The Politics of Giving Your Child a Black Name

Politic365 ^ | December 30, 2011 | Jeneba Ghatt

[2ndDivisionVet]

Yesterday, New York City Department of Health revealed that the number one name Black parents applied to their baby girls was Madison, a name historically and traditionally given by White parents. By contrast, the number one boy name was Jayden, often considered a typical “Black name.” The juxtaposition of the contrast is striking.

It is no hidden secret that many Blacks in America for decades have struggled with the decision of whether to name their children a traditional African or African American name. The decision is based on how much they want to give away the race of their children on paper – that paper being resumes or job applications. Before the child is even born, some parents are concerned that a uniquely Black name – like Jayden, Aisha, Ebony, Jamal, Clarence or Tanisha for example – would lessen the chances of that child being cleared for a job interview, should the person screening applicants have any race-based biases.

With a president named Barack Obama in office, we would hope that the days of name discrimination are long over. However, it is hard to know if the person shifting through resumes to select interview applicants will be able to put aside any stereotypes he or she may have and consider only the credentials of an applicant. No one wants his or her child to be cut off from a chance to prove him or herself and his or her qualifications during an interview out of the gate.

A while ago, I noticed a trend among many of my Black American friends in that they were giving their children names that were more traditionally associated with Caucasian children, including some of which were distinctly androgynous. In fact, during the years that I took my children to Gymboree classes from 2002 to 2008, I was taken aback by the number of Black and Brown Kennedys, Morgans, Briannas, Masons, Madisons, Jordans, Carters, Paytons, Baileys, Haileys, Montanas, Regans and Brandis I saw running around.

I wondered if the parents so named their children because they had familial significance, because those were just very pretty names or simply because they may have been more “resume” proof.

There is some science behind the “resume” proof phenomenon.

Roland G. Fryer Jr., a young Black economist who has analyzed the “acting White” phenomenon and the Black-White test score gap, is cited in Freakonomics: a Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen Dubner.

The book notes several audit studies where two identical (and fake) résumés, one with a traditionally White name and the other with an immigrant or minority-sounding name, are sent to potential employers. The “White” résumés have always gleaned more job interviews, and even in scenarios where the resume of a typical “Black” name was amplified and better, the White name resume still got more call backs.

How did certain names become more Black in the first place? Based on a longitudinal analysis of names Black and White California parents gave their children, Black children were given names like DeShawn, Terrell, Malik, Darryl, Tyrone and Jamal for boys and Jazmin, Tiara, Diamond, Deja, Imani, Ebony and Precious for girls. These names compared to the top girl names for White children: Molly, Amy, Claire, Emily, Emma and Holly for girls and Jake, Connor, Tanner, Cole, Luke, and Logan for boys.

In the early 1970s, there was a great overlap between Black and White names. The typical baby girl born in a Black neighborhood in 1970 was given a name that was twice as common among Blacks than Whites. The Black Power movement also impacted Black names in between two decades because by 1980, a particular name was twenty times more common among Blacks than Whites. By the 1990s, the distinctions became clear. Of the 626 baby girls named Deja in the 1990s, 591 were Black. Of the 454 girls named Precious, 431 were Black. Of the 318 Shanices, 310 were Black.

What kind of parent is most likely to give a child such a distinctively Black name?

The data offer a clear answer: an unmarried, low-income, undereducated teenage mother from a Black neighborhood who has a distinctively Black name herself,” Levitt and Dubner write about Fryer’s assessment. “In Fryer’s view, giving a child a super Black name is a Black parent’s signal of solidarity with the community.

“If I start naming my kid Madison,” Fryer said, “you might think, ‘Oh, you want to go live across the railroad tracks, don’t you?’” If Black kids who study calculus and ballet are thought to be ‘acting White,’ Fryer says, then mothers who call their babies Shanice are simply “acting Black.”

But the sterotypes and discrimination of names are not limited to blacks.

In a recent study of 89 undergraduate students, participants were asked to guess the success of students with various names on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the most successful. The highest scoring names turned out to be Katherine, scoring a 7.42, and Samuel, scoring a 7.20. With a score of 5.74, Amber ranked lowest among female names while Travis ranked overall lowest with a score of 5.55.

The Freaknomics authors noted that as lower income Whites started adopting certain names that middle class White parents gave their children, they too started abandoning those names.

Dictionary.com cites Bloomberg University researcher John Waggoner, who said, “Katherine goes to the private school, statistically; Lauren goes to a public university, and Briana goes to community college. Sierra and Dakota, they don’t go to college.”

So it may be more about class than race, after all.

[PennsylvaniaMom]

Yes! And as someone who used to watch the “Young and the Restless” there were NO Ashley’s til Ashley (sister of Jack) showed up. Oh...and she was smart (a perfume chemist)!

[Alberta's Child]

What the author of this article doesn't mention is that the employer is often making hiring decisions based on the needs, preferences and attitudes of their customers and clients.

I can't speak for anyone else here ... but for many of my clients, the first time I send someone named Mubreesha to meet the client will be the last time I get to do business with them.

The real issue here has nothing to do with race, and it has everything to do with upbringing. Call me old-fashioned and closed-minded, but "Mubreesha" just strikes me as a name for someone who doesn't expect to be taken seriously.

[Jack Hydrazine]

Top 60 Ghetto Black Names
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCdmiZyyGjQ

[Cloverfarm]

My kids told me some of the logic behind the names ... you make a combination from names of your favorite people.

We could’ve named DD Jay’lain’isa for Jaynee, Elaine and Lisa ... but didn’t.

One of my co-workers’ kids all have his initials, but, since there are two or three baby-mamas involved, I think that’s how they show the connections. The girls are Jaylin DeShon and Jayna DeNise.

[Flag_This]

What happened to the classic names like LeMonjuhlo and Oranjuhlo?

[EinNYC]

The black students’ names I read off of the attendance roster in high school are almost without exception NOT names like Katherine, Priscilla, Susan, etc. They are LaShanda, Quaneesha, Imani, Taneesha, Quateesha, Daniece, etc. I have always thought that the newly-delivered mother must have looked out the window for inspiration, like reading what was written on the side of a delivery truck and deciding what a cool name it would be for the baby. It seems so long as there’s a Qu- in there somewhere, -sha or -ee- and it ends in an “a”, it’s OK. They don’t seem to have any correlation to actual “African” names coming from Africa.

[ilovesarah2012]

Map: Six Decades of the Most Popular Names for Girls, State-by-State

http://jezebel.com/map-sixty-years-of-the-most-popular-names-for-girls-s-1443501909

[Dr. Sivana]

the number one name Black parents applied to their baby girls was Madison, a name historically and traditionally given by White parents.
"Traditionally", names like Madison were handed down as surnames or middle names, NOT first names. To the degree that names like Madison were used as a first name, they were given to boys.

Morgan is another popular girls' name. But as recently as the '70s, it was a man's name. Here is the 1970s comic book character Morgan Edge:



And right now, the black version sporting this "girls'" name.


Stories about frequency of naming are pretty much obsolete, as so many mothers, especially black OR white unwed mothers are just pulling names out of the Scrabble bag:

LaQeeshah

D'whanna
Jusstiss
etc.

In California, some massive number of names (more than 20% despite a large Hispanic community that doen't do this) have one of a kind names.

[Dr. Sivana]

Le-a (pronounced “Ledasha” ‘cause the dash don’t be silent)

Well, that's worse than what some British have, going the opposite direction. P.G. Wodehouse had a character named Featherstonehaugh, pronounced 'Fanshaw'. As it turns out, it is a real name.

[Shimmer1]

And of course Antwon. Some people can’t spell and their kids’ names show their ignorance.

[workerbee]

There are white women named Tamieka and Keesha.

Extremely rare. Years ago I worked with a (white) guy whose wife was pregnant and they were considering Keesha because they like the sound of it with their Russian last name. They ended up with Jennifer, LOL.

[Tax-chick]

Good Russian name.

[Dr. Sivana]

Virtually no one named their daughter that prior to 1984 when the movie "Splash" came out. After that, there was an explosion of "Madisons."

Yup, just like the name Ariel had a big uptick a few years later with "The Little Mermaid". Tough thing for a girl to aspire to be.

I remember being in a Staples in 1998, noticing the clerk's name was "Rhiannon", the gears in my mind started turning. "Rhiannon", number one song for Fleetwood Mac ... off of the big selling "Rumours" LP ... 1977 or so. Yup.

[Dr. Sivana]

Okay, it didn’t make #1, it just seemed to based on airplay.

[DaveA37]

“Jeneba”.......

Pretty well sums up the intent of that article!

Jeneba doesn’t sound Caucasian.

[Molon Labbie]

Further, it is important to note that may black citizens changed their last names as well so not to be associated with the white roots of the name.

And don’t get me started on the faux royalty hypen craze by those few that do get married...

[manc]

you’re experience is very rare then , as most names are like Katisha,Keesha , Mubreesha, Tahisha, Tanisha , Labreesha etc.\\Funny thing is that they think their names are unique.

[John O]

If the black culture wasn’t turning out such perfect examples of hard workers as Saint Trayvon and the knock out game players, and the people with their pants around their knees and the hordes of girls whose dream is to be knocked up every year collecting welfare for the new baby then maybe businesses would be more interested in hiring them.

Act like a thug, get treated ike a thug and live in poverty.

I worked very hard to be non-racist prior to obama being elected. Am I racist now? You bet I am. It’s just not safe to be otherwise.

[manc]

LOL

Hanging out with her elitist circle gave her this massive , detailed survey. sarc.

[manc]

exactly