This paper attempts a descriptive analysis of kgotla (court) and kgosi (king or chief) names in Setswana. The study uses a Botswana Names Corpus comprising over a million personal names which are analysed using lexical analysis software, Oxford Wordsmith Tools (version 6). The paper argues that the kgotla and kgosi names are fashioned by gendered spaces and power relations between men and women. The kgotla is a decision-making and a ritual male space while bogosi or chieftaincy is a hereditary political position that passes by birth to the eldest son of the senior wife. Because of such gendered spaces and positions, the study demonstrates that all kgotla and kgosi names amongst the Batswana are male names. The broader social discourse about the kgotla and the kgosi reflects a state in which women are marginalised from such traditional spaces and positions. They remain absent and silent as all the kgotla and kgosi names are male. The kgotla and kgosi names therefore reveal a culturally entrenched male subtext. The study also investigates how the personal names with kgotla and kgosi in their form reveal how Batswana interact with their immediate surroundings. The paper argues that the names under investigation are a mirror of traditional social power arrangements, since amongst the Tswana bogosi (chieftaincy) is primarily male and the kgotla is a predominantly male domain, though recently it has admitted women.

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