‘I Will Marry by Force’: Female-Child Naming, and the Concept of ‘Home Names’ Among Bette-Obudu Women

Overview

This study examines female-child naming practices among married Bette-Obudu women in southeastern Nigeria, investigating the relationship between naming conventions and gendering within patriarchal social structures. The research focuses on how mothers employ daughter-naming as a mechanism to establish autonomy and resistance within domestic spheres, particularly through the assignment of names that encode assertions of female agency and power within marriage.

Methods and approach

Ethnographic methodology was employed, utilizing semi-structured interviews with twenty-five purposively selected female name-givers. The investigation drew upon ethnolinguistic analysis of gendered names within the Bette-Obudu anthroponomastic tradition, employing socio-onomastic theoretical frameworks to elucidate the sociocultural and contextual meanings embedded within naming practices.

Key Findings

Analysis revealed that female Bette names such as Úbékpí (I will marry by force) and Ùngiéáwhúkyémá (The wife dominates her husband) function as deliberate linguistic acts through which mothers encode resistance to patriarchal oppression and marginalization within daughter-naming practices. The names reflect calculated efforts by name-givers to assert female agency and establish autonomous spaces within matrimonial institutions.

Implications

The study contributes to anthroponomastic scholarship by documenting the previously under-explored function of female-naming among Bette-Obudu women as a subversive discourse against patriarchal structures. The research advances understanding of how naming practices intersect with gender relations and resistance strategies within African onomastic traditions. The findings demonstrate that female-child naming operates as an effective mechanism through which mothers navigate and contest patriarchal constraints, establishing conceptual and symbolic spaces of female autonomy within the institution of marriage.