Dare To Ask Talk And News About Our Differences - This topic has 10 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 24 years, 7 months ago by
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I have noticed many African-American women have names that end with the letter A, or with an “A” sound. Why is this?
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Name : Fred21724, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Methodist, Age : 32, City : Detroit, State : MI, Country : United States, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class,I’m not sure why this is common. I can tell you I hate it when folks call me LaToya. My name is not that difficult. Just as an ‘a’ at the end of a black woman’s name is common, I have noticed that other names seem to be popular among white women. I can see some names in print, and almost immediately, I indentify it with someone white. These include Meagan, Molly, Jennifer, Bailey, Haley, Lori, Stacey, Sally, Kelsey, Cholea and Heather. It appears that many white women have names that end with an ‘e’ sound. And when it comes to unusal names, whites can be pretty creative, too. I have a friend whose daughter is named Nebraska. It will be a surprise the day I meet a black woman named Molly.
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Name : LaTonya, Gender : F, Race : Black/African American, City : Southfield, State : MI, Country : United States, Occupation : Sales, Social class : Middle class,I know that African-American names are either derived from Swahili or other African languages or are made up phonetically. The idea is to have a unique, pleasant-sounding name, like Shananae, or Shavante. The names are not African themselves, but they blend the sounds of the traditional languages of that continent.
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Name : Sarah28402, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 18, City : Sterling Heights, State : MI, Country : United States, Occupation : student, Education level : Less than High School Diploma,Miranda, Erica, Amanda, Jessica, Andrea, Victoria, Julia, Dana, and Wanda – all names ending in A, right? These are some of the students I’m teaching this year, and I defy you to tell me which of these girls are white and which are black by the vowel sound that ends these names. However, some of the most unique names of my black students, like Myia and Nieasha, do end with A. But I don’t think A has any special dominance as an ending to black women’s names. Why did the parents of all these students – blacks and whites – give them names ending in A? I suspect a simple reason – they liked the name.
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Name : D.J., Gender : F, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Agnostic, City : Durham, State : NC, Country : United States, Education level : 4 Years of College,I never really noticed it, but maybe it is because we like the way the names sound. It’s creative and original. I never understood why people give their kids the same names over and over and over.
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Name : Tia-J, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Christian, Age : 21, City : Indianaplolis, State : IN, Country : United States, Occupation : secretary, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class,Stop and think for a minute: most feminine names, in most cultures (East Asian being the first exception that comes to mind), end in the ‘a’ sound. It’s not just limited to African Americans. This could well owe to a proto-language spoken by the first humans. I find it curious that this is the most distinctive thing one would notice about African-American women’s names; most people are far more fascinated by the euphonic combination of syllables and the creative spellings of conventional names. Diversity is a good thing!
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Name : Augustine23537, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 39, City : Columbia, State : SC, Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,That’s an interesting comment, that you ‘never understood why people give their kids the same names over and over and over.’ One reason is that to most white people a name isn’t a ‘real’ name unless it has tradition behind it — anything else is a weird, ‘made-up’ name. Another is that well-known names are easy to spell! If you give your name over the phone to a stranger as ‘Lisa’ or ‘Emma,’ most likely the person will know how to spell it, and won’t have to ask you, but if you give your name as ‘Lateisha’ they won’t be sure – and may well not remember it correctly. Especially if your name has a capital letter or an apostrophe in the middle of it, like ‘LaRuwa’ or ‘Mo’Nique’! (And by the way, there is nothing ‘African’ about this sort of name, as someone said in this forum.) There is also the danger that parents who don’t have a large vocabulary may choose names that sound nice to them, but are or contain real words with unfortunate meanings – like ‘Malice’ or ‘Arsenetta’ — two black names I have seen recently. One reason that whites tend to laugh at or stigmatize original black names is that they associate them with hickness or a low socio-economic class. After all, there have been quite a few rural and/or Southern whites who have given their children odd names or ordinary names with unusual spellings. When I was a teenager I wanted to respell my name with a Y instead of the usual E – my mother had a fit, saying that that looked ‘ignorant’ and would mark me as non-middle class. I wonder if this perception will change if there are more prominent (and non-show business) people with names like Condoleeza Rice – whose name, she said, comes from ‘con dolcezza,’ an Italian musical direction. I think the idea of giving children unique names is interesting, but I wouldn’t do it myself. Just my preference.
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Name : Carak19222, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 60, City : Boston, State : MA, Country : United States, Occupation : high-tech professional, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,My name is Naomi. It doesn’t start nor end in A. My mother’s name doesn’t start nor end in A. Same for my sister. And we’re all black. Where did you get that assumption from?
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Name : Naomi, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Baptist, Age : 20, City : Lansing, State : MI, Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class,Julia, Amanda, Amelia, Brenda, Jessica, Virginia, Cynthia, Samantha, Linda, Victoria, Belinda, Wanda, Melissa, Miranda, Farrah, Maria, Georgia, Nina, Helena, Tina, Patricia … ’nuff said?
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Name : Mizjay, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 47, City : Durham, State : NC, Country : United States, Occupation : Teacher, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,There is no reason behind this, it just sounds good!
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Name : Tee, Gender : M, Race : Black/African American, Age : 23, City : Virginia Beach, State : VA, Country : United States, Education level : 4 Years of College,
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