African Names
I notice the WIDE variety of names in the check boxes, a great number of countries are listed, AMAZING! But..Why for do you have AFRICAN listed, Africa is not a country.... It is a continent. The Largest continent. There are THOUSANDS of resources where one can find names and their history and the countries of origin. They differ in so many different ways, there are 53 countries to choose from! I would like to pat you on the back for even INCLUDING Africa, but now, its time to step up your game! Thanks for your time!Balla Fasseke
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You wrote: There are THOUSANDS of resources where one can find names and their history and the countries of origin.You mean, free online resources about African names, of good quality and with reliable information, readable also for people like me who unfortunately do not happen to speak African languages?If yes, I would very much like to learn about the best ones from the multitude that you say there is.If you read some scepticism between my lines: Yes, there is, I have searched for such resources myself in the past, without much success. But on the other hand, I don't know much about Africa, that might be why.
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Ditto!If we could find really great resources online you would see more African subtypes and more names added to the database. Unfortunately, like many other categories of names, this is difficult. Try looking up the hundreds of dialects of Native Alaskan names and then finding the names to put in the database when many of them died out with Russian and Canadian populization.
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I am interested in African names. too. How many distinct languages would that include?

This message was edited 12/7/2014, 3:21 PM

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Depending on how you differentiate between languages and dialects, there are estimated to be between 1,500 and 2000 African languages.This is possibly why, on the site, the African names are split into only twelve different sections under the four main sections of Eastern Africa, Northern Africa, Southern and Western.2000 separate sections would be so many...
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I agree... it would be hard to classify all of the African names by region or language. Especially since many names are cross-cultural in parts of Africa. I think it is a good project to work on, but would take a very long time. We have to remember that dialects are everywhere. There are several in almost every country and to distinguish each name by its specific region is a huge undertaking. I think it would be nice for BtN to have more information on names in little-known languages or regions, but understand the size of the task. I also want to note that many of the details listed in the descriptions of names clue us in to the region or dialectof a name, without having to create groups for categories which may only have a few names for now. To the original poster: This would be a situation in which you, as someone who may know about names originating in Africa, should contribute a name that can be reviewed and incorporated into the main database.
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