They’re not out of the ordinary in their culture: southern African-Americans. Probably every kid they’ll grow up with will have a name that’s made-up and I wouldn’t be surprised if their parents had similar names. I don’t think there’s anything so heinous about it, why should they be forced to confine themselves to a limited number of names of Western European or biblilcal origin.
.
and then there is Shithead. It is pronounced shah-ZEED.
Hope springs eternal. Some of these kids won’t even make it to twenty, due to gang wars, drive-by shootings, drug overdoses, AIDS… 
From what I was able to tell, a lot of those oddly named kids had parents whose names were pretty ordinary. Even those that were fairly ethnic were still pretty tame by comparison to the names they chose for their kids – with a few exceptions, of course. Just the same, while there is nothing wrong with being of a particular ethnicity and naming your children using the conventions of that culture, I think one must consider the ramifications of doing so outside of it. If the child is going to grow up in a nation whose primary constituents differ from their own nationality, then consideration should be given to the idea that the names chosen for them should probably allow them to integrate a little more readily. A name is an important thing; you’ll carry it around with you your entire life and everybody you come into more than casual contact with are going to be addressing you by it. If it’s an unusual name that’s hard to pronounce, hard to spell, or hard to remember, it will be ridiculed when they’re young and they will find when they enter the professional world that it can be a liability when dealing with potential employers or current superiors.
It isn’t necessary to name your kids “Michael” or “John” or other such common North American names, but picking semi-common names with weird spellings (i.e. “Jazmyn”) very uncommon names that are hard to remember, spell, and/or pronounce is going to cause problems with the people the kid comes into contact with. The odd spellings will be forever correcting others on the proper spelling, and the just-plain-odd names are going to have to spell it out every time, and people will have a hard time remembering it. Like it or not, this is the reality of living in North America. Maybe the parents might be thinking “That’s a great name, it’s fun, a conversation starter, etc.” but I’m afraid it doesn’t quite work like that here. Maybe it should, but it doesn’t.
You know, I might have aqgreed with you in the 70’s but, nowdays, this complaint sounds tired and like an old-school “aren’t the other cultures weird” rant. I really thought we (most Americans, in general, and the Dope, in particular) were beyond this. We used to think names like “Rigoberto”, “Ahmed”, or “Yannis” were the wackiest things ever; now, most people have coworkers with even more exotic names that they manage to learn and even use in everyday conversation. Would you tell a Thai immigrant that he should name his kid “Bill” because “Chanchai” or “Pharsarn” is too difficult to pronounce? What about names like “Oprah”, “Condoleeza”, “Shaquille”, “Aaliyah”, “Denzel”, etc.?
I think that if they should be able to name their kids whatever they want. My name is pretty normal but people don’t spell it right most of the time. I get a lot of people who say stupid things like, “Your parents spelled your name wrong” or “Why is there an extra A in your name?” It isn’t like my name is Maary or something, it is very common (especially among women my age) but spelled just a little bit differently to make it stand out. (It is kind of like the difference between Barbra and Barbara.) It is nice actually to not be the same as everyone else. Now LaQuishy or whatever might be pushing it a little bit but they always have the option of going by a nickname or legally changing their name or something.
Also, as long as you have legible handwriting most banks/government documents/etc are spelled perfectly. It is just upon hearing it that people would have an issue spelling it.
My favorite silly baby name: A’lexus. Mother’s reason: “I always wanted a Lexus [car] and now I’ll always have one.” (I read this in the Washington post a few years back and it stuck with me.)
Mindfield: Have you read Freakonomics? Not that I’m backing their approach or technique or whatever, but the conclusion they come to is that while children of a certain disadvantaged socioeconomic class may tend to get names that accurately identify them as belonging to that certain disadvantaged socioeconomic class, the names themselves are not going to hold the kids back in life–the fact that they come from the disadvantaged socioeconomic class will.
You might want to read it.
I agree, and yet I think that Stephan Levitt has a point when he says racism still exists - and probably will continue to exist - a resume from “LaShy’ah” may be taken less seriously than one from Elise. We may be beyond that by the time litte Ta’Neesha is looking for a job, but we may not.
Obviously Oprah and Condoleeza have done quite well having unusual names - and being black women (which is the real issue, isn’t it - that we still have prejudices against women and blacks - and Oprah gets extra points for having a “weight problem”), but it probably isn’t any easier. Then again, maybe its these attributes that made them memorable - they stood out among a sea of others in very competitive professions.
Its also possible that shortly this will break more along class lines (another point from Levitt) than race lines. While there are names and constructions that break along race lines, white folks are not immune from creative spellings, random y’s, “unique” names and the occational apostrophe. (By the way, its the middle class that tends to pick ‘safe’ names).
I totally agree. :: points to location :: Names like these are quite common where I live, and it’s not just kids under age 5. For crying out loud, there are people in their 40s and 50s who have names like Toemekia or Rasheka or DaQuanda or Jazmone. I worked with a 23 year old girl named Keseanda and there are people where I work named Jaquetta, Kansetta, etc.
This isn’t a new thing, and like it or not, it is a common (not universal, obviously) part of African American culture. While I wouldn’t use naming conventions like theirs, I find it rather interesting.
The thing I find funny is that Jazmyn isn’t really an uncommon spelling for Jasmine anymore. It’s like Meghan/Megan/Meagan/etc. If I were to meet someone and they were to say, “my name is Jasmine” and I had to write it down, I’d ask first how to spell it. I know probably as many Jazmyns as Jasmines.
and La’Dawnika and so on… wouldn’t even make me blink.
“Tequila?” probably. unless it was pronounced Ta’Kweela or Ta’Kweelya. In which case it would probably never occur to me unless I actually saw it written out.
Although I have found a few fun ones in the vague early days of the search for a name for my best friend’s baby (before we knew the sex). My favorite was Rayven MoonStar. Second was Justyce Chrisabell. Third was Saline.
Saline? Was that a cruel joke or a prognostication on her future medical expenses?
Anyway. I’ve known (of) plenty of people like Laqueesha or TaQuanda or whatever, though they’re not so common that they appear as normal as Bill or Bob, at least not in these parts. Some of the names just seem to go a bit beyond unusual and toe the edges of strange even here, especially given that some of the babies in the OP link that had these names appeared to be white, or perhaps the lighter end of mulatto, and some of the parents had more common names, which seems to make their children’s names stand out all the more.
I guess I just feel like some of these parents are sticking their children with these names because they want to be different for the sake of being different, while the children have to grow up with names that have the potential to be ridiculed. My own last name isn’t that uncommon (it’s apparently of Irish origin) but it is both a noun and a proper noun, thus it is both my name and can also be used in a sentence. Even I got teased about it as a kid. Granted, this was back in the 80s, when “tasteless jokes” books that contained racist stereotypes were still perfectly publishable. Still, if a relatively simple name like mine could be made fun of for no particular reason other than that it got me riled up, I can only imagine how kids with stranger names than mine would fare in the same environment. Kids can be mercilessly cruel for the thinnest of reasons, and I just feel that saddling your kid with a name that would just feed those reasons in their present environment is something one should reconsider.
Three worst names I have encountered this school year:
Justin Tyme
LaTquavette
Abismael
:rolleyes:
Yeah. Except, not.
White, middle class, western, 42 year old, reasonably well educated female with neat handwriting AND a typewriter, telling you that you are wrong. My first name is Dawna. Dawn with an A at the end. Pronounced Donna – just like Dawn with an A at the end. It’s not THAT difficult.
The social security administration took 7 tries to get my name correct. Allstate insurance managed 5 incorrect variations. 8 credit cards – 3 of them are spelled correctly. Mortgage company still has it wrong. The IRS biffs it about every 3rd year. Just my first name – this is not counting the assorted ways my last names (3 husbands, one Welsh, one Ukranian) have been mangled.
I went to a very upper middle class, exceedingly pale high school with Merry, Mary, Mari, Meagan, Meaghan, Suni, Sunni, Sunny, Siobhan, Zaina, Jung, Geniver, Jennifer, Julie, and July. At our 20-year reunion, there were a couple dozen of us in the corner bitching about our names. Poor black southerners aren’t the only ones who have dumbass parents.
C’mon, people, what the hell is wrong with naming your kid Jane? Without pronouncing it Shawnee?
Een my cowntree… we police what people are allowed to name their babies.
Oh, please tell me that first name is not for real… :rolleyes:
If you didn’t say it sounded like “Donna” I would have thought to pronounce it rhyming with “sauna.”
Oh yeah; here’s a better cite: Educaloi
The relevant part:
Clearly, the parents knew how abysmal they were at picking names.