Of course it’s bullshit. That’s not a dash; it’s a hyphen.
Oof, after posting, I realized that some of my wording in calling an urban legend bullshit was bad posting. I shouldn’t have called anyone a “bullshit spreader”.
This subject gets me riled up and I posted before thinking. Terrible excuse, I know where I am and I know the rules. If my post needs to be deleted, I’m fine with that.
I can, and will do better. Apologies all around.
Sure she did. That’s yet another one of the standard urban legend names like the aforementioned “L-a”, ABCDE, Femalé, etc. that everyone swears they know a teacher or doctor who knows them!
With the amount of people who claim to have met people with these names, they should be some of the most popular names around!
so you’re calling me or my ex GF liars?? Based on what grounds? Just because you doubt something doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.
I think your ex-girlfriend was being called a liar. It’s not hard to believe she told you that story, just hard to believe she was telling the truth in every detail. Most likely she relayed the story just like you did. It’s a common means of communication and people should realize that sometimes hearsay is intended more to amuse than convey accurate details.
I’m saying I highly highly doubt your ex actually met someone named “Vagina” in person. I’m sure she told you she did. That is how every single urban legend goes.
Folklorist here. It’s a lot more complicated than “truth” or “lie.” These are narratives with social and psychological functions, told by humans with fallible memories.
Your girlfriend probably believed she was telling the truth. Further interrogation might have revealed that she skipped a minor detail: it wasn’t her sister-in-law, but her friend’s, and lo and behold it turns out that the chain of individuals is longer and doesn’t actually lead to a person with that name.
It’s not misinformation nor disinformation, it’s folklore, and while not literally true it does have meaning, so the harsh judgement of true-or-false thinkers is a little misplaced (and unkind)—put yeah, nobody has such a name, except perhaps by ostension (people acting out a previously encountered legend), and that seems unlikely.
Folklore can also be dangerous, so it’s not completely benign IMO.
I’m glad you said that—I never claimed it was benign. In fact, I’d argue that most of these name stories have a strong component of anti-black racism, in that they’re seizing on an essential different between traditional middle- and upper-class white naming practices vs the quite different Black practices, which value creative recombination with name parts and syllables as opposed to whole names. These legends call attention to this difference, which is one small component of racism, which takes them pretty far from benign.
Then I suppose you don’t believe that I have a Italian confidential secretary named Alotta Fagina.
This, so much. In the course of my job history, I’ve worked for, with, and on behalf of hundreds of African-Americans. And I’ve encountered plenty of names like Keisha, LaMarcus, Shontae, and Malik. (In addition to plenty of Black Chrises, Jameses, Jessicas, and Sarahs).
But I’ve never encountered a Chlamydia, Vagicil, Lemonjello, or LaDasha, outside of stories with strong “oh, those silly black people” undertones.
My kids went to school with many, She’niquas, Takinzias, La’monishas, and others.
They turned into Nikki, Kinzie, and Nisha.
It all worked out. It’s considered a cultural thing where we live.
No one really cares anymore.
Your name is your name.
Many years ago a friend who was a police officer told me she had a colleague called Adora Dick. I thought it was a joke until, months later, I saw a captioned photograph in the local newspaper of ms Dick.
My friend also told me that Adora had a brother called Ivor. Not sure I believe that one but once bitten…
I could well believe this as malik is one of the Arabian words that translates as king.
In the Arabian horse world there are a number of stallions with Malik somewhere in their name and mares with Malika (queen).
Yes, it’s explicitly the Arabic name. A few decades ago - and perhaps still, I don’t know - Arabic names were popular in the African-American community. I’ve encountered Jamal, Omar, Ayesha, Khadijah, Malik.
Malik just = King, like King Gillette. Khadijah means “premature child”, so I don’t know, even though Mohammed’s first wife had that name. Jamal = beauty, Omar = flourishing, Ayesha = “alive” (cf. Eva and variants)