Whats in a name?

My first name is victorine which according to my mama is a corruption of the name Victoria which as we all know means conqueror or victory(Google says its the french version of Victoria, but they wrong- because mama is always right) My middle name is Bertha means bright/clever while my luo name is Anyango which simply means I was born in the morning around nine-ish.

As the story goes I was born prematurely, feet first and weak but I was determined to live. But not to worry ,I wont bore you with the stories of my childhood and all that kind of stuff.

Personally I believe names are prophecies. They are your destiny and attribute to your personality. I remember when I was in high school somebody nicknamed me malale because I fell asleep in class. After that I couldn’t stop sleeping in class even in the morning!

Now for those of you who don’t know, malale is Swahili for sleeping sickness.

When I discovered the name versus prophecy theory I dropped it and viola! I stopped sleeping in class…yes just like that. This means that names have a powerful effect on the kind of person you will be.

I think that also rings true for social networks too. i.e. the user names that people give themselves, Normally its not by chance, mostly they have a meanings that only the user understands. Mine as you have seen is jaber3000 ,I love andre 3000 so you know…

If u observe closely men normally give themselves names for what they aspire to like superman, gentle man, richboy, bigdick

a man can dream can he?

But am concerned about my fellow ladies because sometimes they are modest when giving themselves user names like there's something so wrong with giving yourself an ambitious name(exhibit A the name Jaber3000 so shallow.lol) .but that’s a story for another day.

Names also connects us with our family and ancestors. One feels like part of the family. It brings the family together. If you look at western civilization young people are alienated from their parents n am guessing its because they don’t retain their family names and stress on individuality

I don’t know though ,I could be wrong

Im named after my grandma and I feel connected to her and the funny thing is am exactly like her: loud, social, loving and bright/clever-yes she went to siriba college (now maseno university) and she never lets me forget it.So my theory that people take up the character of people they are named after could be true.

On the other hand if your named after a person who has a serious weakness .e.g. alcoholic you'll pick up the character and give the next generation hell. This means if there are generational curses they can be carried onto the next generation through names..guess it could go either way.

So for all of you out there who are thinking of having kids these are the things you should consider:-

1. Make the name easy to pronounce even for the child and spare him/her the agony of having to spell out the name every time theyre filling out a form or just introducing themselves.

2. Don’t look at popularity ati mtoi anaitwa Paloma ,valentia after the soap operas that have dominated out screens or after football players ati ronaldinho..smh

3. Don’t feel pressurized to name your kid after a family member as a sense of duty...sio lazima

4. Make sure you know the right meaning of the name e.g. Sharon means desert, Belinda means snake..u see what I mean?

5. Try to make sure the name does not easily rhyme so that your child is not teased at school.