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ArchivesElements of African American names
I'm curious about the origins of African American names. For example if you search a name like Daquan the database says that is a combination of the popular elements Da and quan. Where do these elements come from? I've read that the La-, Le-, and De- prefixes are from French, because of the influence of French surnames; what about other elements like Da-, Ta-, Sha-, -isha, -iqua, and -quan? I've read the claim that -quan came from the Vietnamese name Quan; is there any truth to this? To me it looks like a coincidence. Also I've read someone claim that the use of apostrophes in African American names comes from the spelling of Arabic names like 'Aisha; is this correct?
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Most of the prefixes and suffixes commonly used in created African-American names are abstracted out from other names. You also have to remember that since almost all of these names are accented on the second syllable, the vowel sound in the first syllable is something like a schwa and so gets respelled in various ways. Da- therefore is really just a spelling variation of De-. Sha- was abstracted out from names like Chanel and eventually other forms like Ta- were created on the analogy of Da- and Sha-.
-isha is the ending of a great many names commonly in use before the 1960s, like Alicia and Felicia. -ique is from names like Monique and Dominique, and -iqua is probably just a blend of -isha and -ique.
I don't think -quan is just from the Vietnamese; it also is related to Chinese names like Kwan. It could also have been abstracted out from surnames like Quantrell.
The use of apostrophes probably isn't from the Arabic names but rather from French and Italian. There are French, Italian, and Portuguese surnames with spellings like D'Artagnan, D'Angelo, and D'Souza.
The other way apostrophes got into African-American names was as a substitute for other diacritical or accent marks. Until very recently it was almost impossible to use such marks in the typefaces normally provided in the United States. Only with modern word-processing programs can people in the USA easily reproduce spellings like è or é. Back in the 1960s and 1970s when apostrophes first were noticed in African-American names in places like Detroit, many of the examples were where the apostrophe was placed before or after a letter which would have such an accent mark in the names' original language. It was not uncommon at that point to see spellings like Mich'ele or Miche'le, which were attempts to reproduce the original French spelling Michèle with the typefaces available at the time.
After apostrophes were first introduced in names like D'Angelo and Miche'le, they were taken up as just another part of the "respelling repertoire" in African-American culture and started to pop up in many other places.
-isha is the ending of a great many names commonly in use before the 1960s, like Alicia and Felicia. -ique is from names like Monique and Dominique, and -iqua is probably just a blend of -isha and -ique.
I don't think -quan is just from the Vietnamese; it also is related to Chinese names like Kwan. It could also have been abstracted out from surnames like Quantrell.
The use of apostrophes probably isn't from the Arabic names but rather from French and Italian. There are French, Italian, and Portuguese surnames with spellings like D'Artagnan, D'Angelo, and D'Souza.
The other way apostrophes got into African-American names was as a substitute for other diacritical or accent marks. Until very recently it was almost impossible to use such marks in the typefaces normally provided in the United States. Only with modern word-processing programs can people in the USA easily reproduce spellings like è or é. Back in the 1960s and 1970s when apostrophes first were noticed in African-American names in places like Detroit, many of the examples were where the apostrophe was placed before or after a letter which would have such an accent mark in the names' original language. It was not uncommon at that point to see spellings like Mich'ele or Miche'le, which were attempts to reproduce the original French spelling Michèle with the typefaces available at the time.
After apostrophes were first introduced in names like D'Angelo and Miche'le, they were taken up as just another part of the "respelling repertoire" in African-American culture and started to pop up in many other places.
This message was edited 11/23/2012, 10:40 PM
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Thanks (and a related question about French names)
Do you know why French names like Antoine, Andre and Monique are more popular among African Americans than White Americans? I've been curious about this for a long time and have never been able to find a definitive answer. I've read that Arabic names became popular among that demographic because of the influence of Black Muslim organisations like Nation of Islam. But why did French names become popular?
I've read several explanations on the internet: one is that it is because of the influence of Creole people, among whom French names are common. Another is that they were introduced by Haitian immigrants. Another one is that they were used as a kind of tribute to the French, supposedly because during WWII Black soldiers were treated better in France than they were in America. Do you know which one, if any, is true?
Do you know why French names like Antoine, Andre and Monique are more popular among African Americans than White Americans? I've been curious about this for a long time and have never been able to find a definitive answer. I've read that Arabic names became popular among that demographic because of the influence of Black Muslim organisations like Nation of Islam. But why did French names become popular?
I've read several explanations on the internet: one is that it is because of the influence of Creole people, among whom French names are common. Another is that they were introduced by Haitian immigrants. Another one is that they were used as a kind of tribute to the French, supposedly because during WWII Black soldiers were treated better in France than they were in America. Do you know which one, if any, is true?
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Creole and Haitian influence is a possibility, but the main factor seems to be that White Americans avoid male names which are accented on the second syllable in American English while Black Americans do not.
It isn't just French male names like Andre and Antoine which are more common in the Black community. Demetrius (originally Greek) and Tyrone (originally an Irish place name) are also much more common among Blacks than Whites. Bernard and Maurice, which are usually accented on the second syllable in the USA, are also predominantly African-American.
It seems that unconsciously White Americans feel that male names accented on the second syllable don't sound "masculine", but no such prejudice exists among African-Americans. Since French names are almost all accented on the final syllable, most French male names appeal much more to African-American parents.
The female French names in -ique like Monique and Dominique are somewhat more common among African-Americans, as that sound fits in more with African-American tastes. But White Americans have no problem adopting other French female names. There are (or have been in past generations) tens of thousands of White American women with names like Michelle, Danielle, Stephanie, Renee, Marie, Natalie, Bernadette, Blanche, Christine, Claire, Corinne, Diane, Elise, Estelle, Gabrielle,
It isn't just French male names like Andre and Antoine which are more common in the Black community. Demetrius (originally Greek) and Tyrone (originally an Irish place name) are also much more common among Blacks than Whites. Bernard and Maurice, which are usually accented on the second syllable in the USA, are also predominantly African-American.
It seems that unconsciously White Americans feel that male names accented on the second syllable don't sound "masculine", but no such prejudice exists among African-Americans. Since French names are almost all accented on the final syllable, most French male names appeal much more to African-American parents.
The female French names in -ique like Monique and Dominique are somewhat more common among African-Americans, as that sound fits in more with African-American tastes. But White Americans have no problem adopting other French female names. There are (or have been in past generations) tens of thousands of White American women with names like Michelle, Danielle, Stephanie, Renee, Marie, Natalie, Bernadette, Blanche, Christine, Claire, Corinne, Diane, Elise, Estelle, Gabrielle,
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I wonder if this still isn't in some way a relation to the popularity of the Arabic names among Black Muslim organizations, since many male Arabic names end on the 2nd syllable -- Jamal, Jaleel, Karim, Rashad, etc. My guess is many Americans today would view those as "black" names and not realize they are even Arabic in origin.
If you think about the generations up until about 50 years ago, white American men were named Bernard, Maurice, Tyrone. Now, those are seen as black names. So I wonder if this was all started by the influence of Arabic names in the '50s - people unconsciously heard the similarity between the 2nd syllable accent names and the Arabic names, so that the white community gave them up and the black community continued to use them.
If you think about the generations up until about 50 years ago, white American men were named Bernard, Maurice, Tyrone. Now, those are seen as black names. So I wonder if this was all started by the influence of Arabic names in the '50s - people unconsciously heard the similarity between the 2nd syllable accent names and the Arabic names, so that the white community gave them up and the black community continued to use them.
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Or is it possible that names like Jamal and Rashad became popular among Black Americans because their sounds already fitted into Black naming patterns? As far as I know, neither of those names are particularly significant in Islam - why didn't the much more distinctly Muslim Muhammad and Abdullah (and Fatima and Khadija for girls) become more popular in Black communities? Maybe because they just didn't have as fashionable a sound as Jamal and the others.
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Very interesting, thanks. So it's not about African Americans being more attracted to French names, it's about White Americans avoiding male names that are stressed on the second syllable.
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