Paper short abstract:

Name-giving implies defining the personality or identity of someone. Our first name may originate in historical, biblical or modern sources. Forenames in Angola are connected to the history of the country, family contexts and language co-existence.

Paper long abstract:

The term anthroponimy is formed by anthropos, meaning man, and nymia, meaning name. it corresponds literally to the expression “name of man”. In a general sense it also means the treaty of first names, given names, surnames.

Angolan Anthroponomy is strongly connected to the Portuguese counterpart. Such influence started from the beginning of colonization, with the support of evangelization which was a practice that started with the Portuguese presence (Costa, Teresa, 2013:41). Forenames in Angola are given according to circumstances that involve family, societal factors, the history of the country, globalization, and also economy. Teresa Costa (2013:41) says: "[...] em Angola, quase todos os nomes tradicionais têm um significado e estes são postos em harmonia com certas circunstâncias ocorridas antes, durante ou depois do nascimento da criança e que tais circunstâncias têm a ver com a família ou até com a sociedade em que a criança nasce e vive".

Names should be selected according to each reality and culture. In this paper we will elaborate on this topic focusing in the case of Angola and particularly in Luanda. Our main objective is to understand situations and the contexts of name-giving.