Taiwo

History & meaning

Taiwo is one of the very few names in the world that is settled before the child is. Among the Yoruba, any baby who is the first of twins to be delivered is Taiwo — boy or girl, no discussion, no alternative under consideration. The name is a sentence worn smooth by use: tọ́ ayé wò, taste the world and see, contracted through Táyéwò to Táíwò. Every piece of it is still visible if you slow down: the verb of tasting, the noun for the world, the verb of looking.

The errand is the whole point. In the Yoruba reading, the twin who comes out first did not push to the front; he was sent. The one still waiting inside dispatched him to sample the world and report whether it is fit to live in. That makes Taiwo the scout and the junior of the pair, and Kehinde, who arrives afterwards, the elder who gave the order. Western readers almost always guess it the other way round. There is a reason the system is this developed: Yoruba communities record one of the highest twinning rates measured anywhere, several times the European figure, and the town of Igbo-Ora in Oyo State advertises itself as the twin capital of the world. Researchers have proposed a diet heavy in a local yam variety; the cause has never been settled. Twins, called ìbejì, are held to be under the protection of the thunder deity Ṣàngó, and a household with them is a household with standing.

Why parents choose it

Strictly, they do not choose it — they receive it. What families outside Nigeria decide is whether to keep the custom, and many diaspora parents do, because a pair of names that announces itself as a pair is exactly what twins need. It helps that Taiwo is easy on English mouths: two beats, open vowels, no consonant cluster, and it spells itself on the first attempt.

Middle names for Taiwo

Nigerian birth records usually carry three or four names at once — an English or Arabic name alongside one or more Yoruba clauses — so the middle slot is where families keep the rest of the story rather than an afterthought. Taiwo Emmanuel, Taiwo Olumide, Taiwo Daniel and Taiwo Alexander all give the light first name something to lean on. The middle names guide sets out the method.

Famous Taiwos

Taiwo Awoniyi is the Nigeria international striker who has led the line for Union Berlin and Nottingham Forest. Taiwo Ajai-Lycett, born in 1941, is one of Nigeria's most decorated stage and screen actresses, and Taiwo Owatemi has sat in the British Parliament for Coventry North West since 2019. Both of the latter are women, which is the clearest evidence available that the twin names attach to birth order and not to sex.

Consider instead

If you are naming one twin you are naming two, so Kehinde comes with the territory. Idowu is the fixed name for the child born next after twins, and worth knowing before it arrives. Babajide, "father has woken and returned", is another Yoruba name conferred by circumstance rather than picked from a list.