African American names

Another thing I’m curious about – where do the specific black American names come from? Like, Tyronne, Dajuan, Jahquil, Takeisha, Serena, Shantel, etc. Do they all come from Africa?

 

Ha, ha. You're funny. No, I know this is a serious question because living in Europe I know how it is here. In portugal for example, you are simply portuguese, regardless of skin color. All have traditional portuguese names and speak portuguese the way it is taught in schools. Many other countries in Europe have a monolithic culture and language.

In the US we have a lot more emphasis on sub-cultures and ethnic groups which are unique in a melting pot. So in the black community you will see a lot of names chosen which reflect african or black heritage (shanika, e.g.) or names that are popular and have become associated with blacks for other reasons.

Similarly, in the hispanic community you will see a lot of Juans and Marias.

In the Jewish community Sarah, Italian-Antonio, etc.

Believe me, it has been a real eye-opener for me to live here in Europa.

 

I know about the US culture, as I used to live there, but I never got exposed to the black culture. The two black boys who went to my school were named Jesse and Jeremy.

 

I am curious about Jesse and Jeremy and thier impact on you. My wife is Canadian and comes from a small rural town in the north of Ontario. She says the seed was planted for liking BM (without her realizing it at the time) when a black family moved into town and the young boy was her classmate. He happened to be a real nice guy whom she has never forgotten.

If I met him today, I would thank him for the great first impression of BM he gave my future wife.

 

Interesting thought.. maybe on subconscious level they did. They were both very nice. Jeremy was actually the first guy in the school to approach me. They were very sweet. I only got to visit a public school once, for a couple of days, so I saw some black boys there. I don’t recall that I singled them out somehow. Now that I think about it, they could’ve put a few more blacks in that private school, it really wouldn’t have hurt.

 

To me, it seemed like many African-American women have names like Tanisha, Keyshia, Lakeyshia... and many men have names like TJ, PJ. i was always wondering about where these names come from? cause i ve never met a white person with this kinda name.

 

Yea, I always found that very peculiar. I was wondering if that had anything to do with the Creole.

But it seems a lot of it is African. Apparently, the names have meanings too. For ex., Barack supposedly means "blessings".

 

Uh oh...

Don't let Flaminghetero see this thread.

 

Wow, sorry, I hope I didn't say anything wrong.

 

Man, I was thinking the same thing.

 

Question: are these really names, or just nicknames?

I've always assumed it's nicknames. And that for instance TJ would be short for Tom Jones or some other embarrasing name...

 

I hope and pray Flaming will see this post. I have never met a black TJ or PJ. Sorry if I am sounding like an ass but you people need to actually meet some black people. Granted we got some brothers and sisters with crazy names but that is not really the norm.

 

This is an interesting topic. Being a black guy myself, not even i have any clue where these names originated from. I have noticed that an awful lot of black women have first names ending with "sha." But from what i've seen with black guys, there really doesn't appear to be any pattern. My name is Nathaniel, and there are probably more white guys with the name Nathaniel in the world than black guys.

By the way babe, my nephew is named DJ, which is short for Daniel Jr. Whenever a person has a name as TJ, or PJ, or DJ or whatever, that most likely means they're a "Jr."

 

Sure it is. :smt003
jk

I've only met a few black Americans to be honest. But they all had "normal" names. Like Eric...

I think the impression we Europeans sometimes got, that black Americans all have "crazy" names might come from watching to many "black" sit-coms... Cause they do all have crazy names. Perhaps because thet're trying to make them as "black" as possible, so they end up stereotyping (as all sit.coms do )

And just to remind you: I did NOT think TJ was a name, but a nickname. (And I thought PJ was short for pyjamas...)

 

So a "name" like that would be a nickname, and not the actual name. Good. Then I'm not as stupid as I feared for a moment. :smt048

It never occured to me that the J could be short for Jr though...

 

Yeah, you were exactly right Ronja. It's only a nickname, and instead of constantly saying "Daniel Jr" it's much easier on the tongue to just say "DJ" instead.

 

There doesn't exist a "normal" or a "crazy" name. There is nothing crazy about a name like Tyrone, a very masculine name btw, except that it sounds peculiar and interesting. Some of those names are actually beautiful.

Nathanial is a biblical name and many Americans have biblical names..

Eric is the name of Scandinavian royalty, one of my fave male names, that has spread over the world.

It's interesting how they shorten the name too.. like, Snoopy once called David Beckham D.Beck. And Chris Breezy is often referred to as C.B.

Some white guys have those shortened names too.

 

I disagree, there are "crazy" names. None of the names anyone has mentioned in this discussion is what I'd consider crazy though. Cause it's obvious that they're names (and Nathaniel is VERY nice.) Peaches, Pixie and Fifi Trixibell, however, sounds like names you'd consider giving to a teacup poodle.

Here are some other crazy names:
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article2130988.ece

 

Yea, but that's a completely different story. That's just smth wacked that ppl came up with off the cuff, not smth they inherited from their tradition.

 

Thanks Ronja!