Nigerian Last Names

A selection by a written rule, built on 2 October 2026 and cut back on 3 October 2026 to the names whose meaning a dictionary or a cited source carries. Nigeria publishes no count of surnames, so nothing here says how common a name is. 66 names come from English Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:Yoruba_surnames, 108 entries, and one Igbo entry; CC BY-SA 4.0): the card quotes the literal meaning the entry gives, and shows the entry's spelling beside a plain spelling made by dropping its marks; where the entry's headword doubles a vowel that the usual spelling does not (Ogunbiyi, Esubiyi, Kehinde), the card uses the other form the entry lists. Two entries that are both written Muyiwa in English make one card. 88 names come from English Wikipedia: an article in the categories 'Yoruba-language surnames', 'Igbo-language surnames' or 'Surnames of Nigerian origin' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Surnames_of_Nigerian_origin) whose opening calls the name a surname or family name, names its language and gives a meaning in quotation marks, where a second source carries that meaning. For 57 of them the article itself cites it: a dictionary of names (https://www.yorubaname.com or https://www.myigboname.com), a printed dictionary or book, or another reference. For the other 31 the article cites nothing usable, and the name's own entry in one of the two name dictionaries gives the same sense. The card quotes the meaning as the article prints it, and the spelling with tone marks is the one the article prints in bold, where it has one. On 3 October the name's own entry in one of the two name dictionaries was opened for all 88, the nine cited only to a book among them, and gives the same sense; the printed books were not opened. Taken off on 3 October: 25 names whose meaning neither a usable citation nor a name dictionary carries; Anyanwu, Obiora and Okunlola, whose cited entry gives another meaning; Ayanbadejo, whose citation is for a shorter name; Soyinka and Ajayi, whose two sources disagree; Alaba and Olugbodi, whose dictionary entry gives the meaning only as possible or probable; and Nwosu and Osuji, whose meanings describe a custom and cite nothing. The three Hausa names went with them, and Agada and Ocheja, the last two names from other languages, were taken off too (one citation for two languages), so the list holds Yoruba and Igbo names only. Balarabe had been taken off on 2 October (its article derives the meaning itself), with fifteen others whose quoted words were only part of the meaning, belonged to another language, or were unkind. A meaning that names God, Ifá, Ògún or another deity is printed as its source gives it. An opening such as Ade- is marked only where the name is spelled with it and the quoted meaning has its word (crown or royalty for Ade-, Ògún, with or without its marks, for Ogun-, wealth or honor for Ola-, valor or the brave one for Akin-). No speaker of Yoruba or Igbo has read the list. Licence: Drawn from English Wikipedia and English Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). The selection is our own work.