Investigating the basis of naming people in Kisukuma

This study addresses personal names among the Basukuma of Tanzania and considers using as an essential aspect of the Kisukuma speech community. It jokes at Sukuma personal names within the scope of linguistic anthropology and regards them as not being arbitrary labels but socio-cultural tags that have functions and meanings. As regards the relationship that exists between language and socio-cultural contexts, there is an attempt to describe the factors accompanying the naming process. In terms of research methodology, personal names were collected through questionnaires and interviews. The analysis of the data uses two approaches, that is, the different personal names were analyzed morphemically and semantically in order to shed light on the socio-cultural contexts involved in the naming process. With the morphological analysis, the names were broken down into meaningful units, from which their entire meanings are traced, making it easy to understand their different socio-cultural components. Semantically, the different names were analyzed by looking at various themes. Eventually, the results suggested that the naming process in the Kisukuma community is not haphazard, but it is a process which depends upon the socio-cultural fabric of the community.