I know this will sound stereotypical and maybe even racist at first but please bear with me??

Question

I was wondering what the signifigance is of (typically) black people naming their kids things like Shaniqua or Lashawn. I know not *all* black people do this and I know not *only* black people do this. I was wondering if there's a particular ethic origin of names like these or if they are of signifigant cultural importance within the black community. The only thing I hear about names like these is in stupid TV skits, etc, and I wondered if there's any interesting history behind the movement as in the 60s the most common black names were along the names of John and Michael and Angela and other Biblical-type or otherwise "traditional" names.

Answer 1

Just a theory. It may be a search for their own distinct identity, and a reaction to the days of slavery when the slaves had their African names changed to English sounding ones. Many African Americans have last names like Jones and Johnson because this was the name of the owner of the plantation where their great ancestors worked. There are certain names that are easily identified with African Americans. Names like: Vonnessa, Tamika, Denzil, Kareem and Khalima. These names have a recognizable ethnic flavor, and provide a sense of individuality. However, there is a dark side to this. Employers who are reluctant to hire African Americans can use this to weed out applicants by their first names and hire only those with white sounding ones. The New York Times ran an article on this. Employers are able to discriminate on the basis of what the first name sounds like. Unfair but it is reality. One African American woman named her daughter Orangejello. She got the idea from a box of orange jello. Now that it is different.

Answer 2

Sometimes parents will combine both their names (or possible names of grandparents) and name their children that. A rather simple example would be if two people named Kendra and Leon decided to name thier son Keon. It's got elements of both their names.


Now, it's not impossible to see how through generations of doing this you could end up with names like Shaniqua, but it's really as you said, mostly used in television for comedic value.

Answer 3

No, not just for TV. I live in the south (only for a few years now) and I see these names on tagss/ID's at Walmart, McDonalds, 7-11, pretty much everywhere. And some wierder than that. I think they could be anagrams of mis-spelled words.

Answer 4

To put it in its most basic form, that type of naming is an effort to distinguish their culture in a form that is unique to black society. The vast majority of the names have no real or historical meaning, and are not derived from any African naming system, nor do they have roots in any African language. African naming systems generally have to do with common objects, nature, or descriptive subjects such as "Sunny Day" or "Angel".

While this manner of naming is not wrong in any way, it does speak to the social feelings of Blacks in the U.S., that feel they need to differentiate themselves from main stream America.

Answer 5

Not only black people do this. I know of a little white baby called Sadisha.
Yep,
It's supposed to reflect african roots.
I don't know how many african roots two white kids from Ontario have but thar you go.

Answer 6

There is no signifcance. The reason they use names like that is because they want to be as obnoxious and loud as they possibly can. Job well done.

Answer 7

I have a question. Why do people like you seem to have very unhealthy obsessions with Black people? Its kind of sad.

People can name their children whatever they want. Mind your own damned business!

Answer 8

So us white people can't spell their names.

Answer 9

funk this person that got pissed at you for asking this question, i dont know the answer, but there is nothing wrong with being curious, so piss off lady, its called curiosity, so shove it