Oh dear...I kind of agree with the "racist"

In My Humble Opinion
41

even sven, black people have always been able to choose the names of their children. In many cases they selected their family name as well, choosing a last name they liked…now if, generations down the road, their great-grandkids object to the name, well they can change it again.

There is something ignorant about deciding to name your daughter a name you’ve heard and thought was pretty, and it was pronounced “shontay,” and you think it started with a C instead of an S, so you come up with “Chanta” and expect people to pronounce it right and not to comment on the oddness of it all. At least do a little research to find out how the name is commonly spelled, if it’s a name you ever heard of. (I know of one girl, a member of a minority but not the one you mentioned, whose parents liked “Tracy” but thought the spelling was “too ordinary” so they fancied it up. Treycee. Yuk.)

I also went to school with “Sheriane”–pronounced “Sharon.” Proud member of the white underclass, and destined to stay that way.

42

Hey a racist and classist twofer. Yippee.

I’m not going to comment on the white trash angle, but black people aren’t name their kids Chanta or anything else out of ignorance. It’s a very intentional and self-aware marker of black identity and you really should be able to see that even if you haven’t been out of the suburbs much.

43

Damn coding.

44

It is often said that Black (Americans) choose funny names. That is not exactly true. Funny names are a Southern thing, not a Black thing. Since the two cultures embrace each other, there is tons of overlap.

Consider:
“Newt” Ginrich from Georgia
Elvis Presley from Mississippi
“Bubba” Smith from Texas (Bubba is a Southernism for “Brother,” and thence to “Junior.”)
Any hyphenated name (as Billy-Ray) as has already been pointed out.
“Strom” Thurmond of South Carolina

So those who associate some names as being “Black” as simply making a common mistake.

45

“Aquanetta” is a self-aware marker of black identity?

And Chanta said her mother got it wrong. I really don’t see how this is racist or classist. I mean, I said “white underclass,” not white trash, and the suburbs (in case you’ve never been there) are full of such people. How do you define “below the middle class,” anyway?

46

I absolutely hate the reality of this, but I have to agree with Otto. You see, a couple of years ago, my boss was hiring a sales rep and I was the one screening the resumes we received. One was for a woman who had exactly the qualifications we wanted – a background in nursing as well as sales. (We sold medical supplies.) The only problem was her first name was one he was likely to perceive as black, as did I. I think it was something like “Shaniqua”. Even though her qualifications were exactly what we wanted and her resume and cover letter were well-written, I had to convince him to at least consider interviewing her. He would have disqualified her because of her first name.

As it happens, he didn’t hire her, and now that I no longer work for him, I can honestly say that she and I are better off without him, but it offends me that a person can not even be considered for a job because of his or her first name, regardless of any other credentials.

On a more practical level, I work in the IT department of a bulk mail company. One of my routine (and boring) jobs is to go through data to make sure the same piece of mail doesn’t go to the same person more than once in a mailing. We have software which can find both exact duplicates and near duplicates. The problem with near duplicates is I have to figure out which one or ones get thrown out. Now, deciding between “John Smith” and “Jhon Smith” is easy; deciding between “Briteny” and Brittanei" is harder, and at times, I’ve basically been tossing a coin. I do the best I can, but I’ve little to go on. I hate to think what folks go through trying to convince someone to get all the misspellings of their names out of a company’s database!

I wish things were otherwise, but, then again, I wish a lot of things were otherwise.
CJ

47

Thank you. You’ve made the point I was about to make: The people who would discriminate against someone named Shaneequa would discriminate against her even if her name was Mary - because their prejudice is based on the color of her skin, not her name.

48

Maybe one of these days, it’s all gonna flip and people named Mike and Michelle are going to be the ones with out-of-fashion “white corporate” names and be denied opportunities and made fun of accordingly.

49

Damn coding fixed.

50

All I’m saying is that the book Freaknomics has about fifty pages devoted to this issue and looks at it as dispassionately as is humanly possible.

What it boils down to is that, yes, little Shamequa certainly does have less chance of success, but all other things being equal would not likely have any more chance of success if her parents named her Emily; blacker names were correlated with poorer outcome, but not causative of them.

While I also kind of scratch my head at some of the naming that goes on, it doesn’t by itself seem to do any harm. We’d be better off talking about fixing the issues that are causative of poor success.

51

Wow. This reads as though you think this gal isn’t going to go far in life just because her name’s spelled unconventionally. That’s ugly–the sentiment, not the name.

52

Um, well, yeah. Africans arrived in America, and became African-Americans, about 400 years ago. Is there some dispute about this that I don’t know about?

I also have a pesonal story. Some of my cow-orkers were talking about black names in a job I had five years ago. One of the names they identified as “black” was Letitia. I pointed out that this would be news to former President and Confederate Congressman James Tyler, who maried a woman named Letitia.

Black people may name their kids Shaiqua and Jay-Quarne, but at least they never use Rhiannon. You’ve got to give them that.

53

Ok, can anyone name a black person with this type of naming convention that has achieved notable recognition professionally, politically, or in business? It happens in sports but that is just raw athletic ability. You get some strange names in entertainment but that is considered part of the package. What about traditional high-prestige jobs anywhere else?

There has to be someone somewhere but I can’t think of any.

How many can you name?

54

slight nitpick - trained truffel pigs find truffels by smell not by sight - so basically a trained blind truffel pig will find as many truffels as a seeing trained truffel pig.

55

Shagnasty, Barack Obama is, off the top of my head, one name.

In the US, practically speaking, black people are doing their children a disservice by naming their children Daniqua and Tavon. The question is should they be condemned for doing so or should people learn to look past what they consider a funny-sounding name and focus on the person?

Personally, I think the answer lies somewhere in the middle. For me, name like Tavon, Lidell and Daughntay (I called my aunt to get these names, I am not pulling them out of my ass) sound wrong. I wouldn’t name my boys such names if you paid me to. Should black parents-to-be to whom these names sound nice have to go for Michael, Robert or Charles instead? I don’t think they should, but they are putting up an unnecessary obstacle for their kids. Can the same be said for white people who name their children Apple, Sonoma or Blossom? Yes, but to a far, far lesser extent.

56

[hijack]

Why?

I have heard this word a few times: one, belonging to a Jewish woman I know (pronounced “Shawn-a”); and two, it’s the name of a people and language in Southern Africa (pronounced “Shown-a”).

Out of curiousity … what image does this name conjure up? Is it a “black” name in America? If so, is there an awareness of the African connection? How is it pronounced?

[/hijack]

And on a similar note: my husband (a Zimbabwean, in fact a Shona) has a traditional Zimbabwean name (here, “tradition” refers to many generations and hundreds of years, if not more). We are fairly certain that this name makes potential employers much less likely to call him.

As he is negatively judged because his name is foreign/black, not because it is made up, I am inclined to feel that the problem lies with the employers, not with the namers.

This would only work in the context of a list of all black people with any names who had achieved notable recognition. I expect this list would be very short as well.

57

Kweisi Mfume.

58

Fair enough although his name doesn’t follow the typical trend rules. I always assumed he was from Middle-Eastern descent until I found out differently. I was very suprised when I found out he is black. I admit that I don’t know the history behind his name.

That brings up a good point though. Not all unusual names cause instant prejudice. My real name is very unusual and people compliment me on it several times a week. Middle-Eastern names may attract some prejudice but I don’t think it will be the same as made-up black names. Likewise with Indians and Northern Asians.

59

You took this quote without it’s precursor. The previous statement was “Blacks have only been around for 400 years.” I was attempting to clarify. You seem to think my clarification was correct, so thank you for appreciating my insight.

60

I’m of two minds when it comes to these type of names. The lover of language in me deplores them horribly. It is one thing to love the name Antoine and want to name your child that–why spell it Antwan?

It’s illiterate and puts the kid at a disadvantage–like it or not, that is the real world.

I work in a mini-united nations–I have cow-orkers from Ghana, Nigeria, Phillipines, Haiti, all over the USA, India, og knows where else. I have become accustomed to “foreign” sounding names and like them–but that is NOT what we are talking about.

I have read Freakonomics and I have to agree with the authors. I don’t care what skin color the named person is–this trend of mashing sounds together to make new and improved names is NOT limited to blacks or any minority --it seems to be a trend in the lower classes. The lower class whites may not name their little girl Tanuiqa, but they handicap her nonetheless with Caitlyen, for one example.

I pity the school teachers of the next decade–trying to figure out how each kid’s name is spelled. I pity the kids–having to spell their damned names for the rest of their life to everyone they meet.

I wonder if in 15 years we won’t see a trend in court orders to change spellings to match commonly accepted ones. I see nothing racist in that at all–it is a fact that the white anglo-saxon culture, for good or ill, IS the predominate one here.

To me, none of the tragic history of blacks in the country matters here–I’m sure that there are issues and aspects that have led blacks to name their kids this way, but the fact remains that they are limiting their kids. It is sad to say and we can deplore it, but there it is. I agree with the poster who said let’s work on removing the causative agents: ignorance and poverty.

I would rather see a child named a traditional African name, correctly spelled, than see one whose mother apparently used Aquanet and so named her Aquanetta. How that is racist and ethnocentric escapes me. I have alot of respect for the newly immigrant Ghanese and Nigerians I work with. I notice that their children are named Charles and Trevor and Melinda–not T’quisha and Cravat and King.

I am NOT saying that so called English names or Western European names are the ones to pick. By no means–but I think that names should reflect either a family connection or heritage in some way–NOT common household products.
For me, more than anything else, it is the mis-spellings and strange, unexpected pronouciations that bother me.

Aside: people who name their daughter Bambi and similiar–where do they think this child is going with such a name? Desiree, Shandee, Amoree,Enchantee, whathaveyou–future strippers of America, all. Does anyone truly believe that anyone named above would (not could, would) be president of IBM? Seriously?