Personal Names, Naming and Identity (Re)negotiation among Zimbabweans in the Diaspora

Abstract

This article discusses how Zimbabweans in the diaspora name their children to think through the dynamics of diasporic identity negotiation. Using qualitative data gathered through virtual ethnography, I grapple with the question how names and naming strategies allow Zimbabweans in the diaspora to imagine and negotiate what it means to belong to home and being in the diaspora. I make two conclusions from this study. First, I argue that there is a tendency among first-generation Zimbabweans in the diaspora to name children in ways that are symbolic of how they remain attached to their homeland’s ways of knowing the world. Second, I observe that others negotiate the balance between retaining their naming cultures and working towards the integration of their children into host cultures. This they do through a bestowal of names that highlight the children’s intercultural and hyphenated identities – that is, a simultaneous connection to homeland and host country.