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.
The authors of “Freakonomics” found that having an oddly spelled or pronounced name does not interfere with the child’s financial future. However, it does usually reflect parents who have little financial future.
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.
Another possible explanation...
``Concurrently, overworked interns on rotation in ghetto hospitals
did what they could to entertain themselves amid 20-hour days in
depressing surroundings. In 1963, as in all other years, one of the
standard gambits among interns assigned to inner-city delivery rooms
was to see who could cause the most outrageous name to be printed
on the birth certificate of children born to ghetto teenagers.’’
— John Ross in `Unintended Consequences’
A friend who teaches in a midwestern school told me thay had a student who was named (sounds like) shi’-THAY-ad and (spelled) `Shithead’ This is not a person who normally pulls my leg so I’m inclined to believe it... Maybe I’m gullible?
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.
I read unintended Consequences that had what I think is more likely the reason for stupid names.
"there are overworked interns on rotation in ghetto hospitals that did what they could to entertain themselves amid 20-hour days in depressing surroundings. one of the standard gambits was to see who could cause the most outrageous name to be printed on the birth certificate of children born to ghetto teenagers. "
The girl in the book known as G.G. was Gonorrhea Gaily.
I always think of this reason for those unpronoucable names and misspellings.