Hello all, At the recent M4D conference in Karlstad, Sweden John Traxler showed some material on the cultural impact of the mobile phone on naming conventions in Africa (see the article below).
There are other examples of technology/culturally inspired naming conventions. As I recall Bill Bryson has written on how the Pilgrims in the US also adopted what we might see as exotic names. http://www.reporter.co.za/article.aspx?ID=RP21A371718 Rich L. Sent from mobile phone PS Would someone be so kind as to enter this into the Ning blog? The article is as follows: Would you name your child Nokia? By Sipho Nhlapo Find out how the cell phone era has influenced names. Ever since mobile phone services were introduced in KwaZulu-Natal some parents have named their children after some of the terms used by mobile services providers. According to Home Affairs statistics some of the children born from 1993 when mobile services were introduced in the province (and the rest of SA) have the following names: 1. Network Madondo 2. Subscriber Zulu 3. Nokia Khumalo 4. Siemens Mdlalose 5. Motorola Buthelezi 6. Dial Magubane 7. Vodacom Mkhize 8. Call Later Ndlovu 9. Voicemail Ngobese 10 Simcard Makhathini 11 Scratchcard Mlaba 12 Talktime Luthuli 13 Send Ndebele 14 Paging Nyawose 15 Cellphone Mpungose 16 Message Gumede 17 SMS Mabaso 18 Phonebook Dlamini 19 Ringtone Khoza 20 MTN Shezi 21 Prepaid Zwane 22 Pay as you go Mfeka 23 Please Call Me Cetshwayo 24 Contract Mabaso 25 Charger Ngobese 26 Hands Free Tshabalala 27 Unavailable Masondo 28 Switchoff Mabuza 29 Sim-Rejected Hlongwane 30 Airtime Zwelithini 31 Internet Mthethwa 32 Server Mkhize --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "mobile-society" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mobile-society?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
