Stupid "black" names...why?

[IDrinkaRum]

Yeah, I learned about the Scottish spelling of Ian from a friend of mine who is Scottish & it's how his dad spells his name. Child Rum would have been Conner Iain if she was a he. We were going to go with Iain Conner, but we followed Bill Cosby's rule of thumb: "Whatever name you pick for your child, scream it at the top of you lungs ten times. If you still like it after ten times, that's the name you go with." Yeah, we actually did that with Conner and Iain. that's why Conner would have been the first name.

We're nerds, that's why we gave Child Rum the middle name we did. Otherwise, it would have been a more ... known name. (I don't want to say normal, as it is a used name, just the spelling is different - we simplified it so in case she used it instead of her first name, people would have an easier time pronouncing it).

I <3 Uniqua and the rest of the Backyardigans! They have semi-normal names. Though "Austin" is a Soap Opera name. (Wasn't there an Austin on Days of Our Lives?)

Uniqua is named Uniqua because she's ... unique? I have no clue. She's an alien. I think. Tasha ... for Tasha Yar. Pablo 'cos Pablo the Penguin is a nice alliteration. And Tyrone. I do like the name Tyrone. Hmmmm ... Uniqua Tasha Rum. Hey! Thanks Ree ... If/when Mr. Rum & I have another baby, and it's a girl, that's the name we'll go with.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Yeah. Uniqua. How I love her.

And I ain't touching that one. I'm backing away slowly.

[Andara Bledin]

A super hero that apparently looks like stripper. ><

She's a female ninja assassin; they all dress like strippers. It seems that part of the ninja training for women includes having to wear a leotard and have at least one garter, although the fluttering sash is optional (and completely stupid in a fight). See Psylocke, post ninja-fying.

But the name Elektra is Greek, and apparently has a mythological connection.

^-.-^

[blas87]

I really have no problem with this name in general, but the next person that names their baby boy Mason is going to get slapped by me. I swear, within the next few years, EVERY kindergarten class is going to have 10 or more Masons in them.

Perhaps it's the opposite of the OP's original rant, but I hate when people name their kid the same name that every other kid has. It's not even the same as Jeff or Mike or Ryan or John. Every girl I can think of in recent times has named their son Mason.

[Ginger Tea]

It's not an African name unless its got a click in it (I would post a link but I've forgotten the name of the stand up that did it)

I don't know if any of these names listed are genuinely African in nature or if they are just made up, some of the examples make me think someone was looking at names and ended up picking the catchpa instead.

Most of the names of the people at work I have no idea how to pronounce unless someone say it to me a few times, I mean, how would you say Dzintra? as it turns out, just drop the D.
Another I was pronouncing the G as a J and nicknamed her Gin and Tonic, till someone said it was a hard G.
One Polish girl with a normal ish name (unless she Anglosised it) and a Sicilian guy with a variant spelling name met at work and recently had a baby boy. They chose one name, possibly as it could be said as the Poish equivelant by her family, the Italian by his and the English version over here. I'm also assuming that he will be learning all three languages too, but he's still in nappies.

We also had a fair few Chinese guy's when I first started working, each had opted for an English name for work interactions as they gave up with people failing to get their names right, I never knew what their names really were, but we later had one guy called Xin or somethig, I asked how do you pronounce it "shin" was his answer with a semi Z sound in the sh, where as I'm used to X doubling as a Z sound.
Another, I only knew as Chris, but apparantly his name is pronounced "Car woo", but I only ever knew him as Chris and a friend of his who now works here only refers to him by that name, even at work his mother would call him Chris.

[Ree]

Elektra is a...super hero though, too

LOL...exactly...she's a comic, and not a real person. My daughter says the little girl's mother did name her after the character.

A unique name can be either an asset or a hindrance. It depends on what it is.

I think people need to think about the child as they get older, and how the name will sound when they enter the employment world instead of just sticking a name on the kid because it sounds cool or unique.

[AdminAssistant]

But the name Elektra is Greek, and apparently has a mythological connection.

If memory serves (and it so rarely does), Elektra was the daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra. In Aeschylus' play The Libation Bearers she finds her brother Orestes and convinces him to kill Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus to avenge Agamemnon's death. In some versions of the story, she's the one who kills Clytemnestra.

Just who I want to name my daughter after!

[guywithashovel]

I was born in 1982. During that time, most parents seem to have been sticking with common names for their kids. Most of my classmates had names like Mike, Susan, Amanda (there were at least a dozen Amandas in my schools), Joseph, and so on. Of course, my parents game me an uncommon name. I was never in class with another guy who had my name. To add to that, my name begins with a letter of the alphabet that isn't used very often. I really got to be the "odd man out" with my name.

However, I do have the same first name as a famous movie producer, though I don't spell it exactly the way he does. I'll give you a hint: his last name is Tarantino.

[lobo94]

My grandmother liked unusual names...my mother was named Juanita, my aunts were Lucille, Ione, and Justine, and my uncle was Gail. Bear mind mind, Grandma was birthing babies between 1917 and 1931.

I count myself lucky that my father had a relatively common name, and that I was named after him. Though one of my nicknames was a variant from elsewhere in the British Isles. Beat being called "Junior".

[Amanita]

I remember reading something in another forum, about "black" names. One lady described a friend of hers, who was black. When she had a daughter, she decided to give her daughter a simple "American" name. A few years later, her daughter was annoyed, wishing she had a pseudo-african name like her friends. But that all changed when she and her friends started sending out job applications. She got a lot more callbacks than her friends did.

Of course, that says something about the people doing the callbacks, but still..

And I remember watching a show about life in an inner city ER, and one of the doctors there had an actual Zulu name, even though he and his family were all American. His mother had wanted to give him an African name as a show of pride in ancestry, so she researched an actual Zulu name to give to him. I can't remember what it was, or what its meaning was, but it sounded far different from the names in the OP of this thread. It sounded more authentic, and I imagine there would be less bias against it than against the "made up" sounding names out there.

[Hyena Dandy]

A rule I discovered growing up: People will make fun of your name. It doesn't matter what the name is, it WILL be made fun of. So you can either try to minimize it with a 'normal' name for the area, or you can just accept it and give the kid the name you always wanted.

I have a last name that goes with pretty much any English name and makes it sound good, though, so I'm not going out on a limb with my kids, if I have them.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Yeah, you can pretty much tell the authentic ones. I hung out with an Olabisi (I dont' know if I'm spelling this right, it was a long time ago) in college who was Nigerian (isn't that a great name? Wow. I love that name.) and worked with a Famvie at my last job (also Nigerian). You can tell the real ones.

[Lace Neil Singer]

But the name Elektra is Greek, and apparently has a mythological connection.

^-.-^

It's actually spelt Electra, and the story is about a woman who hates her mother and loves her father. Great, name her brother Oedipus while you're at it. ^^

I personally hate "yoonick" spellings of names. There are plenty of unusual names that sound pretty and cute, like Honey for example; you don't have to call your daughter Latrina, which is neither pretty or cute.

As for African names; well, it's not really that hard to find a list of them if you google. I managed to find one; and there are quite a few pretty African names about; for example, Amara which means "paradise".

[KnitShoni]

I'd hate to find out what you people would think of my name.

ETA: Not to mention, the majority of "Black" names chosen are combinations of the names of family members. "Latrina," for example, would be a combination of Laura and Katrina.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

"Latrina," for example, would be a combination of Laura and Katrina.

With extremely regrettable results, unfortunately.

They couldn't go with "Laurina" or some other combo that wasn't one letter off from the word for a toilet?