If you look up “Rhodesia” on facebook there are tons of black women with the first name Rhodesia. Most of them seem to be in their 20s.
I don’t get it. Was Rhodesia, during its existence, not scorned by blacks during the 70s and 80s - the period during which these many female Rhodesias were conceived? In the country of Rhodesia itself there were undoubtedly blacks who were loyal to the white government, fought in the Bush War, and may have even been committed enough to the nation of Rhodesia…but these Rhodesias on Facebook are mostly American.
Did they just like the way it sounded, unaware of its geographical and political implications? Or is there some meaning I’m missing behind the name?
Well, the white minority regime in Rhodesia ended in 1979, and the country’s name changed to Zimbabwe. If you say that most female Rhodesias are in their 20s, that means that they were conceived and born after the end of the regime. I agree it still sounds strange to name a black girl after that scourned system, given that me memories of it were probably still fresh and vivid. On the other hand, it’s perfectly possible that Rhodesia, at some stage in the 1980s, simply evolved to be a fashionable name in the African American community, without parents actually caring about, or being aware of, the other meanings of the word. I think this is indeed the more likely explanation.
If one has ancestors or themselves are from a given region, they might choose to name kids after the region without it necessarily being a statement of support of the political climate there during any certain time period. A kid named “Dallas” probably isn’t a walking postcard for his parents support of JFK’s assassination, and the parents of a girl named “Georgia” aren’t necessarily supporters of southern politics (or breakaway Soviet republics if you prefer).
I agree that I’ve never heard of a woman named Rhodesia, and I’m in the age range specified. It’s never been in the top 1000 baby names in the US at any point in the last 130 years.
Just out of curiosity, I checked the names DB from the 1990 Census at http://www.census.gov/genealogy/names/ (It’s a great resource for character names in any story that has any connection with modern American life, I find.)
Rhodesia does not appear in the list of the most common 4275 female names, which apparently cover approx 90% of the population.
Not only have I never heard of a woman named Rhodesia, I’ve also never heard of a country named that either. Zimbabwe, I’ve heard of, but this is the first I’m hearing of a name-change and the first I’m hearing about…well, anything really regarding the country’s history.
I’m 25, so I was born 6 years after the name change, and I’m presumably in the age range that this common name appears in. The implication is left as an exercise for the reader.
I’m not saying that Rhodesia is a common name by any means. The “so many” in the title of the OP isn’t supposed to imply that it’s common enough that most people would know a Rhodesia…only that there are several dozen Rhodesias on Facebook, which I think would qualify as “so many” when you’re talking about a name that has political connotations for blacks.
A quick search on an internet white pages siteby first name and state yields a few people in almost every state who have telephone numbers listed using the first name Rhodesia. Not necessarily a statistically significant enough of a number to make census data or ‘top names’ web sites but still they certainly do exist. Top 3 below.
States with the most people named “Rhodesia”:
[ol]
[li]New York (15)[/li][li]Louisiana (14)[/li][li]Texas (14)[/li][/ol]
The OP mentioned finding the name on Facebook. Doing a name search for “Rhodesia” on Facebook does yield quite a few people. I don’t think there can be any debate that there are in fact people named Rhodesia. The question was why - based on a difficult and ugly political history. I don’t see that as being necessarily connected at all to the name.
