Church challenges parents to give their children meaningful names

A person’s name isn’t everything, but it is something they will have for the rest of their lives. Of recent naming has become a challenge with parents not doing enough research on the meaning of names they prefer to their children.

Rev. Can Moses Banja the Head of Baptism at St. Paul’s Cathedral Namirembe says it’s unfortunate that some parents give names to their children that will have everlasting side effects on their life in future.

The issue of naming in Africa had roots in culture where parents believed that honoring their elders can be done by naming children after them. However, this tradition seems to be slowly falling by the wayside.

Rev. Can Moses Banja also notes that some parents have even reached an extent of naming their children after prominent places, football teams, types of cars among other but is advising them to give names that contain blessings.

In a baptism service held at Namirembe on Boxing Day, some of the parents were tasked to explain the meaning of the names that they have preferred to their children after one of them had preferred a Muslim name to her child.

In the same vein, Canon Banja also explained the meaning of baptism as it’s an initiation into the church of Christ.

In the boxing day service held at St. Paul’s Cathedral Namirembe led by the dean of Namirembe Rev. Canon Benon Kityo, 103 children were baptized.