Salon article on African-American names

[ckevans]

Thought you all might be interested in the following article, and all the many letters already posted in response to it:

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/08/25/creative_black_names/index.html

[nomdeplume]

Thanks! This is an interesting article.

Several years ago I helped put together the printed program for a public speaking contest being sponsored by a local school district with a high proportion of African American students. It involved making lists of the names of several hundred participating kids. I was struck by how inventive many of the names were, and how pretty they sounded. Since then, the desire for unique and creative names seems to have become one of the main trends in naming.

[Sobes]

Interesting article. I think it really hits at how racism and classism can affect our discussion of names and ability to appreciate names. I can think of few things more subjective than whether a name is a good choice or a bad choice, and yet we still attach a lot of value judgements to them.

[susanmc]

Interesting. Like one of the comments read...what about other ethnicities? While most of my African-American students have very unique names, I have seen the occasional Anglo student with an interesting name.

I know the article is about creative naming, but I think it wouldn't be so unusual if African-American babies were given African names. (just the way hispanic babies are commonly give Hispanic names, Asians given Asian names, etc.)

[Jennifer]

Interesting, however CKE: you have to stop saying that this website has mostly Caucasian visitors. That was true maybe 5+ years ago, however we skew very high in Hispanic demographics as opposed to the internet norm. Now we have a great diversity of visitors that we're proud of.

Thanks!