- Origin: Yoruba
- Meaning: “the child attracts attention to me.”
- Gender: feminine
- Pron: (MOH-RAY-MEE)
The name is composed or the Yoruba elements, ọmọ (“child”) + rè (“to give attention to”) + èmi (“me”).
In Yorubaland, the southwestern part of Nigeria, it is the name of a legendary 12th-century Queen, Moremi Ajasoro. Queen Moremi sacrificed her son to the spirit of the Esimirin river in exchange for power to stop the raids and enslavement of her people by the Ugbo, the Yoruba still commemorate this sacrifice during the Edi Festival. Her story has been adapted into a 2018 musical of the same name. In 2017, a statue was commemorated in her honor (pictured above) in Osun State, Nigeria, and is currently the fourth largest structure in Africa.
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