There is more to your name than you realize.

You ever heard that naija saying that is basically a build up on the saying 'Dress how you want to be addressed'? You know the one abi?
... Packaging is everything.
There's basically a lot that goes into packaging. How you dress, talk and carry your self but one of the very essentials of 'packaging' that everyone is consciously or subconsciously unaware of is Naming - or precisely put, a Good Name. Some even believe a good name follows you.

Mostly, people take time out to consider good naming conventions when they are looking to register or go into a business but when it comes to naming their kid(s) they tend to get a tad lazy or repetitive. No joke, i once had the (dis)pleasure of meeting a woman with two daughters named Beyonce and Shakira. I already feel a little sad for the girls and all the puns/jokes they'd be subjected to in the near future thanks to their parents. I guess both parents are huge fans of Beautiful Liar or was it Hips don't lie ..pardon me, i have my Beyonce/Shakira duets a little crisscrossed but you get the gist. Hell, if they were not cute cuddly kids, i had a ton of jokes i could have shared at their expense but they are only victims of Trace and MTV obsessed parents so i just looked at the mom, made the sign of the cross, and went on my merry way.

Believe it or not, there is a whole lot to a name. People without knowing the first thing about you start to build assumptions and impressions thanks to your name. Your hobbies, your household and possibly even acquaintances just from a name.  I reckon somewhere in there is what birthed the saying "Do not tarnish the family name". Although,
technically speaking, that's the last name, i'm talking the first name here. You cannot blame a guy who sets out to tarnish his family name because they (his parents) went and saddled him with a name like Tanko or worse Frikpong. (no offense to anyone bearing those names i promise)

Back in the day, i had a classmate named Piccolo. Who gives a child a name that basically says i'll excel as a Cultist or bank robber when i get older? Or this girl i share a mutual acquaintance with that changed her name to Barbie Candy from Ekaette. Ekaette i'm certain culturally holds grand meanings in Calabar, but through time has come to be synonymous with that house girl that offers  "special services" to Oga (thanks to Nollywood). Barbie Candy on the other hand screams posh. It mostly says....wait.... now that i think about it, Barbie Candy is even worse than Ekaette. That's like American Nom de guerre for - pole dancer by night and house girl by day. Well you get my point right? Which brings me to..You do not need to package your kids in Yankee sounding names for them to sound posh. If you must know, even Yankee folk fall victim of crap naming. Take Danny Drinkwater for example. But make we leave the Yankees to the Yankees.
Naija still boasts a bevvy of beautiful, meaningful and exotic sounding names even. Take Muese for instance, a lovely name that means "I praise", then there's Ifeoluwa meaning "love of God" or Kamsiyochukwu which means the "eye of God" and could be interpreted as "someone dear to God" to mention a few.
The problem with us is that we sabi localize even our local names. Take Shakirat for example. Locally, in Lagos, they call the girls bearing this name 'Shaki' or 'Sakee' (imagine a very Yoruba person screaming it) or Mutiat they shorten to 'Muti' (Fun Fact: Mutiat is the name of one of the members of UK girl Group Sugar Babes. You should hear the exotic way it's pronounced). Then there's Chiwetel Ejiofor. There's exactly two ways that name can roll off the tongue. Either sounding like an Alaba market spare part dealer or a Hollywood star.

A good name is part of the entire package. I'd even go as far as to say a good name advertises the package or gives a preview of what the package is all about. The package in this argument being you, me and the kids to come. Abeg, lets learn to package properly in every sense of the word otherwise, there's going to be a wide adoption of Elsa, Rihanna or worse ones than Barbie Candy. Though After all is said and done it's not just about the good sounding names but about a good name, in character, in speech and in who we become like our Holy Book put it a "good name is better than great riches".