zompist bboard

Has there been any academic studies of "black names"? I'm talking about those names which don't seem to have any particular etymology and are seemingly coined when the individual is born (a quick search on fb turned up Shameeka and Tyqwan) or are portmanteaus of "traditional" names (Tyshawn, from Tyrone + Shawn, for example). I am most interested in the origin of this phenomenon but whatever y'all can turn up would be of interest.

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (2005) by Steven Levitt at least explores the phenomenon to some extent. I've forgotten exactly what he said but it was interesting. Hopefully someone else might be able to either repeat what Levitt said or say something more concrete in general.

One thing that these names seem to have in common is that they're all 3 syllables long, and the second one is stressed. If there's only 2 syllables, the second one is still stressed. The first vowel is reduced to /@/, regardless of the letter that it's spelt with.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11172054 wrote:... DeKendrix Warner ...

JaTavious Warner, 17, Takeitha Warner, 13, JaMarcus Warner, 14, Litrelle Stewart, 18, Latevin Stewart, 15, and LaDarius Stewart, 17, rushed to help him and each other.

Even the Obama's aren't exempt!

wikipedia wrote:Barack and Michelle [LaVaughn] Obama have two daughters: Malia Ann /məˈliːə/, born on July 4, 1998,[7] and Natasha (known as Sasha /ˈsɑːʃə/)

Of course, "Natasha" is a proper name of Russian origin, but that doesn't mean that it can't be/hasn't been reanalyzed as a Black name.

And let's not forget the mythical "le-a" (http://www.snopes.com/racial/language/le-a.asp), which could be rewritten "LaDasha" in a more traditional orthography.

* * *

All that being said, no, I don't know of an academic study on the topic.

Whites do this too. I recall reading an article about this (I forget where, I'm afraid), where the reporter talked to a bunch of people who said they wanted their kid to have a unique name or at least a unique spelling. Perhaps ironically, it was Asians who still just use traditional English names.

In my experience white people prefer goofy spellings (Achleigh), not on the spot novelties.

zompist wrote:Whites do this too. I recall reading an article about this (I forget where, I'm afraid), where the reporter talked to a bunch of people who said they wanted their kid to have a unique name or at least a unique spelling. Perhaps ironically, it was Asians who still just use traditional English names.

My name is Gulliver, I have a brother called Orlando and another called Hamish and a nephew called Luca. My best friend when I was little was a girl called Friday. While none of these names are quite Phónrixxia and Sharpaigne, none are exactly top-ten names. White people do indeed do it too.

patiku wrote:In my experience white people prefer goofy spellings (Achleigh), not on the spot novelties.

I like to call the generation of children born between 1995 and 2010 the "Skyler Generation".

A friend of the family was acquainted at one point with a girl named Latreen, and when my mother was a social worker in California she once worked with one Female /fəˈmɑli/.

http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/ ... tt2004.pdf

You're welcome.

I knew a guy whose mother was an elementary school teacher. She apparently had a student named /mɪˈstɑkɪ/. Three guesses how it was spelled.

zompist wrote:Whites do this too. I recall reading an article about this (I forget where, I'm afraid), where the reporter talked to a bunch of people who said they wanted their kid to have a unique name or at least a unique spelling. Perhaps ironically, it was Asians who still just use traditional English names.

This. I was named after my great-grandfather (well, not intentionally, but...), and I've only met one other person with my name who isn't Asian, and at least four who are. Pretty much everyone I know is solidly middle-class, but I've met people with names like Orlando, Su, Avery, Keenan, Jerald, Brighid, Finn, Callen, Dayna, Lauree, Kai, Frankie, Julynn, Pia, and too many Hopes to count, all of which are pretty characteristically white ~*~*~*unique*~*~*~ names. Also Catherine, Katherine, and Kathryn, Caitlin, Kaitlyn and probably a Kaitlin somewhere, and so on.

Also, black names don't have to be three syllables with a schwa in the first: Jamal, DeAndre, JaTavious, Charniquia, etc. And you also get things like Diamond and Precious. (I've also met a black guy named Tariq, but I'm pretty sure either he changed or his parents were politically motivated. Dude was fucked up.)

NE: I've never met anyone named Natasha who wasn't either black or Russian

Nortaneous wrote:NE: I've never met anyone named Natasha who wasn't either black or Russian

I have!

Wait. She may have been demi-slavic. Get me a time machine and I'll find out.

She apparently had a student named /mɪˈstɑkɪ/. Three guesses how it was spelled.

MaStocky
MaStaqui
MaStoqui

"Mustache"

mista'ke

Whites do this too. I recall reading an article about this (I forget where, I'm afraid), where the reporter talked to a bunch of people who said they wanted their kid to have a unique name or at least a unique spelling. Perhaps ironically, it was Asians who still just use traditional English names.

My name is Gulliver, I have a brother called Orlando and another called Hamish and a nephew called Luca. My best friend when I was little was a girl called Friday. While none of these names are quite Phónrixxia and Sharpaigne, none are exactly top-ten names. White people do indeed do it too.

Indeed. I have a sister named "Kyla" /'kaI.l@/ My mother's reasoning was this: She took the first part of her (my mother) mother's name ("Karen"), and the last part of her grandmother's name ("Lyla"). Somehow, I've even met other people with the name, though I didn't get to ask them why their parents named them so.

Also, years ago, I had a neighbor (girl) named "Taji" /'ta.Zi/.

However, despite these names being novel, they don't ring me as Black. Perhaps it's because they're stressed on the first syllable, and the first syllable isn't /l@/ or /dZ@/.

Also, I know a guy about my age who had a kid a couple years ago; He named the boy "Ganon".

* * *

I do know a black girl named "Fakira", but she has a good reason for her name; She's straight from Africa.

http://deadspin.com/5924827/american-baby-names-are-somehow-getting-even-worse wrote:Sketch ... Harvest

Obligatory: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZbA5RM97DI

I have a personal theory that the majority of so called "black names" are of creole inspiration as they all seem to portray elements of Romance languages. Le and La and De prefixed to a name is a definitive mark of French and anything ending in qua and quia, etc. is of Spanish origin even if mispronounced as [kw]. I think we can look to the influence of Louisianan Creole in the Southern USA, and later the influence of Spanish and specifically Spanish gender forms with -a, to explain the origin of these names.

Also, while Le-a may be a myth, I have met a Chloe spelled Chlo-e.

Terra wrote:Also, I know a guy about my age who had a kid a couple years ago; He named the boy "Ganon".

that's just a nerd being a nerd

Viktor77 wrote:I have a personal theory that the majority of so called "black names" are of creole inspiration as they all seem to portray elements of Romance languages. Le and La and De prefixed to a name is a definitive mark of French and anything ending in qua and quia, etc. is of Spanish origin even if mispronounced as [kw]. I think we can look to the influence of Louisianan Creole in the Southern USA, and later the influence of Spanish and specifically Spanish gender forms with -a, to explain the origin of these names.

Also, while Le-a may be a myth, I have met a Chloe spelled Chlo-e.

Viktor, call me a cynic, but I doubt that names innovated in the 20th-century urban North are influenced by Louisiana French. Louisiana French was pretty much extinct by the 1960s, and we have no evidence of your cited prefixes influencing antebellum or post-Reconstruction Southern black names, which we would have if your "personal theory" were true.

dhokarena56 wrote:

Viktor77 wrote:I have a personal theory that the majority of so called "black names" are of creole inspiration as they all seem to portray elements of Romance languages. Le and La and De prefixed to a name is a definitive mark of French and anything ending in qua and quia, etc. is of Spanish origin even if mispronounced as [kw]. I think we can look to the influence of Louisianan Creole in the Southern USA, and later the influence of Spanish and specifically Spanish gender forms with -a, to explain the origin of these names.

Also, while Le-a may be a myth, I have met a Chloe spelled Chlo-e.

Viktor, call me a cynic, but I doubt that names innovated in the 20th-century urban North are influenced by Louisiana French. Louisiana French was pretty much extinct by the 1960s, and we have no evidence of your cited prefixes influencing antebellum or post-Reconstruction Southern black names, which we would have if your "personal theory" were true.

But where else would they have been exposed to French??? I highly doubt Quebec.

Viktor77 wrote:But where else would they have been exposed to French??? I highly doubt Quebec.

they weren't
that's why the names we're talking about ARE NOT FRENCH
they're an attempt to SOUND french
or just vaguely exotic

jeeeeesus

Viktor77 wrote:

dhokarena56 wrote:

Viktor77 wrote:I have a personal theory that the majority of so called "black names" are of creole inspiration as they all seem to portray elements of Romance languages. Le and La and De prefixed to a name is a definitive mark of French and anything ending in qua and quia, etc. is of Spanish origin even if mispronounced as [kw]. I think we can look to the influence of Louisianan Creole in the Southern USA, and later the influence of Spanish and specifically Spanish gender forms with -a, to explain the origin of these names.

Also, while Le-a may be a myth, I have met a Chloe spelled Chlo-e.

Viktor, call me a cynic, but I doubt that names innovated in the 20th-century urban North are influenced by Louisiana French. Louisiana French was pretty much extinct by the 1960s, and we have no evidence of your cited prefixes influencing antebellum or post-Reconstruction Southern black names, which we would have if your "personal theory" were true.

But where else would they have been exposed to French??? I highly doubt Quebec.

Viktor. Look at the evidence.

Why do you find it likely that these naming elements infiltrated the black slave community around the turn of the 19th century, but somehow never came into use until the 20th century, decades and decades after the source of those elements went extinct and that community had dispersed across the country?

argument from incredulity, viktor

Of course a community of illiterate people that don't even have TVs to watch can't be influenced by foreigners that are in other countries.

There's no way they'd try to sound foreign and not getting it quite right. Of course not.

Viktor, see how this is a sarcastic summary of the flaws of your understanding of the issue?