Ye ole apostrophe and other interesting names

[susanmc]

I'm a teacher. The area I teach in is predominately African American. So we get a lot of students with apostrophes in their names.

I had some interesting names this year as well as the teacher across the hall.

Lil'Kurtis
Qu'Lisha (not sure if I ever really pro. her name right)
De'Shawn (common name in our school)


Other interesting names:
Kielaya (kuh-lay-uh)
Keondre (key-on-dray)
Kishari (ki-shar-ee) that's a short i
Kaosmonique (went by nn Kaos....pro. chaos)
Quatavis (kwa-tay-vis)
Keyonte (key-on-tay)
GarAysa (went by Aysa...pro. Asia)
Jakel (juh-kell)
Jaquitta (juh-kwee-tuh)
Tahja (tah-zsa?)
Jaina (juh-nay)

I have seen an increase though in what I would term "common" names.
Robert
Diamond
Jelissa
Tony
Luis
Amber
Monique
Shania
April
Scott
Glenn
Justin

[_Roxanna_]

ive wondered if Scott might come back into style before long.

i dont care for any of the names, except Jaina prn Jay-nuh.

[Sobes]

I like:
Kielaya
Kiondre
Kishari
Tahja

Kaosmonique I can see pretty cool on the right kid. Then again most names seem right on the kids they go with - at least to me.

[speechykeen]

Oh, I really love some of those pronunciations. I know lots of people don't get the attraction to these kinds of names, but I think a lot of them are really gorgeous-sounding even if I'd never choose them myself.

[KNY]

I'm not a fan of Lil'Kurtis, because at some point he won't be so Lil' anymore.

Kishari is pretty!

[ckevans]

I've seen Keondre and Keyonte so often (in various spellings) that they seem more common to me than Jelissa.

It's always been a mystery to me why Diamond was hardly ever used back in the 19th century when Ruby, Pearl, Opal, Beryl, Garnet, Coral, and Sapphire were all first used as given names.

[RedJacks]

I passionately dislike names like that.

[juliedanielle]

I love the sounds and uniqueness of names African American moms choose. They have so much more freedom in naming.

Keyonte (well, anything -onte) is uber common around here. One year I hade Deonte, Avonte and Ramonte! I haven't had a Keondre, but that sound (Andre) is also really common. For the girls the common ones Daja/Daesha, Jalisa, Imani. I've got 2 boys here in Cincy named Armani. In Columbus I ALWAYS had at least one Isaiah.

Kishari is gorgeous. I like Kielaya a lot, too.

I've never had many kids with apostrophes, though I do see accent marks pretty frequently and I wonder how often the names are mistyped on birth announcement lists. For instance I had a Chantél and I can imagine someone at the hospital putting Chant'el on the web nursery in ignorance. Not that apostrophe's aren't used, but they aren't that common. Much more common are the second capitalized letter like DeAndre or NiKisha, but then McKenzie and the rest of the Mc/Mac- names have that so it's not all that strange. It usually helps with pronunciation, actually. So "Deandre" might be DEEN-dray, "DeAndre" is clearly dee-AHN-dray. That first syllable is always unstressed, from my experience.

[ckevans]

For instance I had a Chantél and I can imagine someone at the hospital putting Chant'el on the web nursery in ignorance.

This is not necessarily "ignorance". Until very recently, most people in the USA simply did not have typefaces that included accent marks, so the only way they could try to represent them was by using apostrophes. I would bet there are still states in the USA where there is no way to have an accent mark put on a name on an official birth certificate. Nebraska only changed its computer system so that they could be included in official spellings on birth certificates within the last couple of years.

[juliedanielle]

Good point.

[susanmc]

SIL works at a nearby hospital in coding dept. She sees all the new babies' names come through her office. She had a couple one time try to put an asterisk at the beginning.
She says she sees lots of interesting names (unfortunately she can't share due to patient confidentiality)

[Elliebean]

there were a few kids in my HS with apostrophes in their names who had Israeli names: Ro'ee and Ra'ee

[KNY]

Interesting, Ellie - and that makes me realize, Hawaiian names pften have apostrophes too (isn't it technically spelled Hawai'i?)

[Panya]

Kalee, there's a huge debate about that. The official name on federal documents is Hawaii. The 'okina [apostrophe, representing a glottal-stop like in uh-oh] and kahakō [macron, which shows the vowel sound is longer] aren't generally used by native Hawaiian speakers. They were added to make it easier for non-native speakers to read Hawaiian. Personally, I'm all for them. I mean, kai could mean lots of things if you spell it that way, you'd only know the meaning from context and pronunciation -- but if you're not a native speaker, you don't know the proper pronunciation [Mandarin is similar]! So [most common definitions]...

kai = sea
kaī = an interjection of displeasure
ka'i = to lead

Very different meanings. The 'okina and kahakō are useful imo, so I always use them when writing Hawaiian words. To me, it's Hawai'i.

Sorry for rambling/stealing the thread...:peek:

[RedJacks]

For instance I had a Chantél and I can imagine someone at the hospital putting Chant'el on the web nursery in ignorance.

This is not necessarily "ignorance". Until very recently, most people in the USA simply did not have typefaces that included accent marks, so the only way they could try to represent them was by using apostrophes. I would bet there are still states in the USA where there is no way to have an accent mark put on a name on an official birth certificate. Nebraska only changed its computer system so that they could be included in official spellings on birth certificates within the last couple of years.
I have a friend named Chanté, and even when she's typing her name she puts Chante' because it's easier.

[KNY]

Interesting, Panya! I always assumed it was the opposite (that Hawaiians used the apostrophes but non-native speakers left them out).

[Galaxy Chaser]

I passionately dislike names like that.

Ditto.

[alleigh76]

I like some of those names, although I don't like names with apostrophes.
As for the accents, I know one person (and have heard of several) name Andréa (on-DRAY-uh). I understand that accents often get replaced with apostrophes, but if my name had an accent that would really make me mad. It's the same as people misspelling it, and if you can't type it, write it in. Honestly. I'm sure the people themselves would be happy to write it if you're too lazy.

Anyway, back to the topic. Since I live in a very small, very undiverse town, we don't have that type of name here. The African-Americans here are named:
Hakeem Ramik, Ronald, Christian (brothers, I only know Hakeem's mn because he's in my class)
Harmony
Rachel (she has a brother, but I don't remember his name)

And the half African-American/half white:
Jennifer, Matt
Skylar Leslie, Lindsey, Alexis (not sure about the spelling of Lindsey--I always spell it wrong)

There are more but not in high school or just graduated, so that's all I know. (Mind you, my school only has 350 kids in 7th-12th grade.) Other than Hakeem, they all have fairly common names, not African-American sounding at all.

[PearlsFurMama]

I passionately dislike names like that.

ditto.