Changing Names in the “New” South Africa: A Diachronic Survey

Abstract

A study of name changes in South Africa in 1997 (de Klerk 2000b) found that socio-cultural factors were foremost among the reasons why people had changed their names, and there was also a trend in favor of English names generally and most particularly among speakers of African languages. This arqcle reports on a comparative survey of first name changes in South Africa over two 3-month periods, the first in 1997 and the second in 2000. It is once again notable (and surprising) that there is a marked increase in the number of African-language speakers who have favored English in changing their names, by adding an English name, by deleting an African name, or by reversing the order of their names so that an English name comes first. This is remarkable in light of concerted national efforts to encourage the African Renaissance as an overt symbolic resistance to former white cultural oppression.