# Quvenzhane and made up black people's names **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 12, 2013, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quvenzhane-and-made-up-black-peoples-names/646948 "2013-01-12T08:55:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Zjestika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8edcca/32.png) [@Zjestika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zjestika)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quvenzhane-and-made-up-black-peoples-names/646948/181 "2013-01-15T19:49:31Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Hi, Jennifer! Okay, damn, I was about to argue with you and then I looked it up. Jennifer was most popular from 1970-1984, that’s crazy! We’ll go with the NEXT most popular name- that’s not Emily or Mary. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quvenzhane-and-made-up-black-peoples-names/646948/182 "2013-01-15T20:19:22Z")
> [@Zjestika](#): > > Okay, damn, I was about to argue with you and then I looked it up. Jennifer was most popular from 1970-1984, that’s crazy! We’ll go with the NEXT most popular name- that’s not Emily or Mary. Mary has had a shocking falloff in popularity. It’s not even among the top large bunch of popular names: [http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager#prefix=mary&ms=false&exact=false](http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager#prefix=mary&ms=false&exact=false) ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quvenzhane-and-made-up-black-peoples-names/646948/183 "2013-01-15T20:31:07Z")
What, exactly, is so terrible about the “ghetto” that people should be so desperate to disavow and hide their “shameful” background? Parvati, the silicon valley programmer whose father was a alcoholic rickshaw driver, isn’t expected to be ashamed of her background. She’s expected to take pride in rising above difficult circumstances to achieve her part of the American dream. Gage, the son of a poor gambling Arkansas peanut farmer whose gone on to become a CEO isn’t expected to be ashamed of his background. He’s expected to take pride in being the “salt of the earth” and held up in political ads as an example of the “real” America. Miguel, a successful writer whose law-breaking parents swam across the Rio Grande and worked in fast food and landscaping isn’t expected to be ashamed of his background. He’s another example the land of opportunity. But LaTonia, the daughter of a hotel maid in east Oakland who went on to become a lawyer…OMG! What if someone figures out she is from the ghetto!!! How cruel is it to make her shameful secret so clear? Why would she ever want to be associated with her past life!!! What will people THINK if they knew her parents were from the _gasp_ ghetto?! Successful people from humble backgrounds generally are not ashamed of their background. They generally are proud of the obstacle they have overcome and the odds they have beat. Successful people from humble background generally are not ashamed of their families. They love their families. They are grateful for what their families have done to help them succeed, and sad for the problems they have to face in their lives.If the family is abusive, that’s a different story of course. But that’s not a class thing. Successful people from humble backgrounds generally are not ashamed of their culture. They see flaws or room for improvement in their culture. But they also see the resourcefulness and tenacity of the culture they came from. They respect the beauty and humanity of their culture, warts and all. Growing up in “the ghetto” has high points and low points. Yes, there is crime, instability and poverty. But there are also birthday parties, first kisses, grandparents, BBQs, and those things that make our formative years beautiful and meaningful. Successful people are not generally rushing out to disassociate from everything in their life right up to the point that they became middle class. ---
**Author:** ![AngelSoft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angelsoft/32/440_2.png) [@AngelSoft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelSoft)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quvenzhane-and-made-up-black-peoples-names/646948/184 "2013-01-15T21:35:23Z")
Well in my case, I wasn’t saying they should be ashamed of where they grew up and definitely not their families. But, like it or not, the ‘ghetto’ brings up certain images in the minds of most people and they’re not positive. An employer looking at an application where the applicant is named Shaniqua might get some (stereotypical) ideas about the person. And again, none of them good. It’s not right, but it’s the way things are and parents should think more about how a name might affect their child as they grow up, as opposed to how ‘unique’ they can make it. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quvenzhane-and-made-up-black-peoples-names/646948/185 "2013-01-15T21:36:41Z")
> [@Zjestika](#): > > Okay, damn, I was about to argue with you and then I looked it up. Jennifer was most popular from 1970-1984, that’s crazy! We’ll go with the NEXT most popular name- that’s not Emily or Mary. You’re a Sara(h) or Amanda. Cite: in grad school my best friends were Jennifer and Amanda. We were like the “don’t even bother” team. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quvenzhane-and-made-up-black-peoples-names/646948/186 "2013-01-15T21:45:50Z")
> [@AngelSoft](#): > > Well in my case, I wasn’t saying they should be ashamed of where they grew up and definitely not their families. But, like it or not, the ‘ghetto’ brings up certain images in the minds of most people and they’re not positive. An employer looking at an application where the applicant is named Shaniqua might get some (stereotypical) ideas about the person. And again, none of them good. It’s not right, but it’s the way things are and parents should think more about how a name might affect their child as they grow up, as opposed to how ‘unique’ they can make it. So, you could put your energy into raising a kid to be so exceptional that his resume transcends a ghetto name, or you can just give him that magic suburban name that will guarantee him a job. Hmmm…which path seems likely to actually benefit your kid… ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quvenzhane-and-made-up-black-peoples-names/646948/187 "2013-01-15T21:47:47Z")
> [@AngelSoft](#): > > Well in my case, I wasn’t saying they should be ashamed of where they grew up and definitely not their families. But, like it or not, the ‘ghetto’ brings up certain images in the minds of most people and they’re not positive. An employer looking at an application where the applicant is named Shaniqua might get some (stereotypical) ideas about the person. And again, none of them good. It’s not right, but it’s the way things are and parents should think more about how a name might affect their child as they grow up, as opposed to how ‘unique’ they can make it. That’s giving the power to the bigot. Whatever your ethnic background, in America, you should not be dissuaded from naming your children in the tradition relevant to your background. I’m an Indian-American myself and I am pleased that I see that most of the time, my fellow South Asian-Americans – even if they use Anglicized nicknames – have chosen to keep formal names relevant to their ethnic backgrounds, rather than adopting stereotypically Anglo-American names. The more that people assert their identities, the less “strange” or unusual their names are going to be. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quvenzhane-and-made-up-black-peoples-names/646948/188 "2013-01-15T21:51:09Z")
> [@AngelSoft](#): > > Well in my case, I wasn’t saying they should be ashamed of where they grew up and definitely not their families. But, like it or not, the ‘ghetto’ brings up certain images in the minds of most people and they’re not positive. An employer looking at an application where the applicant is named Shaniqua might get some (stereotypical) ideas about the person. And again, none of them good. It’s not right, but it’s the way things are and parents should think more about how a name might affect their child as they grow up, as opposed to how ‘unique’ they can make it. I don’t think conforming because bigots will be bigots is a particularly good way to approach life, simply because bigots WILL be bigots. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quvenzhane-and-made-up-black-peoples-names/646948/189 "2013-01-15T21:58:58Z")
> [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](#): > > It might, but Shaniqua as a black name has the “sh” and “k/qu/kw” sounds common in many made up black names. 😕 You call that an argument? ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quvenzhane-and-made-up-black-peoples-names/646948/190 "2013-01-15T22:17:46Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Trust me, in Japanese class it was hard not to lord it over poor Clarence. Sara サラ vs. Kurarensu クラレンス No contest. 😃 “[エルビス Erubisu." "カール パーキンス Kāru Pākinsu.](http://youtu.be/40_1ywoxHLI)” ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quvenzhane-and-made-up-black-peoples-names/646948/191 "2013-01-15T23:03:24Z")
> [@KarlGrenze](#): > > So Sativa’s parents were high? _sativa_ means ‘cultivated’. Garlic is _Allium sativum_. > [@KarlGrenze](#): > > I also want to reiterate that some made-up names may mean something in another language or culture. Besides made-up names, the other fad in my culture was to give names in the native american language of the area. So if someone from other region sees the name, they may think it is invented, but they’re not at all invented, just from a language that has been dead for centuries. That’d be Taíno? ---
**Author:** ![Zjestika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8edcca/32.png) [@Zjestika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zjestika)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quvenzhane-and-made-up-black-peoples-names/646948/192 "2013-01-15T23:07:41Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Mary has had a shocking falloff in popularity. It’s not even among the top large bunch of popular names: > > [http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager#prefix=mary&ms=false&exact=false](http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager#prefix=mary&ms=false&exact=false) Well, it sure [dominated](http://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/top5names.html) for the first 50 years of the social security’s records, with a brief break for ol’ Linda. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quvenzhane-and-made-up-black-peoples-names/646948/193 "2013-01-15T23:52:50Z")
> [@Zjestika](#): > > Well, it sure [dominated](http://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/top5names.html) for the first 50 years of the social security’s records, with a brief break for ol’ Linda. That was Then, this is Now, Madison. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quvenzhane-and-made-up-black-peoples-names/646948/194 "2013-01-16T00:01:44Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > _sativa_ means ‘cultivated’. Garlic is _Allium sativum_. Yes, but it wasn’t the garlic that got anyone’s parents frisky. “Sativa” as a girl’s name is absolutely and unambiguously a marijuana reference, as is “Indica.” ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quvenzhane-and-made-up-black-peoples-names/646948/195 "2013-01-16T01:46:52Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > That’d be Taíno? The language (at least when I learned it in school) was called arawak. But yes, the Taíno culture. 🙂 Very pretty names, btw, but I am biased towards “old-fashioned” names that can have some nice short nickname. ---
**Author:** ![Blackberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quvenzhane-and-made-up-black-peoples-names/646948/196 "2013-01-16T02:09:26Z")
> [@AngelSoft](#): > > I worked in daycare a while back, and some of the names I encountered were just frightful. In the area I was, it seemed the trend at the time among the African American community was to name children after their means of conception. We had kids named things like Alize, Hennessy and Sativa. I knew a white guy named Nova because his mom got pregnant in a Chevy Nova. > [@faithfool](#): > > I’m not a big drinker and both my husband and I grew up in non-drinking households. So that said, as a person who likes and appreciates creative names, I could easily see myself latching on to Hennessey. It’s pretty and different and I would’ve had no idea it was alcohol. Just saying that sometimes the motives are _not_ nefarious. But if you were actually thinking of naming your kid that, wouldn’t you google it first? Or at least wouldn’t anyone you know tell you about the liquor? I do know a white guy whose middle name is Hennessey though. I think it’s a family name, and I’m sure it’s not after the liquor. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quvenzhane-and-made-up-black-peoples-names/646948/197 "2013-01-16T02:38:57Z")
Oh, I’m sure I would google it _now_. But back in the mid 90s when it was possible for us to have kids? I’d have been completely clueless. And no one we hung out with drank at all, so go figure. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quvenzhane-and-made-up-black-peoples-names/646948/198 "2013-01-16T03:19:03Z")
The fashion around here is for white people to give their children obscure Irish Gaelic names with pronounciations that an English-speaking person cannot possibly get correct unless they already knew the name or speak Irish Gaelic. Quite frankly, what the hell’s the difference between that and just making a name up? ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quvenzhane-and-made-up-black-peoples-names/646948/199 "2013-01-16T05:11:54Z")
Well, some people do know Irish. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quvenzhane-and-made-up-black-peoples-names/646948/200 "2013-01-16T09:50:14Z")
> [@Blackberry](#): > > Being generous, MAYBE 8% of people have ever pronounced my (Scandinavian) name correctly on the first try (and those people are almost invariably foreign). MAYBE 50% of them did after being corrected. (And it’s really, really not a complicated name, 5 letters and 2 syllables; PM me if you want to know what it is.) > > I don’t particularly care. I’d still rather have my name than have one of the top 10 names in my birth year. Nothing against people with common names, but in most ways I like having an unusual name. That’s not to say I don’t sometimes get tired of explaining my name to every customer at my job who asks my name for no real reason (which is an oddly high number of them), but such is life. Exactly. The other way round, I am a Brit living in Scandinavia. My name is four letters: consonant, vowel, consonant, consonant. People that don’t know me here almost always screw up the pronunciation as the vowel should be a long sound, but Germanic languages have a short vowel if followed by two consonants. I don’t care. I mutilate their language on a daily basis. As long as everyone understands everyone else, I’m cool. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quvenzhane-and-made-up-black-peoples-names/646948.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quvenzhane-and-made-up-black-peoples-names/646948.md?page=11)