What's in a Name?

Noodles. Cheeks. Cheesecake. What do these three things have in common? 

They are a few nicknames I had as a child. There are several stories behind each nickname, but I will only share one. One of my friends gave me the nickname "Cheeks" because I had huge chubby cheeks! 

Little Leah aka "Cheeks" 

I'm sure you are wondering what this has to do with Gullah Geechee people. Well, let me share the story of how I learned this was all connected! 

Sierra Leone + Gullah People 

The Friday of the Gullah Festival was workshop day for me. I  decided I would sit through a variety of presentations on the History of Gullah Geechee people, the Gullah language, the cultural connections to Africa, and the origins of the festival.  Sweaty, dehydrated, and wiping residual crust from our eyes from the early morning wake up, James (the husband) and I slipped into the back pew of the church to catch the end of the presentation about Barbados and the cultural connection with the Gullah people.  One  woman from the audience asked, "how do we continue this conversation about the African connection and the Gullah culture?" I made an internal gasp of surprise/excitement because people were asking these kinds of questions (yay!).   As we transitioned to the next workshop titled "The Sierra Leone Connection", I rummaged through my bag to grab a pen and notebook so that I could jot down every nugget of knowledge the presenter shared.  The first thing the speaker mentioned was the slave castle in Sierra Leone, Brunce Island.  I have to admit this was news to me. Yes, I knew there were more slave castles but for some reason, Sierra Leone wasn't one of the places I thought about. Brunce island brought over 30,000 slaves to the Americas (insert shocked face emoji), and according to the speaker,  over 40% of slaves from the transatlantic slave trade was brought to South Carolina. 

Speaker for Sierra Leone Presentation

As the speaker continued to drop these knowledge nuggets, I remember hearing "oh" or a "wow" every now and then. I had a few of those moments myself, especially when he said something about basket names.   He said people in Sierra Leone used basket names and so did Gullah people; this was one of many things  Sierra Leone and Gullah Geechee had in common, basket names. 

My first thought was what's a basket name? I tried to lean in to see if I could learn the meaning from context but I had no luck in that department. This left me with the only other option, pulling out good ole google again.   

Basket names = nicknames or names used for private use only or day names. (Source: The Gullah people and their African Heritage by William Pollitizer)  

The speaker mentioned that the basket name is sometimes inserted in the middle of a person's name, so like Leah "Noodle" Rapley.  I am not sure if I used it properly, but he said this is what people do to names both in Sierra Leone culture and Gullah Geechee Culture.

Naming 

Naming is a cultural practice in Africa that African slaves carried with them to the countries they were brought to. During slavery, it was common to have a given name (given by the slave owner) and a name by the community, family, or the village. (Source: Africanisms in American Culture edited by Joseph E Holloway)

Much like African Americans today, we all have a family member whose nickname is  "Re Re" or "Tre" or "Pumpkin" or some other nickname that repeats a two letter word, but at work, they are called their government name.  In other words, we have a given name and a community name.  

For Gullah people, the basket names are African names. These names' meanings can relate to the day, month, time of year the person was born, how the person entered the world during birth, or a characteristic of the person. Gullah basket names may relate to animals as well, and in some cases, the names may have a  spiritual meaning. It is believed a parent's spirit could live on within a child so in Gullah culture, it is common to have generations of children with the same name as an ancestor. 

So what's the story behind your name/nickname? 

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Here's a little snippet of the workshop highlighting  another connection to Sierra Leone