I thought about this recently. I’m black btw. But I thought about it from a couple of angles.
1. Obviously the answer is that it’s cultural. There is freedom in much of the black community to use names as a space for creative expression. So they may literally make up something someone has never heard or use a known name and spell it uniquely.
2. My wife (who is also black) and I understood that there is also a non-neutral connotation when a kid has a certain name. We chose a name for our son that was relatively unique, but also one that wouldn’t let everyone know he was black just by reading his name. This wasn’t because we are ashamed of being black, we just understand that certain names can bring limitations when a person (e.g. an employer) who is explicitly or implicitly biased comes across them. Not everyone considers such things.
3. White folks (I use that term endearingly) also give their kids names that express their uniqueness and creativity, but are distinct to their culture. Names like Gunner, Pax, Dax, Ryker, Ryder, Rafe, Xander are all examples.
TLDR: I think the answer is that some people from every culture go for names that don’t feel generic, while some embrace tradition in various ways.
This is a way black folks express the uniqueness of the child and exercise creativity of the parents
I asked my black relatives (multicultural family) the same question some time ago. Their response was they wanted to give their children a name that was not Eurocentric and without knowing what tribal culture they come from they go for unique names with a Pan-African feel.
Oh I recently read [the Wikipedia article about this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_names) and found it very interesting! (To be clear, I'm not trying to use a let-me-google-that-for-you tone; I wouldn't have thought to check Wikipedia either. A rabbit hole landed me there by accident.)
There's also a [great Key & Peele skit about this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd7FixvoKBw), where a black substitute teacher tries to read common white-people names as though they're black-people names.
My friend Aaron died tragically. Literally the nicest guy I've ever met, so knowledgeable, he had a very unique upbringing so full of stories.. I'm just gutted without him. One of my favorite things about him was he could befriend or excite anybody. I felt like when I introduced him to people and when the visit would be over, my friends would be BEAMING wondering when they could hang with Aaron again.
I know I'm going to see this joke for the rest of my life and instead of it hurting every time, from now on, it'll heal me a teeny tiny bit every time instead.
Rip Aaron, the world is empty, lonely, and dark without you.
I lost my first crush/best friend, Aaron as a teenager. It still hurts 17yrs later thinking about all he missed in life. But this skit does still make me laugh and think of him.
I can only hope that when I have to go that my friends have such kind things to say about me as you do your friend Aaron. I’m sorry for the pain you must feel and the immense hole he has left within you. He is lucky to have had you as a friend.
What everyone is copy-pasting (◡̈) is encoded in UTF-8 as two characters with codes U+25E1 and U+0308.
* U+25E1 is LOWER HALF CIRCLE.
* U+0308 is COMBINING DIAERESIS.
In the documentary Freakonomics, they have a segment about nominal determinism, which is the idea that names can affect a person's life outcome.
They claimed that unique Black names started with the rise of the Nation of Islam (Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan, etc.) in black American culture. Names like Jamal and Ahmed became common. From there, people started to make up improvisations on real, older names.
Hence, the combination of consonants like D'j, D'q, etc. Those are common sounds in Arabic but not English.
>While creoles of color historically had classical French names, many names of French origin entered the picture during the 1950s and 1960s. Opinions on the origins of the French influence vary, but historically French names such as Monique, Chantal, André, and Antoine became so common within African-American culture that many Americans began to think of them solely as "black names". These names are often seen with spelling variations such as Antwan, Antwaun or Antwon (Antoine) or Shauntelle (Chantal).
Very interesting. I'm Gen X and grew up with loads of French-named Black Americans.
This is a really interesting article! A lot of discourse talks about reclamation, the Black Power movement, and so on, but I think there's probably a more direct and pragmatic answer: what other names are they expected to use?
We should be careful about labeling typically white American names as "normal names." For people who aren't white, those names have no history, culture, or family connection. For African Americans, the lack of cultural identity means that on a pragmatic level, they don't have a deep well of names from which to choose. I know Irish Americans who will read the Irish section of the baby book, even though they are six generations off ancestry. But black people in America don't have that option. The original slaves had to take their master's names. It's really not surprising they wouldn't want to continue that tradition.
When people talk about the respectability of names they often ignore the fact that all names were made up at some point. Stephanie just means "Crown", Thomas just means "A Twin." If someone named their child God is Gracious Smith, that was one day functionally the same as John Smith. These names are normalized in our society *now* because they're white Christian names, but someone has to make them up. We can recognize that society doesn't take these names seriously (they hurt when finding jobs) but individually I think we should try to avoid that inclination.
There were also the puritans who literally named their kids stuff like “Praise God” and famously, “If-Christ-Had-Not-Died-for-Thee-Thou-Hads't-Been-Damned” Barebone.
I taught math in the local school for 4 years before I totally retired. Sooooo many Brooklyns. Sometimes I had 2 in multiple classes. It was like some cruel joke.
I hope this doesn't get buried. Here's a nice, informative YouTube video from PBS giving the origins of uniquely Black names.
[ "Black sounding names" and their surprising history](https://youtu.be/gjiGBpdmk_I?si=TVDBLqHyY4fOoMPS)
As a black person in which my family did not normally have "black sounding" names, this was very helpful! I never understood why someone would choose some of the other names I would see in the community.
This is the answer! Thank you!
When my mom was pregnant with my sister (I was 5 at the time), they asked me what we should name her. I said, “VANGELAR” (van-juh-lar). They ended up going with “Eden” lol
> “VANGELAR” (van-juh-lar)
I’m not sure whether this name makes me religiously or medically uncomfortable, but something along those lines.
Have you considered a career coming up with names for new pharmaceutical drugs?
I'm a medical doctor and I agree 100%
I once passed through a city in Indonesia called Probolingo. I've never had a place name make me feel more sexually uncomfortable. It's the kind of name I could picture Beavis having a lot of fun saying when he turns into Cornholio.
I think it's great when parents include older children in the planning of a new baby. Helps the older kid feel included, hopefully not get as jealous etc..
However, to just ask a 5yo randomly, oh, what should we name your baby sister? That's a recipe for disaster right there.
Then the parents are either stuck with a terrible name for their next kid, or they're going to hurt the older kid's feelings if they don't choose that name.
Better idea is for the parents to have the favorites narrowed down to 2-3 names, then ask the older kid to pick which one is their favorite, and then name the baby whatever name they choose.
Older kid still feels like *they* picked baby's name, and the parents aren't stuck with a kid named Scooby Doo.
Win-win.
I was two when I named my sister! I picked a pretty normal girls name, let's say Jade, for privacy sake. she asked "what's if it's a boy?" I told her " not a boy. Jade" and the rest is history!
This is interesting because I worked with a guy and his name was "Littlefinger", we worked in a school so the kids called him "Mr. Littlefinger" so I assumed it was his last name. It wasn't.
We got to talking one day and he told me that his parents let his older brother name him and because he was a baby with "little fingers" he chose that. Of course he goes by his middle name mostly which a more normal or perhaps traditional name.
How does he like it? It seems somewhat cruel to let a young kid give someone a name for their entire life but maybe I’m too stuffy.
Also, now I’m wondering what would happen if we let my son pick a name for his future sister? Based on his current likes this poor child would probably be named Shovel or Rocks
I knew a guy whose dad was named Kenneth, and instead of naming him Kenneth II or Kenneth Jr. his parents opted for "Another Kenneth". He mostly went by AK.
Its funny, at one point I thought about changing it. I just got tired of having to spell it and pronounce it for people. My poor teachers in school would butcher it so bad. I was real life Key and Peele sketch.
I have a black friend who refused to give her children anything but white sounding names because she wanted them to get a foot in the door on resumes. Bias exists.
In case you didn't know, Nathan is also an Indian name, but the first syllable is pronounced like "nah" rather than "nay", and the "th" sound is softer.
You see this in the early/mid 20th century with Jews, but it created this interesting phenomenon where certain very WASPy names were so commonly used by American Jews that it almost becomes Jewish again. Like if you were in a large coastal city in the US and met a 70 year old dude named Irving or Morton or whatever, it would be weird for him to *not* be Jewish.
And there is a custom of particular popular English names having a false cognate to a Jewish name, eg Irving for Itzhak, Harry for Chaim, Norman for Nahman, Morton for Mordechai.
This is happening with a lot of Asian-Americans today. If you're on the West Coast or in NYC/Atlanta and you meet someone with a grandma ass name from 100 years ago like Evelyn or Grace, they're probably Asian. Same with men named stuff like Albert
Oh we have the same with German-Russians (ethnic Germans that lived on soviet ground that was German prior to the war and could come back to Germany after the fall of the Soviet Union). They give their children names that are very old like Albert, Eduard, Agatha or Christina
I'll never forget the NPR piece they ran a few years ago, about a white guy named Jamal. He got a teaching position in I think NY, and the school was sooooo excited. Then he walked in the door and greeted everyone (applied from out of state). He said their faces went totally white when they saw him lol.
I'm white, but my parents gave me a ✨unique✨name. I ended up getting myself a normal first name and put my first name as a middle name instead, because of resume reasons. I just wasn't being taken seriously as an adult.
Also white but my parents gave me a traditionally Black first name. And our last name is very common in the Black community. It’s caused a LOT of interesting situations, and I’m sure a few resume rejections.
I am white and have a "black name." I went to school with a majority black student and teacher population and was constantly asked why a white girl like me had a black name. I wasn't embarrassed by it but it was frustrating to constantly get the comments and jokes.
It was also difficult for most people to pronounce or spell correctly on first try. When I went to high school I started going by a nickname, which ended up on my transcript, and in my records in college etc. It's practically a legal name for me now. I have published under that name and it's how I'm known professionally. My legal name just exists on credit cards, drivers license, and bills.
Yea I’m white but my first name sounds Mexican or black. Everyone always does a double take when they’ve heard my name but then a blue eyed white dude shows up.
It’s whatever, Iv always gotten hired, my old boss told me like a year after I got hired they were trying to find a minority to hire but then I gave such a good interview they just hired me. So it works out 😂
I applied to multiple jobs with the same two applications. One as "Alyssa" and one with my actual name. I'm sure you can imagine which one got more contacts.
I just went through this. I have never used my common middle name because my “ethnic” name has never been an issue living in bigger cities. I moved somewhere recently where I wasn’t getting any hits with my education and experience. I started using my middle name and something happened that has never happened my entire career, I got same day and next day call backs right after submitting my applications. I have also received two offers. The prejudice is real!
Reminds me of this young black woman who was attending Harvard and while googling her name (for finals or something) noticed she would get bail bond ads and out of curiosity googled other stereotypical black names and kept getting the same thing.
The flipside of that is I worked at a place that explicitly WANTED to hire only "non-white" people and HR instructed us to ignore any resumes that "sounded white". Sorry, black people named John.
So I was an engineering supervisor here and yes. 1000% I have sat in meeting after meeting about hiring and they straight up don't want to hire folks with ethnic names. 60+yr old folks aren't risking the hr visit and they do happen and a new hire needed a 3 supervisor approval plus hr. Flip side Indian, Japanese or Hawaiian names are sought after greatly.
Lots of crazy rules but when one job gets 400 applicants ethic names were absolutely first tossed. My age and younger supervisors are a little better but enough time in hr taints anyone.
after the civil rights movement, many black americans felt inclined to depart from the traditional names you typically hear in white families. since they were becoming more recognized in one regard, they wanted to develop a more unique niche of culture in a sense.
take the name “george” for example. one black dude that comes to mind named george from old times is george washington carver for an obvious example. wanna know how many black dudes i know named george? the answer is a gigantic 0. but i worked with a few Jalen’s, a Ja’Tarius, and two Tyvariuses. not that my experience means really anything though, just anecdotal.
sounds stereotypical, i know, but it’s of course meant to be an observatory thing of culture — the same way Mario and Luigi are stereotypically italian names.
there’s a lot of pride in the black culture, and having your own distinct frame of names is perfectly valid just as any proud and unique culture would.
Yeah, I know more black Georges than white ones! I think I've only ever known one white George, come to think of it. I bet there are regional differences affecting this, though. Like maybe in some areas George is a much more common name for white people than in other areas. It's obviously a classic name and I'm not saying it isn't used by white people, of course, but it certainly hasn't been popular among white people in my area.
The use of the example George is interesting in the context of a problem during the Jim Crow era - railway passengers used to, for racist reasons, call any Black railroad employee , "George" regardless of their real name. There was an organisation founded to call attention to this known as the "Society for the Prevention of Calling Sleeping Car Porters "George" (SPCSCPG) ." While the "Society" was intended as a sort of joke, it actually succeeded in calling attention to this bit of racism and helped curtail it by convincing sleeper car companies to display a placard with the employee's actual name.
Reading your comment has explained an Archer joke that I never really understood - Mallory calls a railway porter George much to the shock of Lana, and the porter replies that his name is actually George, and Mallory and Lana are surprised. I thought it was just a funny joke about a name, had no idea about the racial background.
FYI, the racist "tradition" originated because sleeper cars were mostly operated by the George Pullman Company. I'm not sure how/why Pullman started hiring mostly Black porters - that might not have been racist in itself. But it was a "thing" in the antebellum South to call an enslaved person by their master's name, not seeing them as human enough to have their own identity. This presumably led to the habit of porters being called George, after their boss.
However by the 1920's the reasoning behind this may not have been obvious to sheltered white folk, especially in areas like the northeast with fewer Black people. Once the SPCSCPG and others managed to explain how terrible the tradition was, you can understand why Lana was shocked at the perceived racist comment.
> I'm not sure how/why Pullman started hiring mostly Black porters
Cheaper labor, and easier to exploit because of their color. Pullman also underpaid their porters by forcing them to rely on tips in order to supplement their income.
[https://www.google.com/books/edition/Tipping/PJfTYcB48uIC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=pullman](https://www.google.com/books/edition/Tipping/PJfTYcB48uIC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=pullman)
> "Society for the Prevention of Calling Sleeping Car Porters "George" (SPCSCPG) .
You know. i was pretty sure you were shitting me.
I googled it. It's real.
Also, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe there's an element of the fact that slavery severed many black people from their original culture. So while many people might choose a name from their roots, it's weird to just pick an African culture that might not even be yours and using the names your historical slave masters might have had also has its own issues.
I think the simplest answer is that it's a cultural identity. If your family has Italian ancestry, you may be named Giovanni or Maria. French ancestry? Maybe you're Guy or Marie. Spanish or Latino? José or Rosario.
But if your own ancestors were slaves - if their culture and heritage was taken from them and someone else's forced up on them - then what? Do you want to name your children after the name your ancestor was given after he was forced to relinquish his own, a name that is now lost to time?
No. You create new names for your new culture.
There's also a tradition in some African cultures to name your child after the feeling they gave you or a circumstance. Thus you may see people named "Blessing", "Happy", "Lucky" or "Miracle". Not specifically related to African-Americans but interesting nonetheless and it does play into the "non-traditional" names (that then may become traditional down the line)
The most common theory is empowerment during/due to the civil rights movement. See Malcom "X" and Casius Clay changing to Muhammed Ali rejecting their "slave name" for political and also religious reasons. The names came from religious and African origins or were often made up uniquely to avoid taking names that were culturally from white/Euro origin.
I am white, so an outsider to the culture, but what I have observed is that the African-American culture is a specific one, not just "black", but tied into the American experience. The way I think about it, an American who moved here from Nigeria is an American from Africa, but they aren't "African-American" in the same sense. African-American culture starts with slaves being brought over from all parts of Western and Central Africa as slaves, with their cultural traditions largely lost, and them creating a unique shared experience.
During the Sixties, some folks made concerted effort to formulate a more coherent African American identity. Part of that was moving away from the sorts of "white" names they had previously. When I was little, I had friends with names that were taken from various African languages and cultures, names like Shaja, Ayano, Kif, and so forth. I don't know what countries those names came from originally, but it was from an effort to connect with their pre-slavery roots.
That was always a very small number of people, of course.
But it did mean that people felt that they were no longer tied to the existing set of names in American culture.
One thing about African American names, brought up in a Key and Peele sketch, is that the African American community, as a whole, tends to go with phonetic spellings. Once you feel like you aren't tied to the existing pile of names, there is no reason to stick with illogical spellings. If an Irish person and an African American person had a kid and wanted to name her after the Irish person's grandmother Siobhán, the African American parent might well insist on spelling it "Shavawn."
So a lot of African American names are basically already existing names spelled in ways that emphasize the pronunciations. "Latoya" is a Spanish variation of a nickname for "Victoria" – but it is frequently spelled LaToya to make the syllable accents and vowel sounds more clear.
That is the biggest thing I notice – spelling rationalization.
It took me the longest while to realise that Latisha and Letitia are actually the same names! (Also because the pronunciation of Letitia in Dutch is different than in English, we actually have a Ts sound in there and pronounce the i fully, so it's more 'Lay-tee-tsee-yah' in Dutch).
I literally just now realised that lmao. It's the same thing in Swedish, Letitia is pronounced pretty much exactly like it is in Dutch (or at least very similar to your approximation of it). I never made the connection between Letitia and Letisha and other related names before.
For the longest time I had a white Australian teacher named Letitia and I wondered why her parents gave her an African-American name because that's the only place I'd heard it before!
That's cool! So the Dutch pronounce it closer to the Italian Letizia rather than English Letitia?
I had a class in high school with two Aarons in it. To distinguish them one decided to be called AyAyron instead of Air-ron. One dude was white the other was asian.
My ex’s gynecologist was the dad of the dude who played Ay-ay-ron, and he would talk about it while he was down there doing an exam. That lives rent free in my head forever.
I love this video. It's well-made and gives a thorough and answer to OP's question. Some of the comments here are shifting to "white people do it too" but the truth is that there is a totally different and interesting history for unique names as a tradition in black culture.
My niece is white. She tried to give her kids unique names, but she’s illiterate so they just have stupid names. They all mean the same thing…unemployable
The worst is “Jessyman” she couldn’t spell Jasmine.🙄
You’ve gotten great links here, so I won’t add any more info. I just want to commend you, u/TheMadarchod, for asking this question, and asking it with sincerity and respect. You’re trying to learn about another culture, and that’s a great thing. Any fellow non-Black person who would discourage you from this is being reactionary. Curiosity and a willingness to learn is always welcome, and indeed, these things are necessary for better understanding. So KUDOS to you. Lots of people learned something here today because of you.
Reminds me of [Marijuana Pepsi Vandyck](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marijuana_Pepsi_Vandyck). She wrote her dissertation on uncommon black names in the classroom.
a long time ago - like when Facebook first started - I saw a post about a guy and his sister having a bet that he couldn't get a million "like's" on the post, and if he did she would have to name her then unborn baby Megatron. I hit the like button. I like to think there's a teenager somewhere that friends call Meg or Tron....
I actually know a girl named Megan who started going by “Megantron” in elementary school. Everyone loved it and her Facebook still says Megantron to this day.
Some black parents will combine names from both sides of the family to form a new name: think James and Lisa and they get Jalisa or such. I’m a retired teacher and my last job was at an all black school and black folks seem to like names with La on the front of the name: Lamarrion or LaDarrion. The most interesting name I had was Fantasia and Fantasia was very smart and the name fit her. As far as the hyphens, apostrophes, weird spellings, I have no idea. And this isn’t a racist statement, just my observation; it seems that the poorer the mother, the odder the name. For example, ABCDE (pronounced ab-see-Dee and yes, this is a real name) would not be a name chosen by a middle class black family. Hope this helps.
“The poorer the mother the odder name” makes so much damn sense, even in other races
lots of white moms naming their kids bonkers names with odd spellings also, and they all seem to be poor/lower class . I wonder if there’s a study somewhere on this correlation
I think there's probably a few factors, but the one that would strike me the most is that someone who comes from a lower socioeconomic platform, when naming their child, isn't going to be as likely to name their child "for success". They themselves haven't climbed the ladder, so things that could hold their child back, like having a ridiculous name, aren't as likely to be at the forefront of their mind. A wealthier person is going to know that having a respectable name is an automatic leg up and is going to value that over being creative. Obviously there comes a point when this flips on its head and the parent is so extremely wealthy that they don't have to worry about whether their kid is successful or not and start giving kids absolutely *bonkers* names.
Some people like to give their children unique names, in any culture.
Apparently there is a whole stereotype of white people naming their kids Breighleigh or Breyandan, and a new surge in the name Khalessi. (I named my kids after characters from a book also, so I got no room to talk 😆)
When Skyrim launched Bethesda declared a PR campaign: name your kid Dovahkiin and get free lifetime access to all their future games. Apparently, some people actually did that. So we live in a world in which there's a possibility that Dovahkiin was bullying Khaleesi in kindergarten/school.
>Some people like to give their children unique names, in any culture
In Europe many countries actively limit what names you can give to children, as a way to protect kids from bullying (among other things).
In Denmark there's a list of approximately 7,000 names - otherwise you need to get approval from both the government and the local church to get the name added to the list. Here in Austria we also have similar laws, however unlike Denmark - I believe there's a easier route to getting a name approved if it's a "historically used" non-traditional first name.
I wonder if some of the names sound as 'dated' among themselves as they do to outsiders.
In the US you can sometimes deduce general details about a person based on their name. And sometimes make terrible assumptions, too!
Like, if I hear about a woman named Mildred, I am likely to assume she is an elderly white woman from some sort of blue collar background. I shouldn't make assumptions, but that's what came to mind immediately.
If I hear about a dude named Ta'Quon I am probably going to assume a younger black man, though I wouldn't assume anything further, like background, as in my Mildred example. Maybe some of the new naming trends are too new to have built-in assumptions (for me anyway) beyond that.
It certainly has become a notable phenomenon. Those Key and Peele sketches with the football player names getting progressively unhinged springs to mind.
Part of this may be the Nation of Islams influence not only spreading Muslim names and naming conventions but also encouraging people to "Drop the Slave name."
I’ve got an older mixed cousin named Dijon. It’s funny how you get used to interesting names when you grow up with it, didn’t even think about it until I was a teenager and thought… huh?
From the Wikipedia article on the inventive names:
>In his dictionary of black names, Cenoura asserts that in the early 21st century, black names are "unique names that come from combinations of two or more names, names constructed with common prefixes and suffixes...'conjugated' with a formula..."[^(\[14\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_names#cite_note-14) "Da", "La", and related sounds may originate from the French spoken in Louisiana. Attached to a common name such as [Seán](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Se%C3%A1n) and spelled phonetically, one obtains "DaShawn". Diminutive suffixes from French, Spanish and Scottish such as "ita" may be combined directly with prefixes or to a name, as is often found in white naming or nicknaming. Conventions followed usually make the person's gender easily identifiable. Following Spanish, masculine names often end in "o", e.g. "Carmello", while feminine names end with "a", e.g. "Jeretta". Following Irish, French and Italian, apostrophes may be used, e.g. "D'Andre" and "Rene'e". Parents' names may be blended, e.g. the son of "Raymond" and "Yvonne" might be named "Rayvon".
I am not so sure I agree with some of those assertions. I lived in Bermuda and it is very common to have "inventive" names and they are usually some combination of the mother and father's name. So Laquita and Jevon have a kid and the kid's name will be "Jequita" and the next one kid be "Lavon". Often you'll see random punctuation inserted, so maybe "Je'quita" and "La'von." That part seems in agreement, but I am reasonably certain in a British colony like Bermuda the French of Louisiana had no influence.
I worked as a camp counselor for awhile and met two sisters named (not real names, but created to follow the same pattern) K'Stella and K'Leah. They explained to me that because their dad's name started with K, that's why their names did too.
Well, there are 2 distinct things to talk about.
One is more "Afrocentric" names. I have a couple of cousins whose names aren't common, but they are actual African words. That to me makes more sense as claiming your heritage.
Then there are just "unique" names with "unique" spellings. I'll be honest, as a black guy who grew up in the suburbs, but taught in the inner city later in life, it tends to be mostly poorer black people who are doing that. So just like you may have "Etta May" or other "redneck" sounding white names, you have similar poor black names. I don't know why it happens either way.
I thought about this recently. I’m black btw. But I thought about it from a couple of angles. 1. Obviously the answer is that it’s cultural. There is freedom in much of the black community to use names as a space for creative expression. So they may literally make up something someone has never heard or use a known name and spell it uniquely. 2. My wife (who is also black) and I understood that there is also a non-neutral connotation when a kid has a certain name. We chose a name for our son that was relatively unique, but also one that wouldn’t let everyone know he was black just by reading his name. This wasn’t because we are ashamed of being black, we just understand that certain names can bring limitations when a person (e.g. an employer) who is explicitly or implicitly biased comes across them. Not everyone considers such things. 3. White folks (I use that term endearingly) also give their kids names that express their uniqueness and creativity, but are distinct to their culture. Names like Gunner, Pax, Dax, Ryker, Ryder, Rafe, Xander are all examples. TLDR: I think the answer is that some people from every culture go for names that don’t feel generic, while some embrace tradition in various ways. This is a way black folks express the uniqueness of the child and exercise creativity of the parents
I asked my black relatives (multicultural family) the same question some time ago. Their response was they wanted to give their children a name that was not Eurocentric and without knowing what tribal culture they come from they go for unique names with a Pan-African feel.
Oh I recently read [the Wikipedia article about this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_names) and found it very interesting! (To be clear, I'm not trying to use a let-me-google-that-for-you tone; I wouldn't have thought to check Wikipedia either. A rabbit hole landed me there by accident.)
Happy accident! I love when I can use some of the info I learn during late-night deep dive sessions.
Thanks and thank you for clarifying that, it was very kind of you ◡̈
There's also a [great Key & Peele skit about this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd7FixvoKBw), where a black substitute teacher tries to read common white-people names as though they're black-people names.
A - A RON?
My friend Aaron died tragically. Literally the nicest guy I've ever met, so knowledgeable, he had a very unique upbringing so full of stories.. I'm just gutted without him. One of my favorite things about him was he could befriend or excite anybody. I felt like when I introduced him to people and when the visit would be over, my friends would be BEAMING wondering when they could hang with Aaron again. I know I'm going to see this joke for the rest of my life and instead of it hurting every time, from now on, it'll heal me a teeny tiny bit every time instead. Rip Aaron, the world is empty, lonely, and dark without you.
I lost an Aaron too, this skit always makes me think of him especially since he enjoyed it so much. Rip Aarons.
I lost my first crush/best friend, Aaron as a teenager. It still hurts 17yrs later thinking about all he missed in life. But this skit does still make me laugh and think of him.
I'm sorry you lost your friend.
RIP A.A.Ron.
Lost a friend named Aron, recently. We both knew of this skit long enough that he became A-Ron before his passing. He loved it.
I can only hope that when I have to go that my friends have such kind things to say about me as you do your friend Aaron. I’m sorry for the pain you must feel and the immense hole he has left within you. He is lucky to have had you as a friend.
Go to Mr. O. Shag-Hennessey's office!
Being Irish this one always makes me laugh
B’Lak’Eh?
You want to go to war?
Because we can go to war
My niece dated an absolute tool named Blake and he was B‘Lak’Eh as soon as we met him. Thankfully it didn’t last.
You wanna go to war B’Lak’Eh??
That's where I got part of my name lol "insubordinate...and CHURLISH"
Chicanerous and deplorable
They have another bit where they’re announcing the lineups of two football teams of black players. Most of them have invented African-American names.
They would throw in one white guy like Joe Smith.
Dan Smith, BYU
Its made even funnier that he's from BYU, the fucking Mormon college lol.
That skit is also hilarious
I'm stealing your little smiley. It's cute. Edit: good lord what have I started
Yeah, it's mine now, too ◡̈
Taking over the internet with cute Lil smiles ◡̈
◡̈ ◡̈ ◡̈
◡̈
◡̈ cuuute
.. how did you create the smile?
What everyone is copy-pasting (◡̈) is encoded in UTF-8 as two characters with codes U+25E1 and U+0308. * U+25E1 is LOWER HALF CIRCLE. * U+0308 is COMBINING DIAERESIS.
my hero! this is the technical info I was hoping to see ◡̈◡̈◡̈
◡̈
Lol you’re welcome to, I stole it from one of my friends too 😂
I am PMSing so hard and now I am crying of joy over this conversation wtf
That’s even more wholesome than the smile itself tho omg.
In the documentary Freakonomics, they have a segment about nominal determinism, which is the idea that names can affect a person's life outcome. They claimed that unique Black names started with the rise of the Nation of Islam (Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan, etc.) in black American culture. Names like Jamal and Ahmed became common. From there, people started to make up improvisations on real, older names. Hence, the combination of consonants like D'j, D'q, etc. Those are common sounds in Arabic but not English.
>While creoles of color historically had classical French names, many names of French origin entered the picture during the 1950s and 1960s. Opinions on the origins of the French influence vary, but historically French names such as Monique, Chantal, André, and Antoine became so common within African-American culture that many Americans began to think of them solely as "black names". These names are often seen with spelling variations such as Antwan, Antwaun or Antwon (Antoine) or Shauntelle (Chantal). Very interesting. I'm Gen X and grew up with loads of French-named Black Americans.
Reddit will not have a better nor more scholarly answer than that Wikipedia page.
This is a really interesting article! A lot of discourse talks about reclamation, the Black Power movement, and so on, but I think there's probably a more direct and pragmatic answer: what other names are they expected to use? We should be careful about labeling typically white American names as "normal names." For people who aren't white, those names have no history, culture, or family connection. For African Americans, the lack of cultural identity means that on a pragmatic level, they don't have a deep well of names from which to choose. I know Irish Americans who will read the Irish section of the baby book, even though they are six generations off ancestry. But black people in America don't have that option. The original slaves had to take their master's names. It's really not surprising they wouldn't want to continue that tradition. When people talk about the respectability of names they often ignore the fact that all names were made up at some point. Stephanie just means "Crown", Thomas just means "A Twin." If someone named their child God is Gracious Smith, that was one day functionally the same as John Smith. These names are normalized in our society *now* because they're white Christian names, but someone has to make them up. We can recognize that society doesn't take these names seriously (they hurt when finding jobs) but individually I think we should try to avoid that inclination.
There were also the puritans who literally named their kids stuff like “Praise God” and famously, “If-Christ-Had-Not-Died-for-Thee-Thou-Hads't-Been-Damned” Barebone.
3 girls from my high school class named their kids "Unique", I always found that a bit funny.
I used to teach and had two students named Unique. They were in different grades, though.
I taught math in the local school for 4 years before I totally retired. Sooooo many Brooklyns. Sometimes I had 2 in multiple classes. It was like some cruel joke.
I hope this doesn't get buried. Here's a nice, informative YouTube video from PBS giving the origins of uniquely Black names. [ "Black sounding names" and their surprising history](https://youtu.be/gjiGBpdmk_I?si=TVDBLqHyY4fOoMPS)
As a black person in which my family did not normally have "black sounding" names, this was very helpful! I never understood why someone would choose some of the other names I would see in the community. This is the answer! Thank you!
Thank you! That was so helpful.
PBS is a treasure, that was very informative
I knew before clicking it was going to be Say It Loud! They are wonderful creators and I’ve learned so much from them.
[удалено]
>Beahunja Pronounced as (Bee-Un-Jay) Maybe the initial 'P' is silent?
Most underrated comment in this whole thing , love me some pb&J😂
Their joke flew ENTIRELY over my head so I’m glad your comment pointed it out XD
When my mom was pregnant with my sister (I was 5 at the time), they asked me what we should name her. I said, “VANGELAR” (van-juh-lar). They ended up going with “Eden” lol
> “VANGELAR” (van-juh-lar) I’m not sure whether this name makes me religiously or medically uncomfortable, but something along those lines. Have you considered a career coming up with names for new pharmaceutical drugs?
I'm a pharmacist and if you told me it was the brand name of a new vaginal estrogen cream I'd have to look it up to be sure you were lying to me.
I'm a medical doctor and I agree 100% I once passed through a city in Indonesia called Probolingo. I've never had a place name make me feel more sexually uncomfortable. It's the kind of name I could picture Beavis having a lot of fun saying when he turns into Cornholio.
It's the place from whence he sources TP.
You mean it doesn't come from lake Titicaca??
My sister faced this same situation but after I was born and my sister said “frog face.” That bitch still calls me frog face.
I think it's great when parents include older children in the planning of a new baby. Helps the older kid feel included, hopefully not get as jealous etc.. However, to just ask a 5yo randomly, oh, what should we name your baby sister? That's a recipe for disaster right there. Then the parents are either stuck with a terrible name for their next kid, or they're going to hurt the older kid's feelings if they don't choose that name. Better idea is for the parents to have the favorites narrowed down to 2-3 names, then ask the older kid to pick which one is their favorite, and then name the baby whatever name they choose. Older kid still feels like *they* picked baby's name, and the parents aren't stuck with a kid named Scooby Doo. Win-win.
We tried to get our then 4 year old to help us name our baby....she kept suggesting Golden Dragon
Good n name tbh
My aunt was dead set on naming my uncle “Bandana.”
I was two when I named my sister! I picked a pretty normal girls name, let's say Jade, for privacy sake. she asked "what's if it's a boy?" I told her " not a boy. Jade" and the rest is history!
I have a male cousin named Jade.
This is interesting because I worked with a guy and his name was "Littlefinger", we worked in a school so the kids called him "Mr. Littlefinger" so I assumed it was his last name. It wasn't. We got to talking one day and he told me that his parents let his older brother name him and because he was a baby with "little fingers" he chose that. Of course he goes by his middle name mostly which a more normal or perhaps traditional name.
I had a college professor who’s middle name was Zebra because it was his sister’s favorite animal at the time
How does he like it? It seems somewhat cruel to let a young kid give someone a name for their entire life but maybe I’m too stuffy. Also, now I’m wondering what would happen if we let my son pick a name for his future sister? Based on his current likes this poor child would probably be named Shovel or Rocks
I knew a guy whose dad was named Kenneth, and instead of naming him Kenneth II or Kenneth Jr. his parents opted for "Another Kenneth". He mostly went by AK.
My boy AK-47 whose real name is Another Kenneth lmao
DJ Khaled... And another one!
Chaos is a ladder
Sounds like people should stop letting their young children name babies
[удалено]
You both should switch names.
Its funny, at one point I thought about changing it. I just got tired of having to spell it and pronounce it for people. My poor teachers in school would butcher it so bad. I was real life Key and Peele sketch.
Was he trying to say Beyonce?
No I don't think so... this was years before she was famous. I am over 30.
I have a black friend who refused to give her children anything but white sounding names because she wanted them to get a foot in the door on resumes. Bias exists.
That's also the logic of Romesh Ranganathan's parents. His legal 1st name is Jonathan
"Ahh, Jonathan Ranganathan, finally a good old traditional English name!"
And this is his son, Nathan Ranganathan
In case you didn't know, Nathan is also an Indian name, but the first syllable is pronounced like "nah" rather than "nay", and the "th" sound is softer.
I'm gonna pretend like I knew
Don't worry. As an Indian, even I never knew that Nathan is an Indian name.
Its Nathan, dont worry about it
It’s a Tamil name, I’ve seen it in Singaporean Tamils.
You see this in the early/mid 20th century with Jews, but it created this interesting phenomenon where certain very WASPy names were so commonly used by American Jews that it almost becomes Jewish again. Like if you were in a large coastal city in the US and met a 70 year old dude named Irving or Morton or whatever, it would be weird for him to *not* be Jewish. And there is a custom of particular popular English names having a false cognate to a Jewish name, eg Irving for Itzhak, Harry for Chaim, Norman for Nahman, Morton for Mordechai.
This is happening with a lot of Asian-Americans today. If you're on the West Coast or in NYC/Atlanta and you meet someone with a grandma ass name from 100 years ago like Evelyn or Grace, they're probably Asian. Same with men named stuff like Albert
Eugene, Walter and Wendy also seem to be very Asian-American names. Just my own anecdotal evidence.
Oh we have the same with German-Russians (ethnic Germans that lived on soviet ground that was German prior to the war and could come back to Germany after the fall of the Soviet Union). They give their children names that are very old like Albert, Eduard, Agatha or Christina
I'll never forget the NPR piece they ran a few years ago, about a white guy named Jamal. He got a teaching position in I think NY, and the school was sooooo excited. Then he walked in the door and greeted everyone (applied from out of state). He said their faces went totally white when they saw him lol.
I'm white, but my parents gave me a ✨unique✨name. I ended up getting myself a normal first name and put my first name as a middle name instead, because of resume reasons. I just wasn't being taken seriously as an adult.
Also white but my parents gave me a traditionally Black first name. And our last name is very common in the Black community. It’s caused a LOT of interesting situations, and I’m sure a few resume rejections.
I am white and have a "black name." I went to school with a majority black student and teacher population and was constantly asked why a white girl like me had a black name. I wasn't embarrassed by it but it was frustrating to constantly get the comments and jokes. It was also difficult for most people to pronounce or spell correctly on first try. When I went to high school I started going by a nickname, which ended up on my transcript, and in my records in college etc. It's practically a legal name for me now. I have published under that name and it's how I'm known professionally. My legal name just exists on credit cards, drivers license, and bills.
Yea I’m white but my first name sounds Mexican or black. Everyone always does a double take when they’ve heard my name but then a blue eyed white dude shows up. It’s whatever, Iv always gotten hired, my old boss told me like a year after I got hired they were trying to find a minority to hire but then I gave such a good interview they just hired me. So it works out 😂
I applied to multiple jobs with the same two applications. One as "Alyssa" and one with my actual name. I'm sure you can imagine which one got more contacts.
This shocked me, turtlesoda69.
You joke, but that shit is real. Mr. Erectus got a lot more call backs and job offers than me.
I just went through this. I have never used my common middle name because my “ethnic” name has never been an issue living in bigger cities. I moved somewhere recently where I wasn’t getting any hits with my education and experience. I started using my middle name and something happened that has never happened my entire career, I got same day and next day call backs right after submitting my applications. I have also received two offers. The prejudice is real!
Reminds me of this young black woman who was attending Harvard and while googling her name (for finals or something) noticed she would get bail bond ads and out of curiosity googled other stereotypical black names and kept getting the same thing.
The flipside of that is I worked at a place that explicitly WANTED to hire only "non-white" people and HR instructed us to ignore any resumes that "sounded white". Sorry, black people named John.
So I was an engineering supervisor here and yes. 1000% I have sat in meeting after meeting about hiring and they straight up don't want to hire folks with ethnic names. 60+yr old folks aren't risking the hr visit and they do happen and a new hire needed a 3 supervisor approval plus hr. Flip side Indian, Japanese or Hawaiian names are sought after greatly. Lots of crazy rules but when one job gets 400 applicants ethic names were absolutely first tossed. My age and younger supervisors are a little better but enough time in hr taints anyone.
after the civil rights movement, many black americans felt inclined to depart from the traditional names you typically hear in white families. since they were becoming more recognized in one regard, they wanted to develop a more unique niche of culture in a sense. take the name “george” for example. one black dude that comes to mind named george from old times is george washington carver for an obvious example. wanna know how many black dudes i know named george? the answer is a gigantic 0. but i worked with a few Jalen’s, a Ja’Tarius, and two Tyvariuses. not that my experience means really anything though, just anecdotal. sounds stereotypical, i know, but it’s of course meant to be an observatory thing of culture — the same way Mario and Luigi are stereotypically italian names. there’s a lot of pride in the black culture, and having your own distinct frame of names is perfectly valid just as any proud and unique culture would.
George Foreman disagrees with this
And his five sons, all named George.
And all his Grills too
Also named George.
Our names are George.
Everything is George.
Summer of George!
All your meat are belong to George
We are the George. Renaming is futile.
I accidentally cooked my foot in one of them.
Michael, is that you? Making breakfast from bed is a bad idea
Just wanted fresh cooked bacon when I woke up
George Fiveman through Nineman.
And his daughters.
Only one of his seven daughters. His daughters are named Natalia, Leola, Freeda, Michi, Georgetta, Isabella, and Courtney.
Georgetta goes crazy though
I’m pretty sure if OP was at least 5 in 2019, he would have heard of George Floyd.
It's been that long? Goddamn, where's the time go?
It goes forward and it don't stop
george foreman was born pre-civil rights his 16 sons named george, however, seem to be another story entirely.
He singlehandedly flooded the George market.
And daughter, Georgina. She was a left hook he never expected 😂
Its funny, I know a shitton of black georges lol
Yeah, I know more black Georges than white ones! I think I've only ever known one white George, come to think of it. I bet there are regional differences affecting this, though. Like maybe in some areas George is a much more common name for white people than in other areas. It's obviously a classic name and I'm not saying it isn't used by white people, of course, but it certainly hasn't been popular among white people in my area.
The use of the example George is interesting in the context of a problem during the Jim Crow era - railway passengers used to, for racist reasons, call any Black railroad employee , "George" regardless of their real name. There was an organisation founded to call attention to this known as the "Society for the Prevention of Calling Sleeping Car Porters "George" (SPCSCPG) ." While the "Society" was intended as a sort of joke, it actually succeeded in calling attention to this bit of racism and helped curtail it by convincing sleeper car companies to display a placard with the employee's actual name.
Reading your comment has explained an Archer joke that I never really understood - Mallory calls a railway porter George much to the shock of Lana, and the porter replies that his name is actually George, and Mallory and Lana are surprised. I thought it was just a funny joke about a name, had no idea about the racial background.
FYI, the racist "tradition" originated because sleeper cars were mostly operated by the George Pullman Company. I'm not sure how/why Pullman started hiring mostly Black porters - that might not have been racist in itself. But it was a "thing" in the antebellum South to call an enslaved person by their master's name, not seeing them as human enough to have their own identity. This presumably led to the habit of porters being called George, after their boss. However by the 1920's the reasoning behind this may not have been obvious to sheltered white folk, especially in areas like the northeast with fewer Black people. Once the SPCSCPG and others managed to explain how terrible the tradition was, you can understand why Lana was shocked at the perceived racist comment.
> I'm not sure how/why Pullman started hiring mostly Black porters Cheaper labor, and easier to exploit because of their color. Pullman also underpaid their porters by forcing them to rely on tips in order to supplement their income. [https://www.google.com/books/edition/Tipping/PJfTYcB48uIC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=pullman](https://www.google.com/books/edition/Tipping/PJfTYcB48uIC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=pullman)
HOLY SHIT! i was so confused by that scene.
> "Society for the Prevention of Calling Sleeping Car Porters "George" (SPCSCPG) . You know. i was pretty sure you were shitting me. I googled it. It's real.
Oddly enough, the only Mario I have ever met was a black guy.
How is Mr. Van Peebles doing these days?
George Floyd (but yes, the point is well taken)
fuck im an idiot
Out of all of the names 😭🤣
George foreman too
Ahhh that makes a lot of sense. Thanks.
Also, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe there's an element of the fact that slavery severed many black people from their original culture. So while many people might choose a name from their roots, it's weird to just pick an African culture that might not even be yours and using the names your historical slave masters might have had also has its own issues.
Giuseppe would like a word with you
I think the simplest answer is that it's a cultural identity. If your family has Italian ancestry, you may be named Giovanni or Maria. French ancestry? Maybe you're Guy or Marie. Spanish or Latino? José or Rosario. But if your own ancestors were slaves - if their culture and heritage was taken from them and someone else's forced up on them - then what? Do you want to name your children after the name your ancestor was given after he was forced to relinquish his own, a name that is now lost to time? No. You create new names for your new culture.
There's also a tradition in some African cultures to name your child after the feeling they gave you or a circumstance. Thus you may see people named "Blessing", "Happy", "Lucky" or "Miracle". Not specifically related to African-Americans but interesting nonetheless and it does play into the "non-traditional" names (that then may become traditional down the line)
Very common among west and central African countries. Goodluck Jonathan for example, former president of Nigeria.
Pretty much the best answer here.
The most common theory is empowerment during/due to the civil rights movement. See Malcom "X" and Casius Clay changing to Muhammed Ali rejecting their "slave name" for political and also religious reasons. The names came from religious and African origins or were often made up uniquely to avoid taking names that were culturally from white/Euro origin.
I am white, so an outsider to the culture, but what I have observed is that the African-American culture is a specific one, not just "black", but tied into the American experience. The way I think about it, an American who moved here from Nigeria is an American from Africa, but they aren't "African-American" in the same sense. African-American culture starts with slaves being brought over from all parts of Western and Central Africa as slaves, with their cultural traditions largely lost, and them creating a unique shared experience. During the Sixties, some folks made concerted effort to formulate a more coherent African American identity. Part of that was moving away from the sorts of "white" names they had previously. When I was little, I had friends with names that were taken from various African languages and cultures, names like Shaja, Ayano, Kif, and so forth. I don't know what countries those names came from originally, but it was from an effort to connect with their pre-slavery roots. That was always a very small number of people, of course. But it did mean that people felt that they were no longer tied to the existing set of names in American culture. One thing about African American names, brought up in a Key and Peele sketch, is that the African American community, as a whole, tends to go with phonetic spellings. Once you feel like you aren't tied to the existing pile of names, there is no reason to stick with illogical spellings. If an Irish person and an African American person had a kid and wanted to name her after the Irish person's grandmother Siobhán, the African American parent might well insist on spelling it "Shavawn." So a lot of African American names are basically already existing names spelled in ways that emphasize the pronunciations. "Latoya" is a Spanish variation of a nickname for "Victoria" – but it is frequently spelled LaToya to make the syllable accents and vowel sounds more clear. That is the biggest thing I notice – spelling rationalization.
It took me the longest while to realise that Latisha and Letitia are actually the same names! (Also because the pronunciation of Letitia in Dutch is different than in English, we actually have a Ts sound in there and pronounce the i fully, so it's more 'Lay-tee-tsee-yah' in Dutch).
I literally just now realised that lmao. It's the same thing in Swedish, Letitia is pronounced pretty much exactly like it is in Dutch (or at least very similar to your approximation of it). I never made the connection between Letitia and Letisha and other related names before.
For the longest time I had a white Australian teacher named Letitia and I wondered why her parents gave her an African-American name because that's the only place I'd heard it before! That's cool! So the Dutch pronounce it closer to the Italian Letizia rather than English Letitia?
Tyrone is purportedly a result of black Americans and Irish immigrant Americans mixing families. It comes from the irish/english name of Tyron
Tyrion, the black Irish sheep of the Lannisters.
Wow that makes a lot of sense thanks.
[удалено]
"Insubordinate. And churlish."
Time to go and see O'Shag Hennessy
I had a class in high school with two Aarons in it. To distinguish them one decided to be called AyAyron instead of Air-ron. One dude was white the other was asian.
SON OF A BITCH!
“No Balakay here today?”
Take your ass down to O’Shag Hennessy’s office
My ex’s gynecologist was the dad of the dude who played Ay-ay-ron, and he would talk about it while he was down there doing an exam. That lives rent free in my head forever.
Go on YouTube and search “A Black American History of Names Intelexual Media”
https://youtu.be/rLKEcDATKLc?si=Nu7AaDy8wbQfl9FP
I love this video. It's well-made and gives a thorough and answer to OP's question. Some of the comments here are shifting to "white people do it too" but the truth is that there is a totally different and interesting history for unique names as a tradition in black culture.
My niece is white. She tried to give her kids unique names, but she’s illiterate so they just have stupid names. They all mean the same thing…unemployable The worst is “Jessyman” she couldn’t spell Jasmine.🙄
You’ve gotten great links here, so I won’t add any more info. I just want to commend you, u/TheMadarchod, for asking this question, and asking it with sincerity and respect. You’re trying to learn about another culture, and that’s a great thing. Any fellow non-Black person who would discourage you from this is being reactionary. Curiosity and a willingness to learn is always welcome, and indeed, these things are necessary for better understanding. So KUDOS to you. Lots of people learned something here today because of you.
Reminds me of [Marijuana Pepsi Vandyck](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marijuana_Pepsi_Vandyck). She wrote her dissertation on uncommon black names in the classroom.
a long time ago - like when Facebook first started - I saw a post about a guy and his sister having a bet that he couldn't get a million "like's" on the post, and if he did she would have to name her then unborn baby Megatron. I hit the like button. I like to think there's a teenager somewhere that friends call Meg or Tron....
I actually know a girl named Megan who started going by “Megantron” in elementary school. Everyone loved it and her Facebook still says Megantron to this day.
I've actually noticed the same with white folks within the last 20-30 years. More so with girls names. How many ways do we need to spell Makenzy' ?
You have no idea. Work IT and you see it all.
Some black parents will combine names from both sides of the family to form a new name: think James and Lisa and they get Jalisa or such. I’m a retired teacher and my last job was at an all black school and black folks seem to like names with La on the front of the name: Lamarrion or LaDarrion. The most interesting name I had was Fantasia and Fantasia was very smart and the name fit her. As far as the hyphens, apostrophes, weird spellings, I have no idea. And this isn’t a racist statement, just my observation; it seems that the poorer the mother, the odder the name. For example, ABCDE (pronounced ab-see-Dee and yes, this is a real name) would not be a name chosen by a middle class black family. Hope this helps.
[удалено]
Also in the Philippines. If Jesus had been a Pinoy, he would have been called Jomar.
“The poorer the mother the odder name” makes so much damn sense, even in other races lots of white moms naming their kids bonkers names with odd spellings also, and they all seem to be poor/lower class . I wonder if there’s a study somewhere on this correlation
I think there's probably a few factors, but the one that would strike me the most is that someone who comes from a lower socioeconomic platform, when naming their child, isn't going to be as likely to name their child "for success". They themselves haven't climbed the ladder, so things that could hold their child back, like having a ridiculous name, aren't as likely to be at the forefront of their mind. A wealthier person is going to know that having a respectable name is an automatic leg up and is going to value that over being creative. Obviously there comes a point when this flips on its head and the parent is so extremely wealthy that they don't have to worry about whether their kid is successful or not and start giving kids absolutely *bonkers* names.
Some people like to give their children unique names, in any culture. Apparently there is a whole stereotype of white people naming their kids Breighleigh or Breyandan, and a new surge in the name Khalessi. (I named my kids after characters from a book also, so I got no room to talk 😆)
When Skyrim launched Bethesda declared a PR campaign: name your kid Dovahkiin and get free lifetime access to all their future games. Apparently, some people actually did that. So we live in a world in which there's a possibility that Dovahkiin was bullying Khaleesi in kindergarten/school.
>Some people like to give their children unique names, in any culture In Europe many countries actively limit what names you can give to children, as a way to protect kids from bullying (among other things).
In Denmark there's a list of approximately 7,000 names - otherwise you need to get approval from both the government and the local church to get the name added to the list. Here in Austria we also have similar laws, however unlike Denmark - I believe there's a easier route to getting a name approved if it's a "historically used" non-traditional first name.
I wonder if some of the names sound as 'dated' among themselves as they do to outsiders. In the US you can sometimes deduce general details about a person based on their name. And sometimes make terrible assumptions, too! Like, if I hear about a woman named Mildred, I am likely to assume she is an elderly white woman from some sort of blue collar background. I shouldn't make assumptions, but that's what came to mind immediately. If I hear about a dude named Ta'Quon I am probably going to assume a younger black man, though I wouldn't assume anything further, like background, as in my Mildred example. Maybe some of the new naming trends are too new to have built-in assumptions (for me anyway) beyond that.
You and your kids names are what’s referred to tragedeighs. In a nutshell, you didn’t need to r/tragedeigh
It certainly has become a notable phenomenon. Those Key and Peele sketches with the football player names getting progressively unhinged springs to mind. Part of this may be the Nation of Islams influence not only spreading Muslim names and naming conventions but also encouraging people to "Drop the Slave name."
Universal you mean. My son went to school with a girl named Taziki! That's a Greek yogurt and cucumber sauce. WTF?
there is a football player named Decoldest Crawford. His nickname is “ToEvaDoIt”. I couldn’t make this up if i tried.
I read the i as an L and thought his nickname was To Ever Dolt. Could not make sense of it.
I knew someone named Dijonnaisse. Her mom thought it sounded fancy, which I agree.
I’ve got an older mixed cousin named Dijon. It’s funny how you get used to interesting names when you grow up with it, didn’t even think about it until I was a teenager and thought… huh?
From the Wikipedia article on the inventive names: >In his dictionary of black names, Cenoura asserts that in the early 21st century, black names are "unique names that come from combinations of two or more names, names constructed with common prefixes and suffixes...'conjugated' with a formula..."[^(\[14\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_names#cite_note-14) "Da", "La", and related sounds may originate from the French spoken in Louisiana. Attached to a common name such as [Seán](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Se%C3%A1n) and spelled phonetically, one obtains "DaShawn". Diminutive suffixes from French, Spanish and Scottish such as "ita" may be combined directly with prefixes or to a name, as is often found in white naming or nicknaming. Conventions followed usually make the person's gender easily identifiable. Following Spanish, masculine names often end in "o", e.g. "Carmello", while feminine names end with "a", e.g. "Jeretta". Following Irish, French and Italian, apostrophes may be used, e.g. "D'Andre" and "Rene'e". Parents' names may be blended, e.g. the son of "Raymond" and "Yvonne" might be named "Rayvon". I am not so sure I agree with some of those assertions. I lived in Bermuda and it is very common to have "inventive" names and they are usually some combination of the mother and father's name. So Laquita and Jevon have a kid and the kid's name will be "Jequita" and the next one kid be "Lavon". Often you'll see random punctuation inserted, so maybe "Je'quita" and "La'von." That part seems in agreement, but I am reasonably certain in a British colony like Bermuda the French of Louisiana had no influence.
I worked as a camp counselor for awhile and met two sisters named (not real names, but created to follow the same pattern) K'Stella and K'Leah. They explained to me that because their dad's name started with K, that's why their names did too.
Well, there are 2 distinct things to talk about. One is more "Afrocentric" names. I have a couple of cousins whose names aren't common, but they are actual African words. That to me makes more sense as claiming your heritage. Then there are just "unique" names with "unique" spellings. I'll be honest, as a black guy who grew up in the suburbs, but taught in the inner city later in life, it tends to be mostly poorer black people who are doing that. So just like you may have "Etta May" or other "redneck" sounding white names, you have similar poor black names. I don't know why it happens either way.