I want to talk about made-up names that some black folks name their children.
I have beat this drumplenty of times on this board before, but Quvenzhane Wallis’ Oscar nomination has me all worked up about it again.
I already have heard lots of people, (black people that I know) make negative comments about it.
Well, I just want to celebrate it. I know tons of kids with names that are similar (that is, ending in ‘zhane’ or some variant, starting with ‘qu’, being a combo of the mom and dad’s name and working some kind of African word into the mix). Right away, I knew how to pronounce it, without ever having heard it before. And I have made it my business to defend these kinds of names whenever I see it attacked.
I love that she hasn’t changed it. By the time you get Oscar buzz, surely you have someone in your ear (your parents ears) suggesting that you at least shorten it to ‘Zhane’. She hasn’t done that, and I hope she never does.
I hope she gives some ‘black girl power’ feelings to lots of little black girls out there who are used to being mocked*for their ‘made up names’. I hope she encourages more black women to feel comfortable to name their kids whatever they damn well please, knowing that if they raise their kids well, the kids will sparkle and thrive and one day be the kind of successful that forces people to learn how to pronounce that name correctly.
We don’t name our kids Oranjello and Lemonjello, regardless of your friend’s sister being a teacher who had Oranjello in her class. But we do sometimes create names that establish a new tradition in our culture which really is relatively new. And it’s good to see a little ‘creatively named’ black kid shining right now.
*not gonna lie; some of those names had me dying laughing.
I tend not to make any assumptions about names I haven’t heard before.
Because I happen to be a lover of words/language, my own personal guideline would be that a “made-up” name should be etymologically based on something- but since I don’t make any assumptions about unfamiliar names it’s not something I get all worked up about.
Because of my aforementioned fondness for language, could you expound upon this a bit? If “-zhane” and “qu-” are common, how did they become common?
Could you give some examples of “combo of the mom and dad’s name and working some kind of African word into the mix” with a breakdown of mom’s/dad’s/African? This construct fascinates me, I’ve never heard of it and would like to know more.
I don’t know how ‘QU’ became common. I honestly don’t know, but I do know a whole lot of ‘made up’ names start with ‘QU’. Or has ‘QU’ in them. LaQuisha, Quanisha, Shanequa, LaQuan.
I think I understand the ‘La’. I think they are going for a frenchy kind of thing there. I know a lot of Africans who speak French, and of course Haitians speak their version of French, and Louisiana Creole involves some French. Maybe that’s where we get the ‘la’.
The ‘zh’ sound is found sometimes, and I think that is also french inspired. I think Quvenzhane’s mom said that the “Zhane” part is Swahili, but I don’t know. Lots of black people say that, I don’t know how often it is true, or if it is one of those things we just think, like the way a bunch of blacks think they have Cherokee great grandmas.
I wish I understood the “QU” thing better. It really does crop up quite a lot.
Can it just be because it sounds neat? Regal, even, as it subconsciously brings the sound of “queen” to play?
And would you mind helping the white chick with the pronunciation of Quvenzhane? It looks neat, but I haven’t heard it out loud, and I’m allergic to entertainment media "news"shows. In my head, it’s “Kwuh-ven-ZANE”, but I don’t know if that’s even close.
I gave my (white) girl a weird spelling of a currently extremely common name, 'cause I like it, so I’m a firm supporter of parental creativity in naming. Let’s face it, once upon a time all names, like all words, were new and creative. Why stop now?
Almost, but, when you get used to black names, you don’t ever say, “zane” when you see ‘zhane’. You say, ‘Juh-nay’, with the J being a soft, frenchy J.
ETA: Hereyou go.
And yeah, I think the ‘qu’ just sounds neat. I just wondered if there is something else to it. Maybe not, though.
Thanks! I didn’t realize “zhane” was “juh-nay”. The only “Juh-nay” I’ve known IRL was a white girl who spelled it Janét, and spent a lot of time correcting people.
Oddly, I’d have no trouble parsing/pronouncing “Quaven Zhane”, but my brain stumbles over it as one word. Weird brain…
And is she adorable or WHAT?! Somehow, I’ve also never heard of this movie (must be a side effect of that allergy to entertainment news and this bubble I’m stuck in) and now I must see it. So thanks again, for that!
It could be it just sounds neat, but I don’t think the “qu” sound in queen is always the reason. How it’s pronounced heavily depends on the name IME. Shaniqua = Shanikwa, but Laquisha = Lakisha (i.e. it’s the “qu” in quiche rather than queen). It might just be that q(u) isn’t a horribly common letter and people just added it because it makes the name more unique (heh…) looking.
Also, Quvenzhane is a really pretty name, though I’ve never heard of this little girl before. People need to stop freaking out about these names, they’re fine. I mean, I object to “made up” names for kids at a certain level, but that’s the “Orbitor Destructicon” level of naming, not this. This is harmless and leads to some pretty names.
Jragon, just for the record, I haven’t heard anyone in the media ‘freak out’ about this name in particular. I have mostly heard negative comments from some people I know. I just want to clarify that, because I don’t want to seem to be starting a fire where none is burning. I really just seized on this girl because this is her time in the sun, and I wanted to piggyback on that to have the conversation. I have always been very outspoken about made up black names, though.
If anything, the media is making a real attempt to get the name right. I’ve seen quite a few talking heads who clearly are unfamiliar with the name doing a pretty good job of getting it out properly. Clearly, there has been some sort of coaching or distributed pronunciation guides.
Made up names for kids isn’t my culture but it’s clearly someone else’s culture and it’s good to see it respected rather than mocked. (Of course, I, too, know some people with disapproving opinions regarding them, but that’s not who I’m talking about at the moment)
I hope that you also gave her a middle name that is not creatively spelled. Or at least, make sure the name is easy to pronounce.
My first name is creatively spelled. That’s why I go by Lynn. Now that my mother has Alzheimer’s, I think that I’m going to legally drop that creative first name, because I FUCKING HATE IT. When I first brought up the idea of legally changing the spelling of my first name, she got very upset because she thought she’d been very clever. Now she won’t know the difference. I’m tired of having people mispronounce my first name.
You want to be creative? Do it in the kid’s middle name, so s/he can choose it if s/he likes it.
My name is similar to Alicia only it’s not pronounced like it and is spelled a little differently. I used to be a real brat about it when I was younger, but somewhere along the way I gave up. I used to be mad that my name gave people (mostly white but blacks too) such trouble, like I had some other indecipherable black name. I guess in a way I grew to appreciate it more, especially since I’ve discovered some other same spelling and pronunciation not-Alicias, and some same spelling Alicias. I really like how it’s spelled. A friend has the same pronunciation, but phonetic spelling. I feel a little bad for her since it looks boring, but at least they’ll say her name right more often than not.
My last couple years of band in high school there were three of us. The previously mentioned girl and another one whose name actually was “Alicia” but spelled totally different. They both are white. Since I had seniority, those two went by Bob. It didn’t help that we were all woodwinds.
How are all names not just ‘made up’? Aren’t we just familiar with the ones we know, and so don’t consider them ‘made up’? I wouldn’t do it to my kid, but hey, if you want to do it to yours I don’t care. And I’d bet it’s a pretty even split between people who fancy their ‘made up’ name and those who drop it at the first chance. Which is probably exactly the same split for people with ‘regular’ more familiar names.
My first name can be pronounced several ways by looking. It doesn’t look the way it is pronounced. I ended up learning to see all the variations as my own name. My teachers said it one way, my classmates and friends another, my bosses and co-workers still another. My family always called me by my much more common middle name.
My unusual first name didn’t kill me. It was a pain in the ass occasionally, but so what. Life isn’t made of pillows and cotton candy. I’m sure my dad would have had a great laugh at the idea that I should get a vote in whether or not I have a unique name. I can just hear him telling me that HE’S the parent and makes these decisions, and if I didn’t like it, I could change it at 18. As a matter of fact, that is exactly what I did when it came to my surname.
In my head, it’s “Kwuh-ven-ZANE”, but I don’t know if that’s even close.
