First-name changes in South Africa: the swing of the pendulum

Abstract

De Klerk (1999, 2002) surveyed first-name changes over two parallel three-month periods in 1977 and 2000 in order to ascertain whether there were any discernible trends in choices for new names among different ethnic and linguistic groups. Results of both of those studies revealed that sociocultural factors were the most significant reasons why people changed their names and there was a surprising trend in favor of English names among speakers of all African languages (de Klerk 2002). This paper reports on one further survey, focused exclusively on name changes made by speakers of African languages. The data have been taken from the Government Gazettes for the period December 2001 to February 2002 and they are analyzed in terms of the apparent reasons for the name changes, in order to explore more recent developments in this area. The findings reflect that while there is still a preference for English names among African name changers, it is not as strong as in the previous data. There is also a discernible increase in the influence of aesthetic factors in name changes. These trends suggest a steady drift away from traditional African naming practices, possibly as a result of the effects of urbanization.