For instance, I live outside of DC. and I was in a store in DC. the other day and the girl waiting on me was named “Aqualeefa”. I have also worked for Verizon in the DC. metro area and the majority of employees were black women. Some of them who worked with me were named:
These names to me are not only ridiculous sounding, but their origins are pretty much unknown. I spoke to one black woman once she said that they were tribal names in Africa. Now, was she talking out of her -proverbial- ass, or is that true?
No. They are meant to sound like tribal names in Africa, and most of them don’t even do that.
A lot of black folks come up with names, particularly for boys, by taking an existing one and adding a (generally French-sounding)prefix. “DeShaun”, for instance- a variation on which is “Te’Shawn”, as you mentioned.
There’s not a common origin. Many such names are original creations (more or less). Some are alternative spellings (such as Niqui above). Adding “De” (and I guess “Te” occasionally) to the front of an established name is another common device.
And I have heard/read that the “-sha” at the end of many female names is a suffix from an African language. In line with that, some people seek out names from African languages as a way of harkening back to their heritage.
It’s really a mixed bag … probably almost as many origins as there are names.
They aren’t tribal names in Africa. Anastasia is of Russian origin, and Niqui is, as you guessed, probably just a variant spelling of Nicky. Te’Shawn is probably a variant of Shawn. I don’t know about the rest of the names.
It was popular around here (Chicago) for a while to mix the mother and father’s first names to produce a baby name. It’s still done, as far as I can tell, especially with girls.
Sherri + Andre = Shandre or Shandray or Andrie
Michelle + Tony = M’Toni, Tonshelle, T’shelle, Mishtona
and so on. The emphasis is/was explicitly NOT on giving your kid a “normal” or a “common” name - it was on giving your kid a perfectly unique name that sounds pretty.
(Why is Anastasia funny? It reads to me as the most “normal” name on the list.)
This is really the crux – the social pressure to have a “normal” name is not pervasive in many (but not all) African-American communities.
Interstingly, while many Caucasian folks will try to avoid common names, as well, it seems like a “herd effect” tends to keep kicking in: few Austins or Cheyennes, for example, born in the 70s … but zillions in the 90s.
The book Freakonomics has a chapter on ridiculous names, including Lemonjello and Oranjello. Their statistical analysis showed that having a name like that didn’t impact a child’s prospects for prosperity over children given more conventional names. That’s not to say their prospects were good, because it found that the parents most likely to give names like that were socially stratified so low that the kid didn’t have much of a chance for prosperity anyway. So absurd names are a symptom of poverty not a cause.
That said, I’m naming my first female child T’Pau. Insuring that a ready supply of jobs in comic shops and the Sci-fi convention circuits are available to her.
The principal of the high school where I teach is a black lady of some substantial education and experience. A couple years ago she made this announcement:
“I will be calling all underclassmen down to the cafeteria in alphabetical order by class for scheduling. If I should mispronounce your name, please go home and tell your mother she spelled it wrong.”
She was making a good point regarding these creative names. How they are pronounced is often not obvious. The kids, IME, do tend to get resentful at people saying it wrong. Having one of these “creative” names is something of a mixed blessing, it would seem.
As these names have become more and more prevalent, I’ve just started avoiding use of given names altogether and address my students as Mr./Ms. Surname.
Not having read the book, I’m unaware of how they treat those two. I first encountered them though in a Dan Jenkins book. I assume he was just making light as he’s wont to do, but others may know of additional history.
That chapter in Freakonomics grated on me. “Orangelo” is a real name, but the story of twins being named Lemonjello (leh-MON-jeh-low) and Orangelo (oh-RAHN-jelh-low) seems to be apocryphal. Same with the “Shithead” (shih-THEAD) story. I’ve read and heard many accounts of people supposedly going to school with Lemonjello and Oranjello, yet nobody has any real evidence, like say a yearbook or graduation program, proving such a thing. And the “Shithead” story I’ve heard from various nurses or people related to nurses that I think there’s either a huge spike in kids being named “Shithead” these days or, more likely, that this is an urban legend. Sure smells like one.
Somewhere else I remember hearing that “Shithead” is a common Indian name, or something like that, but I fail to find any evidence for that, so I’m a bit :dubious: on that explanation, too.
At any rate, I’m willing to believe these stories, but it sure has the stink of urban legend about it.
I have always heard that the mini-series Roots in the 1970’s started this trend. Before that, the origin of American blacks wasn’t in the popular consciousness in much detail. Blacks before the early 1970’s usually have “regular” American names and you will still find that 50 year old black women named Shaquintanique for example are in very short supply. It wasn’t until the early 1970’s when all hell broke loose on that front presumably because the idea that American blacks had their own history to uphold became prominent. There was no real information to base these supposed traditional names on so names were just made up and a new traditional was born.
Although I didn’t know they were all that different at the time, my other black classmates in elementary school had some interesting names. There was Lateef, Laveda (both male), Sharonda, Indira, Malaika, and then the one girl who actually was from Africa whose name was Joy.
OK, this is me talking out of my ass but I believe this is the probable reasoning. . Keep in mind this is the theory of an armchair sociologist and may have nothing to do with reality. During the 60’s there was a great interest in black people discovering their roots and the rise of Black Pride. People began finding traditional African names and abandoning their “slave” names. The educated people who initiated the movement knew where to find the correct information and were able to use appropriate spelling and punctuation. Unfortunately the less educated inner city blacks could only go by what they heard. They attempted to duplicate the names by guessing at the spelling. As time went on the names became more bastardized
Now these names are African sounding in the vaguest stretch of the imagination. From what I have seen and heard from family members who teach in the inner city and from my own experiences the majority of these names give no attempt at a meaning or a traditional nature but are merely words that sound good. My mother taught a pre-k special ed student and every time she received a note from his mother the name was spelt differently: Trwan, Tywon, Thrawon, etc. My mother finally asked her how to pronounce his name. She told my mother that she had seen that name on a shoebox and it sounded pretty but she couldn’t remember how to spell it. His name was pronounced Taiwan. She also taught Urethra, Vulva, Placenta, BB (for Baby Boy) and Barbital. The mothers were all teen mothers, high school dropouts from some of the worst parts of the city and chose names that they heard in the hospital, except for BB whose mother thought that the hospital had already named him.
The names I chose for my children were 1. Names of loved ones and 2. Are traditionally Irish. If I had wanted to give them a true Gaelic name, I would have researched them and not given them an Americanized version. If people choose to give a name that is African (or Swedish, Korean , etc.) then I think they should take the time to look for a real one. If they just want an African sounding name then, when asked, they should admit to it. If they just want a good sounding name, I hope they realize that a lot of white people give a :dubious: look when they hear those kinds of names.
I realize that this probably makes me sound racist. I just wish that people would think before they name their children. My sister gave her daughters names that just scream WASP because she lives in a very tony neighborhood and wants to fit in with Miffy and Buffy and the old money folks. Of course the names stand out when they visit me in NASCAR country.
It’s usually transliterated “Shahid” or “Shaheed”. It’s an Arabic name meaning “witness” or “martyr”, and is popular in Pakistan and Muslim India. If you wanted to be creatively cruel, though, you could probably transliterate it as “Shithead”.
Which leads to the question, has anyone ever transliterated “Shahid” as “Shithead”? It seems rather unlikely to me, especially spelling the “h” sound as a “th.” I think I’ve only seen that in Gaelic words. That said, the “Shithead” story as I’ve heard from nurses always involves a black mother naming her child.