THE birth of a baby brings joy and excitement to the entire members of the family and the community at large. The birth then leads to the naming ceremony when names will be given to the new baby. Names are generally given depending on the circumstances of the birth of the baby, the belief and the vocation of the baby's family.Ile-Ife in historyIle-Ife, the ancient Yoruba city is strategically located in the centre of Yoruba speaking people of south-western Nigeria. The city occupies a meeting point between the deciduous forest of southern Nigeria and Guinea Savannah to the North. According to Yoruba mythology, Ile-Ife was the first of creation on earth and Oduduwa was the progenitor of the Yoruba race. The mythology acclaimed him as the great one from whom human existence originated. Ile-Ife is the cradle of the Yoruba, a town where other Yoruba migrated from at different times.The people of Ile-Ife are predominately farmers and are endowed with unique cultural heritage. Ile-Ife comprises four local governments and one area office namely, Ife Central, Ife East, Ife North, Ife South and Ife area office. These local councils are distributed over 41 towns and villages.AS mentioned earlier, Ile-Ife comprises of different towns, and these towns have different clans with diverse belief systems. In some cases, before the birth of a child, Ifa oracle would have been consulted to foretell the destiny of the unborn child.The information obtained could determine the name of the child. Each compound has its own belief when naming a new baby. They all perform naming ceremony, though the process may vary from one compound to another.The following items are compulsory for the traditional naming ceremony not only in Ile-Ife, but in all Yoruba speaking towns: salt, honey, alligator pepper, Kola nut, water, and palm oil.Naming ceremony cannot be possible without marriage, conception and birth of a child. Naming of a baby out of wedlock where the father of the baby is not known, the girl's father will name the baby just for identification purpose, because this is an antithesis to the culture of the people. The naming ceremony will not be elaborate as that of a genuine marriage. Or where the man accepts the baby, the baby will be taken to the man's house for naming, nothing is attached to it, it's just for the baby to bear the father's name and if they have Oro ile (family belief), it will be performed for the baby.Naming ceremony of a new born baby takes place 6th, 7th, 8th or 9th day after the birth of the baby, depending on the sex of the baby, 7 days for a girl, 8 or 9 days for a boy, but in an exceptional cases, the 6th day naming ceremony is done for both sexes.The kind of name to be given depends on the circumstances of birth of the baby. The name that will be given to a new born baby will be handed over to the oldest person in the family by the father of the new born baby, but will not be announced until the day of the naming ceremony and the items that will be used must be present depending on the compound (Agbole).For examples, in Ajigbona family in Ife Central, the following items must be present: salt, honey, knife, rope, adun (maize paste), water, needle, otutu oponyo (small bead join together with a raffia), itan etu gbigbe (roasted antelope thigh), isu (fresh yam), epo (palm oil), orogbo (bitter kola), obi abata (kola nut), atare (Alligator peper). All the family members will be seated, the baby's name will be announced and the procession will follow.The items will be picked one after the other and pronouncing it along side with the baby's name, while prayer is offered.For instance, Iyo (salt) aiye ani yo); Oyin (honey), aiye re aloyin; Omi (water) omi labu mu, omi la bu we aki bomisota, omi oonipa lori; Obe (knife) tinu ba bie, oni mu Obe, ko para re (Under any circumstance, you won't pick knife to stab yourself); okun (rope) if calamities befall you, or disappointment or get annoyed, you won't hang yourself.Thereafter, the remaining items ' fresh yam and Etu (dry antelope) will be shared among the attendants. The knife will be used to cut the yam for all at the ceremony, but the 'etu' dry antelope must be shared with hand into pieces for all. They will take the yam home, roast and eat with the palm oil and antelope 'that day'.Apart from the water used for blessing the baby, another pot of water is set aside for the attendants to drop the gift (money) for the baby.In Otigun compound, Akui, early in the morning of the ceremony day, the new baby will be given Ate (Egunsi soup without pepper, salt and oil) to taste as family rituals. The item used were iyo (salt), oyin (honey), omi (water).Shortly after the baby's name has been announced, the baby will be carried outside by the oldest man in the family, he will be saying, Ejo wole ejo jade (snake comes in, snake goes out) while going in and out of the hall with the baby three times for both sex. Failure to do this, it is believed that calamities will befall the baby. At times, the ritual is performed before the naming proper.In Tewogbade compound, Arubidi, apart from the name that will be given the baby, a compound name must be given to him/her.In the case of first child, a compound name is compulsory. For example, In Iji (whirl wind) compound, such names as Ijiwoye, Jiwumi will be given to children from this family.Types of namesNew babies are given different names by different people at the occasion. Such names can be categorized as Oruko amu to run wa (natural), or those that have religious connotation, and family background.The birth of some babies brings about the name to be given (name are said to be given in heaven), for instance, Oke ' the baby was inside a sack when he or she was born; Olugbodi (with six fingers); Aina, Ige (when the two legs come out first); Taiye, Kehinde (twin); Idowu, Alaba, for children given birth to after twins.The Yoruba believe in re-incantation thus Babatunde, Iyabode, Yetunde are names given to a baby born immediately after the death of the baby's grandfather or mother.Royal family names start with Ade as this is Yoruba word for crown worn by traditional rulers in Yoruba-land. Children born to families who have drumming as vocation has Ayan as prefix to their names for example Ayanwale, Ayanjide, Ayankunle. Devotees of Ogun, god of iron among the Yoruba have Ogun as prefix to their names, for example, Ogungbemi, Ogunwale among others.Naming ceremony is well celebrated and considered very important in Ile-Ife and other Yoruba speaking settlements.Through these names, the people's worldview could be explored and the circumstances of birth of the child being named are known. Despite modernisation and Christianity, Ife people still preserve the age-long practice of naming their children traditionally.'Olajiga discussed this topic with the National Museum Study Group, Port Harcourt, recently
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