Names and a New Challenge

I got two correct responses to my challenge question of four days ago – why am I posting every four days.

Both people with the correct answer were Peace Corps volunteers in Nigeria, as I was. We’re members together of Friends of Nigeria. The answer is that the Igbo week is four days; markets that rotate among towns are on a four-day cycle. Both were also able to name the four days in the Igbo week – Eke, Orie (or Oye in my husband Clem’s dialect), Afo and Nkwo. The major market in Clem’s town of Nanka is on Afo.

Children were sometimes named for the day on which they were born. So the name Nwankwo means nwa, or child, born on nkwo. Okeke, is a boy, oke, born on eke. Children have also been named for their birth day in the Gregorian calendar. Sunday and Friday were common. All of these names are less popular today than they were when I was first in Nigeria in 1962.

We didn’t name our children for days of any week! When it came to our children, Clem and I agreed early on that his father would have the right to give the names, following Igbo tradition. Our first son was given two lengthy names, Chinakueze Iwenofu, and I insisted on including Danforth, my mother’s maiden name.

All our children and grandchildren were with us for Christmas and New Years 2013-14. We asked the photographer John Videler, who lives across the street, to take our pictures. Thie is on Boxing Day, December 26, 2013, our 49^th wedding anniversary, in our house in Westport, Connecticut.

Our daughter was named Ijeoma, to which I added Elizabeth for my aunt and sister. We have always called her Beth. She and her husband Kelvin and their three children live near Philadelphia.

Our younger son was given the name Chukwugekwu and we added Samuel for Clem’s father. He was Sammy when he was little, but he’s been Sam ever since. He and his wife Onome and their two children live in Nigeria.

Seated left to right are Nkiru, Beth’s daughter, Clem, me, Sam’s daughter Teya, and Beth and baby son Ikem. In the back are Sam, his son Bruche, his wife Onome, Chinaku, Beth’s son Kenechi (seated on back of couch), and Beth’s husband Kelvin.

Here’s the next challenge question. Each son’s name includes an Igbo word for God – what are those words?