Yoruba Name Documentation Project

Yoruba Name Documentation Project is an online database of Yoruba names, located at www.YorubaName.com. It was launched on February 19, 2016.[1]

Origin

According to the project lead and curator, linguist Kola Tubosun, the project was first conceived in 2005 as an undergraduate thesis in the Department of Linguistics and African Language, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. At the time, the database only curated about 1000 names on a compact disk, with meaning and pronunciation.

In January, 2015, over $5000 was raised via a successful Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign[2] to support some infrastructural elements, and the project was retooled as a crowdsourcing effort to document all the names of Yoruba people in Nigeria and all over the world.

Aims

The project is proposed as a crowdsourced database gathering information about Yoruba names everywhere (in Nigeria and elsewhere on the globe). Individuals and users will be able to submit their name on the website or use the current database to search for meanings of other specific names.

It also aims at bringing together a community of interested linguists and other culture enthusiasts to document the African cultural and linguistic experience on the web, and to facilitate the use of the Internet as a means of better representing this experience.

Project Advancement

The project was launched online in its beta version on February 19, 2016.[3] The project's blog[4] is used to communicate information about the goings-on behind the scenes.
On August 8, 2015, the project released Yorùbá Keyboard layouts for Mac and Windows to allow its users type in Yorùbá in anticipation of the dictionary itself.[5]

Team

The project is led and curated by writer and linguist Kola Tubosun [6] who was a 2009 Fulbright scholar at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and the 2016 winner of the Premio Ostana International Prize for Mother Tongue Literature.[7] [8] He is supported by a small team of web developers, lexicographers, and web designers.[9][10] Other members of the team include Dadepo Aderemi, Laila Le Guen, Koko Godswill, Esther Olatunde, among many others.

Response

The Yoruba Name project has received positive response and support during its start-up phase, ranging from interviews in prominent publications[11][12][13] to an endorsement from renowned Nigerian film producer Tunde Kelani wearing the site branded T-shirt. The homepage of the dictionary currently features a quote by the current Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi.

References

  1. ↑ Launch of Yoruba Names Dictionary: Kola Tubosun Speaks
  2. ↑ Indiegogo Funding Page
  3. ↑ Yorubaname.com goes live, to preserve and document all Yorùbá names
  4. ↑ Yorubaname Blog
  5. ↑ Yorùbá Keyboard Layouts for Mac and Windows
  6. ↑ Kola Tubosun at KTravula.com
  7. ↑ Nigerian linguist, Túbọ̀sún, emerges first African to win Premio Ostana Award for Scriptures
  8. ↑ SIUE Alum First African to Win International Award
  9. ↑ Kola Tubosun, the man behind YorubaName.com shows us the future
  10. ↑ YorubaName.com Team Members
  11. ↑ Global Press Journal Interview of Yorubaname, GlobalPressJournal
  12. ↑ This day culture Export, Thisdaylive
  13. ↑ Online Dictionary Helps Nigerians Decode Their Names, Voice of America
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