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ArchivesRe: Créole names
in reply to a message by Chrystelle
I don't know how fruitful your search will be, since Creole is a rather new "tribe"... A lot of French names are used, but the people haven't been around long enough to really develop their own names. Language, sortof, but not names.
Oh! This might be what you are looking for... I do know that the origin of "La" and "Da" names among Black people was in the New Orleans area. French and Spanish were spoken there. Freed Black women with babies fathered by white men who did not acknowledge their illegitimate children often put these words in front of the names of the men. This created a diminutive prefix meaning "of". So that's where we get D'Angelo, LaCharles, and all that... "of Charles"
Eventually, these prefixes lost their meaning and became just a part of names themselves. Some people may still name their child La-name of parent, but mostly I think it's just a meaningless element now.
Does that help you at all?
Michelle
Oh! This might be what you are looking for... I do know that the origin of "La" and "Da" names among Black people was in the New Orleans area. French and Spanish were spoken there. Freed Black women with babies fathered by white men who did not acknowledge their illegitimate children often put these words in front of the names of the men. This created a diminutive prefix meaning "of". So that's where we get D'Angelo, LaCharles, and all that... "of Charles"
Eventually, these prefixes lost their meaning and became just a part of names themselves. Some people may still name their child La-name of parent, but mostly I think it's just a meaningless element now.
Does that help you at all?
Michelle
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