I am writing a science-fiction story involving time travel that is partially set in [name_u]South[/name_u] [name_f]Carolina[/name_f] during the mid 18th century, but also takes place in other times and areas I haven’t picked an exact decade yet but it will be somewhere in the 1730-50 range. I am trying to find names for some of the African-American characters that would have been common at that time but which would also sound unusual to a modern audience. I want to use names that would be rare or nonexistent today but would have been used back then.
Character 1:
Character description: An African-American woman who was born in [name_u]South[/name_u] [name_f]Carolina[/name_f] in the mid 18th century, the daughter of a time-traveling American white supremacist/misogynist from the 21st century and an African slave from the 18th. She is about eight years old when she first becomes prominent in the story, but remains important when she is well over 300 years old. She was able to survive for so long because she became a vampire. She eventually becomes a prominent political leader and becomes president of the United States in the mid 21st century.
Who named the character: Her misogynistic, white supremacist father who also owned her as his slave; her name should not be too atypical of slave names in 18th century [name_u]South[/name_u] [name_f]Carolina[/name_f] but should also take into consideration her biological father’s background in the 21st century.
Character 2:
Character description: (a half-human and half-alien woman with two biological mothers who was born on another planet; one of her mothers was an African woman who was a slave in [name_u]South[/name_u] [name_f]Carolina[/name_f] after being abducted by slavers and her other mother was an alien from another galaxy. She is born on another planet a few years after her alien mother rescues her human mother and Character 1 from slavery in 18th century [name_u]South[/name_u] [name_f]Carolina[/name_f]. Character 2 is an exceptional scientist who is part of a team that eventually develops a cure for most causes of death in humans.
Who named the character: (her two biological mothers, one of whom is an African woman from the 18th century who lived in [name_u]South[/name_u] [name_f]Carolina[/name_f] for about a decade during the 1700s and the other who is an alien. Her alien mother has a very forceful personality and believes that the ends always justify the means. While her human mother is morally opposed to using violence for any reason even to defend herself, her alien mother slaughtered tens of thousand of people on her multi-year quest to find and rescue her human mother with whom she was in love. It did not even occur to her that there might be something wrong with doing so. The only reason that killing ever bothers her alien mother is the thought that her human mother might become upset with her for doing so
**Other: Her human mother’s name is [name_f]Radhiya[/name_f] (I found that name on a list of African names from the 18th century) and her alien mother’s name is Jaeliskzine. The language of Jaeliskzine’s alien civilization uses the k and j letters very frequently in names, so if there is an African-American name from the appropriate time period that does that it could be perfect.
Character 3:
Character description: An African-American woman who is in her 30s when the story takes place in the mid 18th century. She was born into slavery. I haven’t decided on which colony she is from yet, but it won’t be [name_u]South[/name_u] [name_f]Carolina[/name_f] since she will come there from one of the other nearby southern colonies during the story. She starts the story as a slave and ends up becoming one of the leaders of a successful revolution that was inspired by the arrival of 21st century people and their ideas in the 18th century. She is particularly notable for making a pragmatic alliance with her enemies from the 18th century in order to drive out the white supremacist invaders from the 21st century.
Who named the character: Her parents who were also slaves on a plantation in probably either [name_f]Georgia[/name_f] or [name_f]Alabama[/name_f] during the mid 18th century.
Character 4:
Character description: An African-American man who is born into slavery in the mid 18th century, unlike the other characters, I already have a first name for this person. His first name is Quashee, which I found on a list of African-American names from the 18th century. I am trying to find a last name for this character. He is approximately eight years old when the story starts. He is horrifically abused by one of the white supremacist time travelers from the 21st century. Quashee accompanies Character 1 and her family to another planet after being freed from slavery. He later becomes a vampire and spends 300 years pursuing his former abuser through time so that he can get revenge. He starts out as a good person but over the centuries he becomes just as bad as the person who abused him, such as by turning the Vikings into livestock for vampires after traveling back to their time, for example. He gradually evolves from a good person into a particularly twisted villain but eventually (for plot reasons that are too long to describe here) renounces violence and becomes a symbol of peace and is revered as a legendary hero by many of his former enemies.
Who named the character: His parents who were also slaves in 18th century [name_u]South[/name_u] [name_f]Carolina[/name_f].
Character 5:
Character description: An African-American teenage girl who unlike the other characters, was born in the 20th century. I am not sure yet about exactly what year, but she will be introduced as a character in the early 1980s in Seattle, [name_m]Washington[/name_m]. This character is 16 years old when she is first introduced as a character. She is an orphan who ran away from an abusive situation in a foster home and is living on the streets of Seattle during a time when in real life a serial killer was targeting women in her situation in that area. This character does not know anything about her birth parents or her ancestors and is just trying to survive. Unbeknownst to her, one of her ancestors in the 18th century was the only survivor of an extremely high-ranked noble family from an alien civilization who fled to [name_f]Earth[/name_f] but was enslaved by humans and eventually married a human woman who was also a slave. Over the centuries their descendants lost their alien physical features due to their intermarriage with humans and appear African-American since most of their ancestors are from that demographic. Bounty hunters from the alien civilization are looking for the missing heir or any of his descendants so that they can cash in on her alien ancestors’ wealth and control of the largest duchy in their empire. Character 5 eventually gets caught up in a multi-sided alien political dispute over not just control of that duchy but of the empire itself. She ends up reclaiming her distant inheritance and becoming a powerful noblewoman. Character 5 does not forget about her past though, so she uses her new found wealth and power to help homeless people from Seattle immigrate to another galaxy where they have a much higher standard of living.
Who named the character: Her biological parents who she does not remember. They would have been an African-American couple in approximately the 1960s.