That's what all names are, a random combination of vowel sounds. Why is Connor a more special name than Kevuntae? Because it's a more common name? Because someone gave it a meaning a long time ago? With me saying these names reclaim African culture, I'm obviously not saying a made up name comes directly from Africa. I'm saying that we make up names to stand out and take pride in our culture as African Americans, instead of having generic, whitewashed names. My point in general is that my name or any other ethnic name shouldn't offend people because they don't understand it
You are missing my point entirely. Names from different cultures are constructed in a way that lets anyone who understands the phonemic structure of that culture to identify and correctly pronounce the name. Its the main reason people in spelling bees ask the country of origin for a word. If the vowel sounds match the assumed country of origin then most people wont have a problem pronouncing the name, and there isnt a problem. Here is a simple example, Leila is an Arabic name, most people recognize that in this case ei is pronounces as a "long a" so the name is pronounced correctly as lay-la. You may run into someone who names there child Leila but they want it pronounced Lee- eye-la. 99% of the time people are going to mispronounce that name because it doesnt follow the ESTABLISHED sound structure given its language of origin or use.
The issue is when these new names dont follow any established sound structure for any culture. So you can say the names are used to reclaim African culture, when the fact is that the name and its structure is not based on any established culture. In reality its kinda offensive that your idea of an African (yeah its a continent not a country but im just going with that since you did) name is a bunch of sounds randomly thrown together. Those names arent thrown together any more randomly than your example of Connor.
The name you listed, Kevuntae, now if i was using an African pronunciation it would be Keh-voon-tay even though that "a" wouldnt be needed. Given ive seen different names with a similar setup pronounced as Key-von-tay thats how i would pronounce it even though that doesnt follow any African naming structure ive ever seen and therefore would invalidate your claim that its use is reclaiming African culture.
Furthermore the point of this thread isnt about which names should and shouldnt offend people. Its about the very real situation we live in here in the US where people with extremely uncommon very difficult to pronounce names face discrimination in life because of it. You can name your child whatever you like, but you have to accept that others may not be as welcoming to that name as you are and your children may face hardship because of it. Its not limited to just supposed African based names either, thats the reason i have met plenty of Chinese nationals here in America named Tim, Charlie, Bob, Jack, Lisa, and Sophie but at the same time ive never met a Chinese national named Tim, Charlie, Bob, Jack, Lisa, or Sophie.
She changed it when she was 18.
even if you didnt make it obvious
