can surprise outsiders.
For example, in Zimbabwe you might meet a boy named “Godknows,” chosen to remind him to trust in a higher power. In South Africa, Barozzi said, names like “Surprise,” “Lucky” or “Marvelous” turn every introduction into a little story, and across West Africa, children are sometimes named after the day they were born.
From “Lovermore” in Zimbabwe to “Hopeful” in several other countries, African names carry meaning, humor and a sense of life’s unfolding story, Barozzi added.
Drawing on years of research across academic sources, ethnographies, linguistic corpora and oral traditions, “What Kind of Name Is That? African Naming Patterns and Traditions” offers both scholars and general readers a window into the ways names serve as living stories, connecting the past, present and future.
With this final installment, Barozzi completes a global trilogy that redefines how people think about the names they carry, the stories they encode and the cultures that shape them. “What Kind of Name Is That? African Naming Patterns and Traditions” is available on Amazon in print and digital formats.
