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
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
I don’t think conforming because bigots will be bigots is a particularly good way to approach life, simply because bigots WILL be bigots.
You call that an argument?
sativa means ‘cultivated’. Garlic is Allium sativum.
That’d be Taíno?
Well, it sure dominated 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.
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.”
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.
I knew a white guy named Nova because his mom got pregnant in a Chevy Nova.
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.
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.
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?
Well, some people do know Irish.
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.