Not all of the names that seem odd are really that odd after all. Like “Evander.” This wasn’t made up. It’s Koine Greek for ‘good man’ ([symbol]Euander[/symbol]), and is taken from the Acts of the Apostles, I think.
The white poet and literary critic of Georgia, Cleanth Brooks, seemed to have a funny name too, but it also came from Classical Greek. [symbol]KleanqoV[/symbol] means ‘glory flower’.
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*Originally posted by Shoshana *
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Preview is your friend. 
I agree, if she’d been Bageena rhyming with Regeenah ( Regina ), I’d not have posted it in here. But the child herself insisted she was called Bagina, rhyming with oh -gosh -you -know -what. Hence, the inclusion of the tale herein.
Elisabeth R. is how Queen Elisabeth apparently signs her name sometimes. Short for Regina, or Regis? Either way, I respect the use of the pronounciation there.
This poor kid. She’d better pick darned carefully when marrying. Falling in love with Kurt Leiks, Steve Steel, Andrew Blood or Antoine Monologues might be poor choices.
mjollnir, the mind reels. If Cotton Mather married our dear Doper ** Jin Wicked**, she’d be Cotton Jin Wicked Mather…
Well, in my paternal grandmother’s too-white-for-words family the daughters were named Famie, Omie, Verble, and Azel. No one ever believes me, but I swear to God they were all named that. Over the years I’ve figured out the origins of most of the names (Omie is a variant of Oma, Azel is from Hazel, Verble is a surname of one of the families in the county, one of whom almost certainly married in at some point), but I’ll never understand why they named my grandmother Famie, or why her cousin was named Gradaphene (pronounced grade-uh-feen).
Of course, I’ll really never understand why Gradaphene’s son and his wife insisted on naming their daughter after their mothers. This resulted in my friend, cousin, and classmate having the name…
wait for it…
Gradaphene Irene.
She took so much shit as a kid, and her own parents never called her by her proper name unless she was in really big trouble. They always called her Princess.
All this just goes to show you that it’s not just black people who come up with names that the mainstream thinks sound stupid.
Oh, and I almost forgot the kids my mom had in her class several years ago whose Dad named them after types of liquor. The older two could get by all right, as only their middle names really gave it away (Jackeline Danielle could get by as Jackie, for instance), but the youngest one was named Bacardi or something along those lines.
I used to have a friend named Daryl, who was a nice guy except he would make the world’s biggest BFD out of the somewhat unusual spelling of his name, telling all and sundry that it was wtih a “Y” not and “E”, that it had only ONE “R” not two, etc, blablabla. He was PROUD of his “odd” name, and I figured out why when I was about 15. Because he didn’t have much else to take pride in.
He lived in a crummy apartment next door to a gas station, his father sat around the house in his undershirt all day, he was geeky and painfully thin–so he locked on to his name as a source of specialness.
I wouldn’t hurt my friend’s pride by telling him to shut up already, but GOD was I tired of listening to him rattling on about the spelling of his name. I think when kids are that deprived, instead of taking pride in stupid stuff like that they’re better off to DO something that they can really be proud of.
But that’s kind of hard. So deprived kids with no ambition can make a big whoop about their names. I think it’s mostly very sad.
“and secondly because there’s a legal requirement to put something on the birth certificate.”
Not at birth. I believe most states give you a year to put something on the birth certificate.
is why, with the rich heritage of the countless African tribes, mythology, and religion, so many are given nonsense names i e names that do not translate into or mean anything in any known earth language. The practice of crushing two names together is just as odd.
My name is “Neisha”. It’s beautiful. I’m told that practically every day of my life. I am also told that if they hear my name before meeting me, they assume I’m black. Even black people assume I’m black. My sister’s name is Linnette; and they lean toward thinking she’s black, too. My niece is Shavawn. Same thing. I think I was called in for an interview out of a million applicants because they thought I was black. I ended up getting the job because I am soooooooooooo good. 
Yea, like VirgoWitch.
This is the main fallacy of racists who think they aren’t really racist. When they really mean “white” or “American”, they say things like “race-neutral”. This shows that in their head, they believe that white or “American” culture is “normal”, and everyone else should assimilate.
While you may think that the environment “Shanequa” was raised in gave her an “attitude”, I hope you can come to terms with the fact that the environment you were raised in gave you racist beliefs.
What’s wrong with just coming up with a name that sounds good to the parents’ ears? Why must a name have any other meaning than that it is a person’s name?
& chriszarate is spot on.
I think the problem is not the naming, but the sheer disreguard for the crap the kids are going to have to deal with from, for lack of a better term, stupid people.
I’ve suspected that a child grows into his/her name, naming a child in THIS society (which is not predominantly black or white) and odd name kinda puts the kid at a disadvantage.
You’ll probably not find a lot of Dr. Mobutu Smiths.
You don’t have to be ‘like us’, but distancing yourself with an ‘us vs. them’ does nothing but breed hatred and violence.
Today, It’s not a black and white ‘thing’, it’s Hispanic and korean, and chinese and Slavic and Indian thing. (and several dozen I’ve left out cause I’m lazy.)
Right, let the stupid people win.
The mere fact that you think African-Americans’ naming their children a name that is different from the “norm” constitutes “distancing”, shows your misunderstanding of cultural diversity. It is not anyone’s responsibility to conform, nor should anyone be encouraged to do so. Rather, it is your responsibility to educate every “stupid person” you come in contact with to embrace and accept people’s differences. It is not African-Americans’ fault that they encounter hateful or misguided people. It is those hateful people’s problem to correct. If they choose not to do so, it does not mean those they encounter should change their ways.
Fight the injustice, not the circumstances of the injustice.
I believe the question has been answered about as well as it can be in this fourm, so I’ll close this thread.
bibliophge
moderator GQ