Deluzain (1996) says that the fact that personal identity and uniqueness is often reflected by a name is the major reason why names are of great interest to usand this is why every individual in the society has a name to be identified with. Deluzain (1996) goes on to add, “In spite of their importance, though, most people know very little about names and about the effects they have on us an on our children in everyday life”. Names given to individuals among the Zezuru
58 are very rich with information to the extent that when you analyse them you will know about the psychological, magical, legal, religious, and ethnic aspects of the Zezuru people. While Deluzain (1996) looked at the importance of personal names, the present study will be very specific as it looks at how Zezuru personal names can reflect the gender status of the name bearer.
The child’s name is an important and unique marker of the child’s identity. Lieberson (1992) says naming is an even more important marker of identity than the finger prints or the DNA, which may also work as useful forensic marks of identity later on in a person’s life. Biyela (2013) regards identity as a creation and edifice just like gender. Deluzain (1996:56) says:
“the bestowal of name and identity is a kind of symbolic contract between the society and the individual. Seen from one side of the contract, by giving a name the society confirms the individual’s existence and acknowledges its responsibilities toward that person. The name differentiates the child from others; thus, the society will be able to treat and deal with the child as someone with needs and feelings different from those of other people. Through the name, the individual becomes part of the history of the society, and, because of the name, his or her deeds will exist separate from the deeds of others.”
Deluzain’s ideas are very relevant to the present study especially the idea that the name is a form identity because gender is another form of identity. This research does not end on mere identity rather it goes further by looking at how a personal name can identify a person on gender lines.
Algeo (1985a) says that the concept of naming as a process whereby animate or inanimate objects are usually given forms of identity for them to be easily identified and recognized.
Identity stems from the self (personal) and then extends to macro level where others can identify you with your name. In being personal it is unique and in being relational it may imply either similarity or difference. Algeo (1985a:134) says, “Social identity is established through one or other form of comparison. Identity denote ‘being’ or ‘belonging to’ and/or ‘acceptance of.’ Some of the markers of identity include name’s’, gender, language, culture and a lot others”. Freud and Shakespeare in Smith, (1973) discovered that there is a strong connection between name and identity. The relationship is so strong that the misrepresentation of a name
59 is tantamount to a misrepresentation of the person. The present study will therefore want to look at how Zezuru people are identified along gender lines through their personal names.
According to Merleau-Ponty’s theories, naming does not only occupy an important position within language use that implies dynamics of power and identity in so far as the first name not only grants one a specific identity as a language user, but also directs who that person will be through the name’s physiognomy and reference to the world. Merleau-Ponty (1964:19) says,
“The name is both liberation through identity and a powerful order of limitation through its physiological and referential bondage”. The names parents choose for their children usually is a summary of what the parent hope and yearn for their child. Their hopes for the child will also be greatly influenced by the gender status of the child. Parents among the Zezuru have certain attributes which they expect from their children and they usually reflect this through the names which they give to their children. The present research which looked at how personal names reflect the gender status of the name bearer got a lot of insight from the views of Merleau- Ponty (1964); especially the point that in a personal name lays the dynamics of power and identity. Gender as a form of identity is reflected through personal names among the Zezuru.
Merleau- Ponty (1964) says that the name given to an individual is “pregnant with meaning”.
This assertion is very true when one is looking at Zezuru personal names which are rich with information. Information pertaining to the gender status of the name bearer is contained in most of the names. Merleau-Ponty (1964:67) explains that “a name not only allows an individual to be ‘grasped’ as an object of knowledge, but determines what that object of knowledge is through the emotional essence of the name that is delivered onto the individual”. Pfukwa (2007) says a concept closely linked to name giving is identity. He goes on to mention Joseph (2004), Dundes (1983) and Edwards (1985) as some of the notable scholars in the field of language and identity. Joseph (2004) states that Edwards (1985) was the first to lay a general synthesis of approaches to language and identity. Dundes (1983) cites the role of Erikson (1968) in setting out the main issues of identity from a social perspective. Names as forms of identity with gender connotations enshrined in the meanings of these names formed the backbone of this research because this research is based on the assumption that names given to people have a gender bias which will eventually give the name bearer an identity based on gender lines.
Joseph (2004) points out that being named are an ‘enacted identity’. He went on to say that identity is a mutual process that operates at two levels. Firstly, it operates on how the individual or group project or perceives itself. Secondly, it operates on how the reader or recipient
60 perceives the projected identity. Pfukwa (2007) says that the self has an image it perceives and seeks to project and this is the projected identity. The recipient or the public have their own perceptions, and this is what Joseph (2004) calls receptive processes in identity. The two processes in identity do inform this research to a greater extent in that through Zezuru personal names, one will be able to identify the name bearer on gender lines because most of the personal names are pregnant with gender connotations.