Zimbabweans Name Children After English Words

In Zimbabwe, parents often bestow children with English names like HaveALook, Handsome, Thanks, Trust, Privilege, Doubt, Problem and Shame, turning vocabulary into personal narratives that capture family joys, regrets, hardships or triumphs at the moment of birth.

Privilege Mubani, a 37-year-old bar manager in Harare, discovered the story behind her name as an adult. Her mother had become pregnant out of wedlock in a conservative society that stigmatizes single motherhood. Mocked for the fatherless child, she had lost hope of marriage until a suitor married her anyway. "People had been laughing at her. She was being mocked for having a fatherless child. Naming me Privilege was her own expression of gratitude," Mubani said.

This naming tradition blends Zimbabwe's colonial past as a British territory and its predominantly Christian population, where English serves as an official language in schools and government. Yet experts trace it to deeper precolonial African customs. David Chikwaza, a decolonization researcher at Dublin City University's School of History and Geography, described the names as "miniature narratives of joy, regret, faith, hardship or resilience." He noted that...