Article on "Black" baby names

[taz]

For arguments sake couldn’t [name_f]Shaniqua[/name_f] be from the root name [name_u]Shannon[/name_u], maybe smooshed with the -ique suffix in [name_u]Dominique[/name_u], [name_f]Veronique[/name_f], or a play on the -nic ending? So would age/namesakes deemed worthy be the only thing that separates it from a name like [name_f]Charlotte[/name_f]?

[nat108]

@casilda

@nat108 - People mention what they consider to be a downmarket name because for some people, that matters. Even if the person the poster is black, it still matters to them. My mom used to work with a black woman who had daughters named Stephanie and Brittany. She haaated that black people would throw a bunch of syllables together and call it a name. Granted, this was over 10 years ago, before names like Renesmee and Rykker were becoming popular and it wasn’t as much of a “thing” white people did.

You’re combining to different parts of my post. Not all “[name_m]Black[/name_m]” names are made up or “downmarket”. Off the top of my head, one of the “[name_m]Black[/name_m]” names that an OP was warned about was [name_u]Tyson[/name_u]. What’s so “[name_m]Black[/name_m]” and “downmarket” about that? The only [name_u]Tyson[/name_u] I know is a blue-eyed blond.

@renrose

If the article is correct in suggesting that African-American people wanted to branch away from ‘white’ names then why go down the road of slamming a random group of letters and punctuation together and calling it a name? Surely it would make more sense to use traditional African names? There are thousands of beautiful ones to pick from which are still easy to pronounce in English.

Why do you think names like [name_f]Aisha[/name_f], [name_m]Malik[/name_m], [name_u]Kenya[/name_u], and [name_m]Kwame[/name_m] have grown in popularity since the 1970s? Because since then, some [name_m]Black[/name_m] Americans have looked to the African continent for baby names. Some instead take a different route and choose to make up their own names.

[Mischa]

@nat108 - [name_u]Tyson[/name_u] may be viewed as “black” name for two reasons: boxer [name_m]Mike[/name_m] [name_u]Tyson[/name_u] and male model [name_u]Tyson[/name_u] Beckford. [name_m]Both[/name_m] men are black so that’s why the name may be labelled as “black”.

[system]

@milasmama

As for why African Americans don’t choose African names - why should they?

I wasn’t saying they had to, but the article suggested that they were attempting to differentiate themselves from white people. If that really was the goal then ‘heritage’ names could have been an option rather than making up names.

I see what you mean about people wanting to create a new and modern culture for themselves though.