ABSTRACT
The art of naming in Yorùbá societies is creative and dynamic. In it are sociological, religious, and political considerations that influence society and bearers of the names. This chapter examines how that culture has fared in the 20th and 21st centuries, particularly through the eyes of technology which has come to challenge the reliance on human memory and retrieval. Particularly in view is the online-based multimedia dictionary of Yorùbá names at YorubaName.com, the first of its kind, which seeks to become the ultimate repository of all past and future names in Yorùbá in globally accessible format, fitted with multimedia tools to replicate human transmission facilities. The chapter is both a personal story of the creator, the provenance of the web project itself, and how modern lexicography tools have come to serve the purpose of culture, history, and documentation.
