View Message

I'm breaking my own rule here - seems I'm forever telling people how big Africa is and that it's impossible to generalise from one valley or hillside to another, let alone from far West to total South - but I wouldn't be surprised if Mama Siah was indeed named after her mum.

---

I worked at a local university, and in the Personnel department was a woman whose ln I forget, but it was a totally mainstream one. The list of contact numbers helpfully provided both her given names, and they are Granny Ouma, Ouma being Afrikaans for Granny - pronounced OH-ma. We used to joke behind her back that she must have been named after both grandmothers. And it was really bizarre to see older colleagues, on the brink of retirement, addressing a chick in her late 20s, early 30s as Granny.

Bravo for getting the whole family's names! Fascinating. Is he always Semantics, or is it ever shortened? It doesn't seem like something you could shorten without ruining it somehow.

So interesting! I saw you post this on FB and was like... really?! But seeing it all laid out here it really is actually pretty cool in context. Semantics Jeremiah is just amazing. I dig offbeat Puritan sounding things.

Jeremiah and Jemima sound like they could be twins! The names match incredibly well. Semantics is certainly a unique nick name; perhaps someone in the family was a linguist? I feel sorry for Mama Siah. I wouldn't want to be called Mama unless I was one, and it was my child addressing me.