Editing Regnal name (section)

==== Nigeria ====
In the various extant [[List of Nigerian traditional states|traditional states]] of [[Nigeria]], the regnal names of the titled monarchs, who are known locally as the [[Nigerian traditional rulers|traditional rulers]], serve two very important functions within the [[Nigerian Chieftaincy|monarchical system]]. Firstly, seeing as how most states are organised in such a way as to mean that ''all'' of the legitimate descendants of the first man or woman to arrive at the site of any given community are considered its dynastic [[heir]]s, their thrones are usually rotated amongst almost endless pools of contending cousins who all share the names of the founders of their houses as primary surnames. In order to tell them all apart from one another, secondary surnames are also used for the [[sept]]s of each of the royal families that are eligible for the aforementioned rotations, names that often come from the names of state of the first members of their immediate lineages to rule in their lands. Whenever any of their direct heirs ascend the thrones, they often use their septs' names as reign names as well, using the appropriate ordinals to differentiate themselves from the founders of the said septs. An example of this is found in the kingdom of [[Lagos]], where the Adeniji-Adele family is distinguished from their numerous Adele cousins by the word ''Adeniji'', which was actually the first name of the reigning founder of their branch of the dynasty, the [[Oba (ruler)|Oba]] [[Adeniji Adele|Adeniji Adele II]]. This distinction notwithstanding, both groups of [[dynast]]s (as well as a number of other ones that do not have the name Adele as an official surname, such as that of the Oloye [[Adekunle Ojora]], a prominent nobleman of royal descent) are part of what is known as the Adele Ajosun Ruling House of Lagos.

Beyond that which is described above, regnal names also serve in Nigeria and indeed in much of Africa as chronological markers in much the same way that those of Europe do (e.g. the ''Victorian'' era). Whenever one hears of a person describing what happened at the time when so and so ruled over any particular place or people, what he or she is actually saying is that an event happened within a finite period of time, one that is equal to the duration of the reign of the monarch in question. Now seeing as how it is possible (and in fact common, particularly among the southern tribes) for one individual to have several different names and aliases in a single life, a certain degree of uniformity in usage is required if the history of an entire state is to be tied to his or her name. It is for this reason that when new monarchs are enthroned, the uniqueness of their names is usually considered to be a matter of considerable importance (even when it is caused by nothing more than the adding of ordinals to them or the allowing of more than a generation to pass before their subsequent usage). An example of this can be found in the [[kingdom of Benin]], where the throne name of [[Erediauwa I]] became the surname of all of his immediate family in the Eweka royal house of the state, thus nominally tying them and their descendants to the era of his reign. This is especially obvious when their branch's name is compared to the last names of the said king's brothers and their heirs, named the Akenzuas after his father [[Akenzua II]], and his uncles and their heirs, named the Ewekas after his grandfather [[Eweka II]].

In the case of the comparatively small number of Nigerian monarchs, such as Obi [[Nnaemeka Alfred Ugochukwu Achebe|Nnaemeka Achebe]] of [[Onitsha]], who do not make use of regnal names as a result of a variety of reasons, pre-coronation names are maintained during their reigns.