Nelson Mandela died (5/12/2013)

His Xhosa first name was Rolihlahla.
He was often addressed as Madiba (his clan name) as a sign of respect.
"On my first day of school my teacher, Miss Mdingane, gave each of us an English name, and said that thenceforth that was the name we would answer to in school....[She] told me that my new name was Nelson..."
This reminded me of the story of Yat Hang Mew. When I was growing up in Vancouver, we knew him as Angus Leung, proprietor of Varsity Produce, the local greengrocer. He came to Canada from south China in the 1920s, aged 15. Laws respecting Chinese immigration were getting more restrictive, so he had to pretend to be the son of a family friend who was already resident, and assumed his surname (Leung). He was sent to an English language class. "I wanted to learn English...so I took the first seat in the first row, right up front....[The teacher said] 'I'm going to put a list of English names on the board, and I want each of you to pick one, then you'll have a name English people can remember.'...I thought 'I'm in the first seat in the first row, so I'll take the first name. Which was "Angus"."