The First Name in Seereer Traditional Society: Semantic and Onomastic Approach

Abstract

The deepness and seriousness of the seereer nomination system make it remain an original and fascinating research subject. The seereer first name can be considered as being a part of the seereer personal history, which defines who he is and where he lives. A real comprehension of the seereer first name requires a semantic and onomastic study which dives us in the history and etymology of the first name. This article scores up this logic. It aims to study the process of the seereer traditional nomination of the first name, to show how is the seereer first name acquired, and then to make a categorization of first names and that of some particular surnames. Therefore, this is about a deciphering of the semantic content, of the social value and of the symbolism which the first name encodes. Through the seereer first name, appear a lot of heterogeneous elements of a highly sociocultural coloration such as the religious propensity, the mystical and mythic aspect, the patronymic and geographical belonging, the physical and alimentary particularities, the simulation and conspiracy in prayers, the disinterestedness, etc. of the seereer person in question.