Black people give their kids crazy names

[scc12]

I think the prettiest name I ever heard was Skylynn Graciana.Still,I didn't name my daughter that.

[artdecades]

I don't think people have issues with made-up names as such, it's the ridiculous ones with insane spellings that we mock or object to. I often think that parents forget that their baby will grow up into an adult one day and that they don't think of the impact a weird name will have when the child is at school, or applying for a job or when they are in the workplace or when they (hopefully) live to a ripe old age. Names need to have an almost timeless quality to them - they have to see you through your whole life after all!

But that is the point of this post. There are ridiculous names in all races, but black people get disproportionately criticized and shamed for it, which is racist. If the original blogger or the people chiming in did not racialize it and talk about names in general, it would be one thing, they are specifically attacking black people for names. White privilege is a white person being able to give their kid an unusual name and maybe that one person is mocked for it, but if a black person does it, the whole race is mocked for their naming practices.

This also fails to acknowledge cultural differences in naming. Not everyone has heritage going back to anglophone or "white" countries. We should not label anglophone names (like george or elizabeth or whatever) as timeless and classic, while shitting on non-anglophone names that have equally rich history and meaning in other cultures.

[Hilda]

bellofthesouth.blogspot.com/2004/12/ghetto-baby-names.html

This... cracked me up. Baby sites also shamelessly call these sh- and q-loaded names ghetto names... I wonder where these names come from. Some are just a bastardized version of decent names (DaJarvis). Some, like... Shantaniqua?! The heck does it mean? The hell it comes from? Bonquisha?! Lord... LaQuenda? Is this supposed to be a mix of French and Hispanic?

Another thing, people in Mexico name their sons Jesus like it was a name like David or Daniel. Their name their kids Jesus.

:lol:

[NotALoserLikeYou]

I just saw on Facebook a little girl celebrating her birthday: happy birthday, Irelynn. Now that bugged me. Fwiw kid was white.

[keen23]

I just read a 19thC English novel where one of the main characters was male and called Joyce :pink-shock: That gave me a bit of a double take moment.

I went to high school with twin boys named Ashley and Courtney. They were white South Africans who immigrated to the US when they were toddlers.

[Hilda]

I remember reading about some black twins named Lemonjello and Orangejello, but I wonder if that's just an urban myth.

[formergothardite]

I remember reading about some black twins named Lemonjello and Orangejello, but I wonder if that's just an urban myth.

It is.

[Hilda]

It is.

Thanks! (I "Liked" your post.)

I suspected as much. I know that some blacks do give their kids unique names. For example, I knew of a black guy named Lavoris (like the mouthwash)! :lol:

[Micah]

A hippy family my parents knew named their kids Leo, Rygel and Betelgeuse (all constelations.) Leo and Rygel I like, except that Rygel was a girl, but Betelgeuse? Seriously? Poor kid's life was hell at school. I think you have to consider the impact a name is going to have on a child's life before you use it. Children are human beings that will be adults one day. They have to live with their name for the rest of their lives. For example, I LOVE the name Lucifer. I think it's beautiful. The furthest I've gone with it, is to use it as horse's name. He was a pussy cat, but people gave him a wide berth, lol

[Trynn]

Interesting... I guess I see it more as an adult, but when I was a kid, with one exception (and the other 2 exceptions were from a foreign country, so I don't really count them, because in their country their names are probably common) all the black kids in my class had stereotypically white names like Tasha, Leah, Joseph.. there was a Gerard and Leanne, but I think the latter might be semi-common...

[2xx1xy1JD]

Interesting... I guess I see it more as an adult, but when I was a kid, with one exception (and the other 2 exceptions were from a foreign country, so I don't really count them, because in their country their names are probably common) all the black kids in my class had stereotypically white names like Tasha, Leah, Joseph.. there was a Gerard and Leanne, but I think the latter might be semi-common...

Same here.

I'm 42, which means that I was born before the book Roots came out. I'm also Canadian, so most of the Black Canadians that I know are of Caribbean descent.

I don't automatically associated weird names with Black names, because the Caribbean-Canadian Blacks that I know have very plain Anglo names. Brenda, Charmaine, Donna, David, Carol, Suzanne, Elaine, Kevin, Anthony, Devon, Patricia, John, Chris, Rowan, Trevor, Paul, Lloyd, Vanessa, Karen, Denise, Rose, Derek, Wayne, etc.

[scc12]

what about names like LaShawnda? is that some sort of african-french combo?

[Nothing2CHere]

A hippy family my parents knew named their kids Leo, Rygel and Betelgeuse (all constelations.) Leo and Rygel I like, except that Rygel was a girl, but Betelgeuse? Seriously? Poor kid's life was hell at school. I think you have to consider the impact a name is going to have on a child's life before you use it. Children are human beings that will be adults one day. They have to live with their name for the rest of their lives. For example, I LOVE the name Lucifer. I think it's beautiful. The furthest I've gone with it, is to use it as horse's name. He was a pussy cat, but people gave him a wide berth, lol

I once dated a boy named Lucien. My friend took great delight in reminding me that his name had the same Latin root as Lucifer. Yeah, she wasn't a fan of the guy :lol:

[2xx1xy1JD]

I once dated a boy named Lucien. My friend took great delight in reminding me that his name had the same Latin root as Lucifer. Yeah, she wasn't a fan of the guy :lol:

It's a fairly common French name, isn't it?

[thekate]

what about names like LaShawnda? is that some sort of african-french combo?

[link=http://www.behindthename.com/name/lashonda]Behind the Name[/link] says it's an African-American variation of Shonda, which might be derived from [link=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shona_people]Shona[/link], an ethnic group in southern Africa.

[PennySycamore]

A hippy family my parents knew named their kids Leo, Rygel and Betelgeuse (all constelations.) Leo and Rygel I like, except that Rygel was a girl, but Betelgeuse? Seriously? Poor kid's life was hell at school. I think you have to consider the impact a name is going to have on a child's life before you use it. Children are human beings that will be adults one day. They have to live with their name for the rest of their lives. For example, I LOVE the name Lucifer. I think it's beautiful. The furthest I've gone with it, is to use it as horse's name. He was a pussy cat, but people gave him a wide berth, lol

Leo is a constellation, but Rygel (Rigel) and Betelgeuse are bright stars in the constellation Orion. Rigel is a blue-white supergiant and Betelgeuse is a red supergiant. Rigel is usually brighter than Betelgeuse even though it has the Bayer designation of Beta Orionis. Betelgeuse is may be pronounced either Beetlejuice or Beetle jees, either of which makes a weird name for a kid.

Harper Lee wrote To Kill A Mockingbird which is where Demi and Bruce got the name Scout. Rumer is from Rumer Godden, the English author.

[already hungover]

I once dated a boy named Lucien. My friend took great delight in reminding me that his name had the same Latin root as Lucifer. Yeah, she wasn't a fan of the guy :lol:

Obviously your friend was being funny, but the Latin root, lux, doesn't mean anything sinister. "Lucifer" means "light-bearer," which I also think is nice. I have a sister named Lucia, whom we call Lulu because that's an adorable nickname for a baby. :)

[JesusFightClub]

what about names like LaShawnda? is that some sort of african-french combo?

Dunno.

I don't like names which begin with La and then have another name (LaShawnda/LaShonda, etc) but I don't mind where they came from. I just don't like the sound.

[duplessis3]

• My husband and I said we didn't want our son to have a "Hamish Mancini" sort of name, when I was pregnant with my first. So naturally, his name is more along the lines of Kjetil Boudreaux. (Long story involving graduate school at a Jesuit college )