INTRODUCTION
Many persons believe so much that name contributes to what someone may likely be and that is why many are being so careful with the names they answer. From the ancient days of our people till date, many persons take into consideration names they give to their children and the names people also take, because in my dialect, eha ne eso mmadu (name follows the bearer). Going back to the days of our forbearers, they were answering names based on what they achieved in life, circumstances surrounding their birth, names of good deities in their land and so on. These formed some of the names of which we have today in our different tribes and villages today. Taking Nsukka as a case study: We have names like, Attama from the Atta Igala, we have Okonkwo, maybe one born on Nkwo day, we have Oyima, maybe one born on the day of masquerade feast, we have Ogbuagu, maybe one who has killed lion before, we have Oyiodo, maybe one born on the day Odo is having feast and so many names attributed to many things. Some of these names were names of famous people in different fields and that have brought prestige to them those days.
These days, so many are now leaving these names to embracing new names of their biological fathers, either the English or Igbo names of their fathers. Some do this for many reasons. Some even do it without any reason while some are forced to do it. In many newspapers, we see every now and then, change of name by so many, and it is on increase daily. If you look closely, you will notice that, they majorly change their surnames because of one reason or the other.
