The most popular Shona male anthroponyms

Abstract

This paper focuses on identifying the most popular male Shona names widely used in Zimbabwe by Shona speakers. It proceeds to establish the meanings attached to the identified most popular male Shona names. Nine semi-structured interview questions were used to gather data from five hundred male and female respondents aged above eighteen years. It emerges that the most popular male anthroponyms amongst the Shona-speaking female respondents are mostly unisex, acceptable, accommodative, conciliatory and subtle. Conversely, instances also abound from male respondents that male first names are laden with frustrations and gloomy representative of the context that gave rise to particular names.