“Many Google searches around Yorùbá names emanate from future parents who are looking for a beautiful name for their child, a name that will reflect their values and their personal journey to parenthood. One such couple reached out to us a few days ago, sharing their story of cross-cultural love and their desire to find a unique combination of names representing all of their child’s heritage.

Read on to find out if you can help them on their quest for the perfect Yorùbá name!

Obi and Tọ́lá* spent nearly their whole lives in the UK and moved to Lagos a few years ago to pursue career opportunities. 2015 has brought the couple wonderful news: they’re expecting their first child! Like any parents-to-be, they are faced with many decisions, one of them being the choice of their child’s name. The baby’s gender isn’t known yet but Obi and Tọ́lá have already made up their minds about one thing: his or her names will be a compound of Obi’s Igbo and Tọ́lá’s Yorùbá culture.

After much online searching, Obi and Tọ́lá haven’t quite come across the kind of Yorùbá name they’re seeking…The YorubaName dictionary hasn’t officially launched yet but that doesn’t mean we can’t help them find a great name!

Here are some of the criteria your suggested name(s) should meet:

• Easy to pronounce. Though both parents speak their respective languages, they weren’t exposed to enough Yorùbá and Igbo to be able to master every single sound and they find longer, more complicated names difficult to pronounce. The name shouldn’t include any ‘gb’ sound, lest aunties spend a great many hours correcting the parents on the pronunciation of their own child’s name!
• Straighforward spelling
• Not so long that it would be routinely shortened
• Ideally an uncommon name. Avoid beginnings such as Olú… Olúwa… Adé… Bàbá etc.
• Obi and Tọ́lá are not keen on names referring to wealth, or focusing on the parents’ life, feelings and struggles. They would like a name whose theme solely celebrates their baby.

In case some more background might help you find inspiration, you should know that both parents are Christians and that the baby is going to be the first grandchild on the mother’s side and the third on the father’s side. If a girl, the baby will be the first female grandchild in the family.

Crowdsourcing a name is so 2016! Send your name ideas to project@yorubaname.com, message us on our Facebook page or tweet us @yorubanames. You can also drop your comments below. Thanks in advance for all your contributions!

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* To preserve the couple’s privacy, we didn’t use their real names.

Update 03/06/2016: Obi and Tọ́lá’s little girl was born a few days ago. They chose the name Tiwanìfẹ́ “Ours is love”.