where does those african americans get their names from?

Question

i am not mocking anyone but some names of black americans in my class are funny as hell and it is hard to spell but themselevs even their friends has problem spelling it. one girl name is shenicka and the list goes on and on. is this a conbination of african names plus english words or what. what is the point if no one else beside you can spell or proaunoce your name

Answer 1

"those" African Americans? Boy, I see you're tolerant.
They do it because they want to be individuals. Unfortunately when you get too creative and don't really look at what else that name could be in other cultures,you end up with crazy stuff like the kid called "Shi-thead", or the one named "********" ( pronounced a-SHOAL-ah). I've heard of a guy named "Jissum", which I actually found downright embarrassing for him. Personally I think the creativity should be left to middle names or nicknames, because those poor people go through life with names that can be swear words or raunchy definitions, and that can really mess up someone's self esteem.

Answer 2

In the seventies, ROOTS premiered and black americans saw how the african slaves names were changed to white peoples names.
this caused us to take back our heritage and no longer be ashamed of our heritage. When we saw the truth about how our ancestors were forced into slavery we regained our pride. our names now reflect our heritage. if you notice most of these names started with parents that were teenagers at the time ROOTS premiered. You must like shenika, you can call her nika for short. Another thing why do japense and chinese have names you can't spell or pronounce? same reasoning. get it. so stop hating and being racist.

Answer 3

lol...I know what you mean, but not all African Americans have crazy names. My name, Cassi, I got it from my grandpa. My first name is his middle name spelled backwards. Some of my counsins were raised muslim, so that's how they got their name. But I do have some cousins in which I couldn't tell you how they got their name. I have a cousin name Yashica. For some reason she has a hindu name. I think a lot of people, when they name their kid, they just simply look for a name they like and ta-da, their baby has a name...

Answer 4

Uh, excuse you, but if you research such names that you're questioning, you'll discover that many of them derive from countries other than Africa or America. And believe it or not, I know an Asian-American and a White person with the name Shanika.

P.S.
Hey genius, it's ironic that you show you're concern for the English language, because I'm sure that Shenika and Bumquisha could just as quickly make fun of your spelling, poor grammar, and massive butchering of our English vocabulary.

Answer 5

I believe the names you are asking about can now be found in quite a few "names for babies" books. They are most commonly found under the title "American names" because they are created for the most part in the USA. My fiance's daughter is ROSHARON a combination of Rose, his side of the family and Sharon, his ex's side. I think there are so many different spellings for similar sounding names because people like the sound of a name but want it spelled differently so their child will be as unique in name as it is in say, personality.

Answer 6

So all peolple should call themselves good Anglo-Saxon names? Get a grip. Lots of people have different kinds of names. Many people in the UK have trouble with Scottish, Welsh and Irish names. If everyone was called the same kind of names it would be boring.

Answer 7

I have known people called, Battlefield, Whitewater, Ho, Fukyu, Sadiq, Uliq maDiq.

Black Americans are now chosing new non English names for their kids to annihilate their slave master names. Come on. I rather go back to my native names, than have a name like Willians.

Answer 8

sometimes it is an effort to be unique. sometimes a name is heard and it is spelled phonetically when its recreated.

i went to school with a young man whose name was auther. he said his mom named him after Arthur Ashe. i guess she had not seen his name printed and spelled it as it sounded to her.

some names, black or white are beautifully unique. some names, black or white are just ridiculous.

it is african american names that get made fun of now, but 25-30 years ago the hippies were naming their moonbeam and rainwater.

Answer 9

Speaking of spelling. . .I imagine some of them may be cultural African names. Also, they could be combined names of people in the family. The parents couldn't decide which name to give the child, so they combined some to honor more people. White people do it too.

Answer 10

African American names are made up with no meaning most of the time.A very ignorant trend that makes a mockery of actual African culture and language.I'm just happy my mother wasn't ignorant and gave my siblings and I normal names.