New accolades, new contract, new name: meet Nnamdi Madubuike, the Baltimore Ravens breakout star defensive lineman who earned All-Pro honors as Justin last season. A year after recording 13 sacks and 12 tackles for loss, he is taking greater ownership over his identity.
“Coming from Nigerian culture, our parents give us like an American name and give us a Nigerian name”, Madubuike told the Ravens’ website. “When we were growing up as little kids, they addressed us as our Nigerian name. So Nnamdi, I believe in my heart, that’s my real name”.
In truth, Nnamdi should be a familiar name to avid NFL fans, and not hard to pronounce at all. Anybody who watched football in the 2000s should know the name of Nnamdi Asomugha, and likely learned to pronounce it. Madubuike is providing NFL fans another international pronunciation lesson, making people know his name.
A 2020 third-round pick out of Texas A&M, Madubuike himself is a native Texan, but his parents emigrated from Nigeria. Wanting their son to fit in, they put Justin on his birth certificate despite always calling him Nnamdi. Now both inside and outside the family, Justin is Nnamdi.
At 26 years of age, Madubuike sees all the threads of his life weaving together, and part of that connection is embracing his complete identity. For him, that means using his given name as Nnamdi, which means “my father’s son”. He said, “I guess there’s the power of just being yourself. But I didn’t do it for those reasons. I did it just for me being thoroughly honest with myself”.
During the 2023 season, Madubuike reached the national stage with his success. Across 757 snaps, he recorded 56 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, 13 sacks, 33 hits, and a forced fumble. That earned him his first Pro Bowl, and he cracked the second-team All-Pro list as well.
The Ravens placed the franchise tag on Madubuike this offseason but prioritized locking him up long-term. The two sides ultimately agreed to a four-year contract worth $98 million, tying him through the 2027 season.
“I just started to just keep everything real in terms of my life”, Madubuike said. “After I signed my contract, I just need to keep doing that. I just felt like when I keep it real, the better player I am, the better man I am. I just was like, you know, I’m going to go with my real name. So Nnamdi is my real name”.
Nnamdi Madubuike is far from the first professional to change his public-facing name after garnering a wider market. Many adopt more culturally conventional names for the sake of ease, though not all do. The Steelers have had their share of names atypical for the average western Pennsylvanian, from Fuamatu Ma’afala to Olasunkannmi Adeniyi.
The truth is it doesn’t take much effort to put in the basic level of respect and time to learn how to pronounce or spell a name that is culturally unfamiliar. I can’t tell you how many different spellings and pronunciations of my last name I’ve witnessed over the years. So welcome, Nnamdi Madubuike. I hope you have a truly, truly awful season. After all, you’re still a dirty Raven.
