Intergenerational Transmission of Igala Naming Practices amid Religious and Educational Change

Abstract

Abstract Personal naming among the Igala people of Kogi State has long functioned as a repository of ancestral memory, theological conviction and linguistic artistry, yet this inheritance now confronts the twin pressures of religious conversion and Western-style schooling, a tension this paper examined under the title Intergenerational Transmission of Igala Naming Practices amid Religious and Educational Change. The paper pursued three objectives, namely to establish the extent to which elders transmit the meanings, structure and ceremonial procedures of indigenous names within the family, to assess the influence of religious affiliation on the choice between indigenous and foreign names, and to determine the effect of formal education on younger Igala persons' competence in the Igala language and their consequent capacity to reproduce indigenous naming forms. Socio-onomastic theory provided the guiding framework, treating naming as a form of social action shaped by its surrounding conditions. A systematic review methodology, structured according to the PRISMA reporting guideline, was adopted to identify, screen and synthesise relevant scholarly sources. The review found that ceremonial transmission persists procedurally while interpretive competence increasingly concentrates among elders, that religious affiliation produces substitution, hybrid and demotion patterns in naming choice rather than a single uniform effect, and that English-medium education measurably erodes the linguistic competence underlying indigenous naming. The paper concluded that the survival of Igala naming as a living rather than ceremonial practice depends on reconciling religious and educational institutions with indigenous linguistic continuity, and recommended explanatory naming ceremonies, hybrid naming dialogue with religious leaders, and curriculum-based Igala language instruction. Keywords: Igala, Naming Practices, Intergenerational Transmission, Religious Affiliation, Formal Education