My name is Tinisha and my surname is Moodley. I was given this name by both of my parents. My mother and father loved the name Tinisha and my whole family loved my name. In my religion they have to organise a ceremony and the ceremony is called a naming ceremony. A priest has to come to do the rituals. When the prayer is going on the priests told my parents to say my name three times in my ears. And when they had done that the immediate family had to do the same thing.

My name has three different meanings in two different languages. And those two languages are Arabic and Swahili. In Arabic my name means ‘alive’ and ‘well’; in Swahili my name means ‘life’. I have a nickname and my nickname is Toon Toon. I was given this name by my sister. But until this day she did not tell me why she gave me the name Toon Toon.