This is inspired by the Key and Peele skit where they make fun of Black American football players’ names, but after watching American sports, I can’t help but notice that Black Americans tend to have names that sound foreign, e.g., incorporating prepositions like “de” from French like Houston Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans or using apostrophe’s like wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase. Is there a specific reason for this, is it limited to all Black Americans or the ones from certain states?
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It is legitimately as simple as ‘Their parents liked how it sounded.’
Probably because black people wanted to distance themselves from the type of names given to them by their oppressors
It’s not limited to Black Americans at all any more, have you seen the names coming out to nearly all-white Utah?
Do a search on this over at r/askblackpeople
African Americans in the US are descended from slaves. They did not get to have their own names. They often had both their first and last name changed when resold.
They often choose something completely unique in recognition of this – and then it’s a trend and the reason can be lost. It’s why Malcolm X changed his last name- his last name was the name of his family’s slaver.
Don’t want those slave names from Europe anymore
The south has significant French language influence (see Cajun creole). Names still follow that sound a lot, especially in black communities. They’re spelled unusually because of the systematic racism and worse education those same families often get. So you’re frequently seeing names of people whose parents go by sound instead of a deep knowledge of grammar when filling in the birth certificate.
(I’m aware there are highly educated Black Americans, and there are black colleges. Statistically 18% of black student attain “full literacy” while 44% of white students do)
Here is a video that delves into answer of that question.
As always, wiki has some useful info.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_names
Black Americans’ link to their nations of origin was severed by slavery (that’s why they’re the only ones who refer to their ultimate continent of origin in their hyphenated names – African-American – while other Americans use the nation: Japanese-American, Italian-American, Nigerian-American, etc.).
Since they were unable to draw on national tradition for names, they came up with their own unique ones.
If I had to guess, some black parents may not have respected tradition or wanted to use what they saw as traditional white names for their children. There might have been a element of passive aggressiveness as well as mothers trusting their own inspiration and taste.
I remember this being true fifty years ago (Mychaal for Michael).
r/tragedeigh is loaded with plenty of white kids with bizarre names
Black people in America basically had their history and culture stolen from them. There was a movement in the 60s and 70s to reclaim that history. One of the results of that was a flair for the dramatic with the names.
As I understand it, during the Civil Rights Movement it became more common to reject the traditional white names, Biblical names, etc, for the names that were more related to their culture. As a way of not conforming to white stereotypes.
Not to be outdone, along came white folks with their 618 different spellings of Caitlin, and their wanton abuse of the letter Y.
I’ve had black students tell me that their name was a combination of their mother’s and father’s names. An example would be Jasmine and Marshal had a son and named him Ja’Marr. (I made that one up)
What is hilarious is that I can tell the majority of people answering this question are not black themselves and likely don’t even have black friends. Just speculating and assuming about why a group of people y’all don’t belong to are doing something.
This is not a “black American issue.” It’s a sub-cultural issue. I have a name that blends in with “white” culture. Both my parents and all of my grandparents are black, they also have names that blend in with “white culture.” This is true of a lot of wealthier and educated black Americans and it’s cultural for them. In those cultures you may see the name Keisha (traditional black name), but not Shakeisha for example. In urban areas you may see different types of names. That’s cultural too. People always believe black people are a monolith. We aren’t. Often times names are associated with socioeconomic status. The same is true of non-black people but it’s the opposite. Upper middle class white folks may feel ok to give their kids crazy names because they aren’t worried about them getting jobs or being discriminated against. Upper middle class black people know we aren’t afforded the same privileges so we may lean more conservative name wise. It just depends.
Why is everyone so obsessed with what black people are doing all the time…..It’s like at what point can they just live their lives without being constantly questioned or harassed.
In the South many Black couples form a child’s name by mixing the letters of their first name’s together. Darla + Leon = Delon, etc.
Partially for the same reason Native Americans started to use their Native names and not their “Christian” names. It’s to disassociate from the white colonists that enslaved, massacred, and relocated their ancestors.
https://youtu.be/rLKEcDATKLc?si=HngHF-n23jnlC50I
This video is a pretty good explainer!
Follow up question, why is r/Tragedeigh dominated by white folks naming their son Jhaxzyn or whatever?
It’s fairly complex but a combination of
Traditional African names, traditional Islamic names, alternative spellings of traditional European names (or coding a traditional European name through an African language or Arabic), many African American people are in fact multiracial (hence names being taken into the African American community from other languages), and poverty.
FWIW google says DeMeco is African (Igbo / Nigerian) in origin.
There was an Afrocentric movement in the 70’s and people started to make up names they felt sounded African.
Do people in modern Africa cultures have a similar practice, tradition?
The short answer is that names like DeName, LaName, Name-ell or Name-ique are influenced by Louisiana French. Others come from the Hebrew Bible or Arabic (thanks to the influence of the Nation of Islam).
Here is a fun and informative video on that subject:
https://youtu.be/gjiGBpdmk_I?si=EefcoEvnb40hmrUe
https://youtu.be/gjiGBpdmk_I?si=Df0KK4_2B4y6p_63
Part of it is a rejection of Anglo/European names. Africans sold into slavery were not allowed to use their real names, and were given Christian names instead. Slave owners would also often re-name the children born to their slaves if they didn’t like the name they were given by their parents. In the 60’s and 70’s, the Black Power movement rejected these Anglo names and people were encouraged to use names of African origin or create their own.
https://youtu.be/gjiGBpdmk_I?si=fJjHOqRUMLBZIHSA
This will explain it pretty well
inb4 all the “white knights” try to answer this question 😂😂
When African slaves were brought to the US, generally they were forced to forget their heritage and identity and take on the names the slavers gave to them. After several generations of this, most slaves had the names of their owners and didn’t even have any memory of their African names. Once they were freed, this led to a generation that needed to create their own identity, to distance themselves from their slavers. So they created unique names which caught on and became its own form of culture and identity. Pretty damn cool if you ask me.
I know some of the ones that sound more neoclassical/ancient Greek or Roman inspired come from enslavers in the 18th century giving the people they enslaved classical names. I am unclear if that’s because they liked those names or because they thought there was some humor in naming an enslaved person after Cato or Pompey (assholes).
And then after a couple of generations, what was intended to be ironic or simply an homage to a specific philosopher or emperor or whatever, becomes a cultural name for that group of people.
One thing is a belief that non-phonetic names are stupid. So there is a category of African American names which are simply rationalized spelling.
Leticia, for instance. It’s pronounced La’Tisha, so that’s how it should be spelled. The apostrophe is often to separate syllables to get the correct vowel and stress – “Latisha” could be LAT-ti-sha; “La’Tisha” is pretty much bulletproof for phonics.
White people take names that have pretty simple phonetics and come up with stupid phonetics for them – “Jackson” to “Jaxxyn”; Black people take names that have stupid phonetics and come up with simple phonetics.
Back in the early 90s, I was an assistant manager at a Pizza But and the manager was a black guy about my age. One day he stopped by and had his little daughter with him. I don’t recall what her name was, 30+ years later. It was something unique, but not outlandish. My lunch driver, a kinda country white girl asked him about her name. “What does it mean? Does it mean something in African?”
Him, laughing: “No, my wife and I just made it up.”
Also people like to give their kids unique names, this happens in Anglo culture as well. There is a whole subreddit on it.
Despite the claim that this has something to do with slavery, it only became common in the 70s and 80s.
Why not, and it’s not limited. Upper East Side WASPs were known to conjure up unique names like Biff
Early on, the strain of thought was: Why are we naming our kids Benjamin and Daniel as if they’re white people? We should be creating our own culture. Black Americans at the time were trying to reclaim an African identity (however vague, as Africa is mega-diverse). There are not-so-subtle Islamic influences. So you can bet the Nation of Islam (Malcom X) was in line with their theology. This was also around the time when Kwanzaa was invented. 1960s and 70s, during the late civil rights movement, after it became clear they were winning.
Eventually, the name trend caught on and now it’s embedded in a community. What someone might find a strange name is now possibly a heritage name.
Disclaimer: I’m not black. But I was a history major and focused on American social movements. So this is sorta up my alley.
Historically, a lot of Black families would change their last names once they escaped slavery. A lot of them were run of the mill (I had a few Freemans in my class), but some were a bit more unique.
Have you heard some of the names white Americans give their kids?
I love the unique names and like OP, I often wondered how people came up with them. The popularity of unique names is growing. Let the racks of cheap store trinkets with traditional names on them be a thing of the past.
Spite.
In the U.S., under slavery, there was an organized effort to stamp out any family, tribe, history, language or culture that the slaves had in their previous lives. The slave owners hoped that by keeping them ignorant, destroying their culture and substituting a false “slave version” of white culture, it would help them control the slaves better. Part of that false culture was forcing “white” names on the slaves and their children.
The attempt was at least partly successful, as many of their descendants are still unaware of their past.
The names are likely chosen to help them reject the false culture. By choosing names for themselves and their children that don’t adhere to white American culture, they are empowering themselves, at least in a small way. Some of the names chosen may sound odd to others, but that’s for them to decide, not me.
I read about this in a Baby Name book and it was so interesting to me. As others have said, it’s definitely true that many Black Americans choose names that are similar yet slightly different than those of the culture that enslaved them. Some of those popular names come from the Christian Bible, but are not as often used by white Americans or English, like the name “Keziah.” Keziah was Job’s daughter in the Bible. This name eventually became pronounced “Keisha.” Many Americans could automatically recognize this name and the subculture it comes from. Sometimes there are adapted French or Spanish names too. I wish I could remember the name of the book because I actually think this knowledge is helpful so that Americans can recognize and respect one another more.
In the 80s there was a big push to get in touch with their african roots (Kwanza being invented around this time) but a lot of black Americans just like white American’s have a shitty pseudo understanding of the rest of the world and the culture they come from (like irish American’s who think they have any actual cultural ties with Ireland today) and to put it bluntly just chose names that sound vaguely African but just straight uo have nothing to do with Africa or African naming customs.
Vibes+narcism+ignorance+confidence: The American way (not matter what color you are)
John Mcwhorter mentions this in a few of his books about AAVE and Ebonics. Hes a black linguistics professor at columbia.
Shout out Airwrecka
I recall learning about how a lot of African American and Irish were similarly facing discrimination and many of them did intermarry with Irish Americans and so they have Irish sounding names.
Many also joined this group called the Nation of Islam and adopted Arab names
because ever since coming here as slaves, they combined African and American culture and language, including in naming their children.
When they sold you it made it easier for you to be found by family.
From my understanding, a lot of the fascination with unique names began during the 60s and 70s with the Black Power movement, as Black Americans wanted a way to assert an independent cultural identity distinct from white society. I don’t spend a lot of time around kids know what they are being named these days, but anecdotally I think the use of these unique names has peaked, and I hear these names most often given to late gen X and early millennial people, while a lot of younger kids are given more common English names.
Ben Jarvis Green Ellis still has the best nickname in pro sports. “Law Firm”
My theory (and the Wikipedia article someone else posted bears this out to a degree) is that after being enslaved, subjugated, discriminated against, and minimized for oh…500 years, they wanted to have names – foundational parts of their identities – that were unique to them.
Worth keeping in mind: the US isn’t that far removed from its slavery days, and even less far removed from the days in which Black Americans had a fraction of the legal rights they do now.
These structures both carried such immensely oppressive elements of conformity that giving your child a very unique name would be an action against that.
I’m not black nor have many black friends but I know someone that watched a black couple debating names while in the hospital. They were writing things they thought looked good then trying to figure out how to pronounce it.
This video sums up a lot of it: https://youtu.be/rLKEcDATKLc?si=BCTgj4VUKs73K8aL
When you strip a people of their entire culture and heritage, treat them as property, then subhumans, then second class citizens, from where should they draw their naming conventions?