This pancocojams post showcases Fanta Diop's 2014 YouTube "African Name Tag" vlog (video blog).
Additional information about the African given name "Fanta" is included in the Addendum to this post.
The content of this post is presented for linguistic, cultural, and educational purposes.
All copyright remain with their owners.
Thanks to Fanta Diop for this African Name Tag video and thanks to all others who are quoted in this post.
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Click for the related 2013 pancocojams post "Alpha Blondy - Sweet Fanta Diallo (videos, lyrics & other information)" http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/05/alpha-blondy-sweet-fanta-diallo-videos.html
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SHOWCASE VIDEO: African Name Tag
Fanta Diop, Published on Oct 8, 2014
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Fanta Diop begins her video by giving a shout out to the vlogger (video blogger)
Abigail Kwakye, who started the "African Name Tag" (October 2, 2014). Here's a link to that video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmTSrXW0ykU.
Here are some points that I wrote down from this video (with longer direct quotes given as blockquotes)
Fanta Diop said that she has dual identity/dual citizenship (Later in the video she explains that her mother is Akan from Ghana/Nigeria and her father is from the "far west in North Africa"). She therefore has two versions of her name that are written differently (one in Arabic and one in "normal letters":)
The vlogger includes screen captions for the two versions of her name. Both of these versions are written in Latin (Roman) script.
Version #1 [given on the left hand side of the screen] -"Fantagiaah Farahanna Brou Diop"
Version #2 [given on the right hand side of the screen] - "Fanta Diop".
For both of these versions, her pronunciation of "Diop" and the caption for her last name "Diop" is "Dee-op".
Starting at .057 to 1:32 this video blogger provides some information about the origins of her names:
"Fantagiaah" and "Farahanna" are Berber and Hassiniyan names". Oh by the way, when I say "Berber", I'm referring to south of Morocco and Mauritania.
“Fanta", in general, is a Fulani, Peul, Fulfulde, Sakole, Bambara, Malinke, Mandinka.[name]
"Brou" is a Ghanaian, Ivorian, I would say Akan, Akan name.
"Diop" is Senegalese, Mauritanian [name].
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Around 1:48 -The vlogger provides further explanations about the meaning of her names:
Fanta" = "beautiful"
In certain Berber languages "Fanta" means "beauty" or "beautiful."
"Ag-iaah" = "Queen" (or "leader")
[Thus] "Fantagiaah" means "beautiful queen".
[...]
In Arabic "Farahanna" means "happiness" ("joy" etc but in Mande, Malinke, Sarkole, Hausa it means [the following]:
Farah= "skin"
Henna= "diversity" ("mixture")
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The word "Henna" is written with an accent mark over the "e".
[Thus] "Farahanna" means "mixed tribes", "mixed culture"
The vlogger said that she was given this name because "her mother is Akan (Ghana/Nigeria) ; her father is from the far west in North Africa."
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"Brou" means ten [tenth child]; She was given this name because she has nine siblings but she is the only child of her mother and father.
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[beginning at 3:03]:
“Then you get "Fanta". "Fanta" in Sarokole means “beautiful day” or "a good day".......
Among the Senegalese "Fanta" is another term for [the female names] "Fatima" or "Fatou".... It also has a meaning in Ethiopia."...
"Diop"- one side of the family believes it means reaching for something and the other side [of the family] believes it means “success”
Around 4:13- Fanta Diop also presents the theory that the name "Diop" comes from the Arabic letters “diaba” which created various words [which includes "Diop" and are written in a caption on the screen]. She then says "But I still doubt it though 'cause I just feel it's a little bit more African. But, again, what is "African", because if you know your history, you'd understand what I'm talking about."
4:30- Her favorite name is "Fanta" because different African languages have different pronunciations.
The Hassiniyans say "fah tah" means an opening, a start, a fresh new page. This is the same word [as the name "Fanta"] but it has a different pronunciation.-snip-
The French Ivorians would say "Fountah".
And then my Bambarian people who say "Fahntah".
These are my phonetic approximations of how she said that name is pronounced by that culture/language group.]
Here's some information about these three cultures/language groups:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassaniya_Arabic
"Hassānīya (Arabic: حسانية Ḥassānīya; also known as Hassaniyya, Klam El Bidan, Hasanya, Hassani, Hassaniya) is a variety of Maghrebi Arabic. It was spoken by the Bani Ḥassān Bedouin tribes, who extended their authority over most of Mauritania and Morocco's southeastern and Western Sahara between the 15th and 17th centuries. Hassaniya Arabic was the language spoken in the pre-modern region around Chinguetti.
The language has now almost completely replaced the Berber language that was originally spoken in this region. Although clearly a western dialect, Hassānīya is relatively distant from other Maghrebi variants of Arabic. Its geographical location exposed it to influence from Zenaga-Berber and Wolof. There are several dialects of Hassānīya which differ primarily phonetically. Today, Hassānīya is spoken in Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Senegal and the Western Sahara.[3]"
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"French Ivorians" - French speaking people in The Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire).
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"Bambarians" = people who speak "Bambara".
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bambara_language
"Bambara is a variety of a group of closely related languages called Manding, whose native speakers trace their cultural history to the medieval Mali Empire.[3] Varieties of Manding are generally considered (among native speakers) to be mutually intelligible – dependent on exposure or familiarity with dialects between speakers – and spoken by 30 to 40 million people in the countries Burkina Faso, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Liberia, Ivory Coast and the Gambia.[4] Manding is part of the larger Mandé family of languages."...
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ADDENDUM- ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE GIVEN NAME "FANTA"
From https://www.behindthename.com/name/fanta/submitted
"Submitted names are contributed by users of this website. The accuracy of these name definitions cannot be guaranteed.
Given Name FANTA
GENDER: Feminine & Masculine
USAGE: African, Eastern African, Western African [Pancocojams Editor: Please read my comment about this usage.]
OTHER FORMS: Fantaye
CONTRIBUTOR: anonymous on 5/17/2011
LAST EDITOR: Frollein Gladys on 12/8/2014
Meaning & History
Mande form of Fatima.
This name is borne by Fanta Damba (1938-), a Malian jalimuso (Bambara female Griot-singer). This is also the middle name of Estelle (1980-), an English musician "born of a Senegalese mother and a Grenadian father".
In The Book of African Names (1991), linguist Molefi Asante lists Fanta as a Western African masculine name meaning "beautiful day".
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For the record, given what I've read online thus far, the Usage section above incorrectly indicate that the given name "Fanta" comes from Eastern Africa. From what I've read, the name "Fanta" comes from the Mande speaking people of West Africa.
Also, from what I've read online thus far, contrary to (African American) Molefi Asante's statement that "Fanta" is a masculine name, it appears that there are far more females with that name than males.
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The “beautiful day” meaning for the name “FANTA” is found in a number of websites including this one http://africanholocaust.net/african-girl-names/#f
"FANTA : Guinea and Cote D’Ivoire name meaning “beautiful day.” "
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For the record, "Fanta", the brand name for a carbonated Coca-Cola soft drink is said to have been derived from the word "fantasy" and not from the African female name that is spelled the same way (and at least in the United States, pronounced the same way that that given name is pronounced - in my experience, anyway).
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanta
"Fanta... is a brand of fruit-flavored carbonated drinks created by The Coca-Cola Company and marketed globally. There are more than 100 flavors worldwide. The Fanta drink originated as a cola substitute in Germany under a World War II trade embargo for Coca-Cola ingredients in 1940.
History
75th anniversary release of Fanta in Germany
During WWII, a trade embargo was established against Nazi Germany – making the import of Coca-Cola syrup difficult. [1] To circumvent this, Max Keith, the head of Coca-Cola Deutschland (Coca-Cola GmbH) decided to create a new product for the German market, using only ingredients available in Germany at the time, including whey and apple pomace—the "leftovers of leftovers", as Keith later recalled.[1][2] The name was the result of a brief brainstorming session, which started with Keith's exhorting his team to "use their imagination" (Fantasie in German), to which one of his salesmen, Joe Knipp, immediately retorted "Fanta!"[2]....
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