3 questions about "AA" names...

[intruder]

No offense but i always wondered about question number one myself. Like where did these names/trend originate?

Not that there is anything wrong with it but most cultures have names based on part of ancestry and/or influences of colonization.

• Haitian have french, spanish and african based names which makes sense because of the island was onced owned by the spanish and french and both enslaved africans
• Jamaicans have british and african names because it's a former british colony where africans were enslaved
• Trinidadians tend to have british, african and indian based names because of the same reasons listed above.
• Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Guyanese etc.. so on and so forth

Black americans, in an attempt to create their own identity seem to have invented/created their own trend when it comes naming children. It's just that the creativity went overboard in some cases.

 

[mbewane]

I've said it before.....I'm not saying this is completely true for all "distinct AA" names...since a name like Denzel sorta defeats my point, since he's in his 50s....but I would say after the 1960s/Post-Jim Crow era......you have Black Americans...who had probably went from Coloreds to Negro to Afro - Americans to Black in about 25 year time span were equally trying to find themselves/create a culture anew...basically trying to define what a post-Civil Rights era meant...

IDENTITY.....thus in the 1970s it became whether to latch on to the White mass identity or create a fresh Afro/Black American identity..... African names, Muslims putting forth Arabic names, then regular "White American names" and then creating original names from all that....

.....hence the creative names that seemed to have started in the 1970s, growing tremendously in the 1980s, and basically overwhelmingly in the 1990s.........

I think it has sorta gotten out of hand......so I hope that the names that are given, allow these kids to be fiercely competitive and steadfast in the marketplace and create their own, cause there is still some stigma, though I think its decreasing somewhat...

Ok thanks breh this gives me a little more to understand. Really this is interesting on a "linguistic" point of view (for lack of a better word) because it shows that AAs have used names to distance themselves from history and to create something new, that's quite interesting I'd say.

I admit I'm not totally convinced by the "African names" thing, what area of Africa would we be talking about?

 

[god shamgod]

All afrikan names aint bad.I've heard some dope ass unique afrikan names

As long as it dont have 18 letters in the 1st or last name

 

[mbewane]

Arent all names made up? People like to be unique. People like to name their chidlren what they want to name them. The sound of a name is meaningless. What you do with your name means more. Naming your child for the specific reason of helping them get a job, is sad. Theres nothing wrong with Eurocentric names but if you think about your child interviewing with an individual who will not want their services because of their name, perhaps you should rethink who it is you are molding your child to be.

, friend.

I'm not the one who said I'd be giving my child a "european name", friend

I think that a lot of names are made up, and not only in the US by AAs, it happens in Europe too but far less...Belgians calling their daughters "Fraise" ("Strawberry" ) and sh*t...it's just that here they're mostlt taking common words and using them as first names, instead of totally inventing new ones.

And the sound of a name isn't meaningless, well at least a name in itself is not meaningless everywhere. My "centralafrican" name, "Mbewane" (my username) means "New Chief", it was also made up but with a meaning. (Now I got to live up to it tho )

 

[Rawtid]

it is funny. first people made fun of african americans for not adopting whiter names like the asian immigrants who come to this country will in a heartbeat, but now i notice whites getting creative with the spelling and naming of their kids. ridicule then copy.

Not to mention white people naming their kids stupid shyt like Pilot Inspektor, Apple, Sage Moonblood and a host of other ridiculousness.

 

[Swirv]

Creativity bro nothing more or less.

 

[mbewane]

Not to mention white people naming their kids stupid shyt like Pilot Inspektor, Apple, Sage Moonblood and a host of other ridiculousness.

 

[Rawtid]

Pilot Inspektor (Jason Lee) - Top 10 Wacky Celebrity Baby Names - TIME

 

[SuburbanPimp]

It seemed those names kind of started in the late 70s/early 80s

But the shyt got out of control in the late 80s and 90s.....

Shout out to my parents though, had 4 kids and gave us all soild names with no crazy prefixes

 

[Mr. Somebody]

I'm not the one who said I'd be giving my child a "european name", friend

I think that a lot of names are made up, and not only in the US by AAs, it happens in Europe too but far less...Belgians calling their daughters "Fraise" ("Strawberry" ) and sh*t...it's just that here they're mostlt taking common words and using them as first names, instead of totally inventing new ones.

And the sound of a name isn't meaningless, well at least a name in itself is not meaningless everywhere. My "centralafrican" name, "Mbewane" (my username) means "New Chief", it was also made up but with a meaning. (Now I got to live up to it tho )

Its meaningless. What matters is how you live your life and did you do enough to impress God, not so much, living up to the name your parents gave you. What did Condaleeza Rice have to live up to? Lets live up to Gods standards, not what people call us, friend.

 

[mbewane]

Pilot Inspektor (Jason Lee) - Top 10 Wacky Celebrity Baby Names - TIME

That whole list is insane

 

[Rawtid]

That whole list is insane

and most of them are white people.

Rich people don't really give a damn what they name their kid because they know their child will probably never be in a position where their names are in a pile of resumes.

 

[CrimsonTider]

I will give my kid the whitest name on the block....I don't want his resume to get tossed in the bushes before they get a chance to talk to him.

Go ahead and call me uncle tom but perception is fucking reality....

yeah you give your daughter the name Boomquita you might as well make her middle name "DontHireMe"

Yeah , because the racist that will toss a resume because of a lack sounding name is going to actually hire a black person because his name is Jim

 

[Illuminatos]

I remember last semester there was this old ass white guy in my class named, Jamal.

I fukking every time his name was called.

 

[Chris.B]

Yeah , because the racist that will toss a resume because of a lack sounding name is going to actually hire a black person because his name is Jim

You at least get a chance to make an impression when you come in...