DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2016.v04i03.018

Pages: 306-316

A number of research studies on the naming of different entities in the context of Zimbabwe have been carried out to date. The relationship between the names and the entities they refer to has largely been proved to be significant either as commentaries on the personality traits of the people or characteristics of the animals they refer to or as an expression of the aspirations, attitude or wishes of the namers. Notwithstanding the existence of these studies, studies that focus on the naming of special institutions for people living with disabilities in Zimbabwe are almost non-existent. Focusing on the naming of institutions established specifically for people living with disabilities and taking an ethnographic approach in which interviews and website analysis were carried out, this study demonstrates that special institutions have been named either after prominent personalities in the specific area of disability, after place names in which the institutions are situated and to reflect societal aspirations and attitudes. Most significant was the finding that the names of the institutions relate closely to societal ideology and attitudes towards disability. This study thus provides more evidence that naming patterns are a window through which specific societies view their environment and its vicissitudes.