Who named slaves and their children? Names and naming practices among enslaved Africans brought to the Americas and their descendants with focus on Brazil

The aim of the paper is to discuss names and naming practices among Africans and their descendants in slave societies in the Americas and to present a brief overview of naming systems among these groups in colonial as well as modern Brazil. Data from previous research on names and naming practices in a number of slave societies in the Americas constitute the point of departure for discussing who named enslaved Africans and their sons and daughters, in order to provide an overview of the different types of names that have been registered for such groups, and to comment on how these names may have been chosen and used, as well as how they reflect power relations and express resistance. The paper shows that owners were not always the name-givers of slaves and that, although African names are rare in historical records, modern naming practices may still include components of African origins and evoke memories of collective experiences.