Darius... So, when black people are naming their children, do they have specific short list of names to draw from? DeShaun, DeMarques, Darius, etc?
That African-Americans have a tendency to buck more common names is obvious. Take a quick glance down the Olympic roster.
It is the black names that disproportionately stand out:
Tayshaun, Deron, Rau’shee, Raynell, Deontay, Taraje, Jozy, Kerron, Hyleas, Chaunte, Bershawn, Lashawn, Sanya, Trevell, Sheena, Ogonna, Dremiel. You can safely bet that NBC’s commentators practiced these a few more times in the mirror than the name “Michael Phelps.”
And, indeed, black Americans have spearheaded and continue to lead the trend of creative naming in this country, even if they haven’t garnered as many headlines as True Adonis.
Creative naming has reached every race and class, but “it is largely and profoundly the legacy of African-Americans,” writes Eliza Dinwiddie-Boyd in her baby-naming book “Proud Heritage.”
Shalondra and Shaday, Jenneta and Jonelle, Michandra and Milika — in some parts of the country today, nearly a third of African-American girls are given a name belonging to no one else in the state (boys’ names tend to be somewhat more conservative).
Such onomastic inventiveness has irked more than a few observers.
Not long ago, a news item with the headline “Federal Judge: Enough With the Stupid Names” began to circulate in many people’s inboxes.
The judge, declaring that he was fed up with black children’s “ridiculous names,” apparently issued an order requiring black women to receive approval from three whites before naming their babies.
“They put in apostrophes where none are needed,” fumed the judge.
“They think a ‘Q’ is a must. There was a time when Shaniqua and Tawanda were names you dreaded.
Now, if you’re a black girl, you hope you get a name as sensible as one of those.”
Soon, according to the article, elementary school teachers were expressing relief. No longer would they have to wonder in panic on the first day of school, “How do I pronounce Q’J’Q’Sha?”
Many names of French origin entered the picture in the 60s.
Opinions on the origins of the French influence vary, but historically French names such as Monique, Chantal, André, and Antoine became so common within African-American culture that many Americans began to think of them solely as "Black names".
These names are often seen with spelling variations such as Antwan (Antoine) or Shauntelle (Chantal).By the 1970s and 1980s it had become common within African-American culture to invent new names.
Many of the invented names took elements from popular existing names.
Prefixes such as La/Le, Da/De, Ra/Re, or Ja/Je and suffixes such as -ique/iqua, -isha, and -aun/-awn are common, as well as inventive spellings for common names. The name LaKeisha is typically considered American in origin, but has elements drawn from both French and African roots.
Other names — for example
LaTanisha, DeShawn, JaMarcus, DeAndre, and Shaniqua — were created in the same way.
Punctuation marks are seen more often within African-American names than other American names, such as the names
Mo'nique and D'Andre.
Source: The book Baby Names Now: From Classic to Cool--The Very Last Word on First Names places the origins of "La" names in African-American culture in New Orleans.
