Published by NISC on behalf of the Names Society of Southern Africa, the journal continues to demonstrate the importance of African onomastics for understanding the relationships between language, history, society and identity.
One prominent theme is the politics of naming and decolonisation. Mlamli Diko examines toponymic renaming in contemporary South Africa as a means of challenging colonial representations of space and historical memory. Andiswa Mvanyashe investigates how the indigenous personal names of South African liberation figures remain marginalised in public commemoration, while Tambudzai Ndlovu explores public participation and political power in street naming in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.
Another group of contributions highlights names as expressions of cultural heritage. Brian Valoyi investigates indigenous knowledge encoded in hydronyms in Limpopo, while Mathodi Motsamayi and Phindile Dlamini examine Sotho-Tswana personal names derived from cattle terminology. Other studies consider the historical significance of Mkhwanazi clan names, the naming of traditional seshoeshoe fabrics, and the cultural semantics of personal names in Eswatini.
The issue also addresses changing personal naming practices. Nancy Nhemachena explores anthroponymy and antonomasia in Zimbabwean youth social media discourse. Sylvester Danson Kahyana offers an autoethnographic reflection on his multiple onomastic identities, while Madoda Cekiso and Tebogo Rakgogo examine elderly amaXhosa perspectives on the transition from traditional to modern bride-naming practices, including the changing role of the prefix No-.
Particularly noteworthy is Sambulo Ndlovu's tribute to Emeritus Professor Adrian Koopman, whose scholarly contributions helped shape the study of southern African names.
Taken together, the contributions illustrate an important development in contemporary African onomastics: names are studied not merely as linguistic forms, but as repositories of cultural knowledge, instruments of social identification and sites of negotiation over historical memory and power.
The issue offers valuable reading for scholars interested in socio-onomastics, anthroponymy, toponymy, linguistic heritage, naming policy and postcolonial studies.
Journal: Nomina Africana: Journal of African Onomastics
Volume: 40, Issue 2 (September 2026)
Publisher: NISC (Pty) Ltd
Editor-in-Chief: Sambulo Ndlovu
Access: Open Access
Read the latest issue: https://journals.co.za/journal/nomina
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