Posted on 09/15/2014 3:34:00 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Yesterday, New York City Department of Health revealed that the number one name Black parents applied to their baby girls was Madison, a name historically and traditionally given by White parents. By contrast, the number one boy name was Jayden, often considered a typical “Black name.” The juxtaposition of the contrast is striking.
It is no hidden secret that many Blacks in America for decades have struggled with the decision of whether to name their children a traditional African or African American name. The decision is based on how much they want to give away the race of their children on paper – that paper being resumes or job applications. Before the child is even born, some parents are concerned that a uniquely Black name – like Jayden, Aisha, Ebony, Jamal, Clarence or Tanisha for example – would lessen the chances of that child being cleared for a job interview, should the person screening applicants have any race-based biases.
With a president named Barack Obama in office, we would hope that the days of name discrimination are long over. However, it is hard to know if the person shifting through resumes to select interview applicants will be able to put aside any stereotypes he or she may have and consider only the credentials of an applicant. No one wants his or her child to be cut off from a chance to prove him or herself and his or her qualifications during an interview out of the gate.
A while ago, I noticed a trend among many of my Black American friends in that they were giving their children names that were more traditionally associated with Caucasian children, including some of which were distinctly androgynous. In fact, during the years that I took my children to Gymboree classes from 2002 to 2008, I was taken aback by the number of Black and Brown Kennedys, Morgans, Briannas, Masons, Madisons, Jordans, Carters, Paytons, Baileys, Haileys, Montanas, Regans and Brandis I saw running around.
I wondered if the parents so named their children because they had familial significance, because those were just very pretty names or simply because they may have been more “resume” proof.
There is some science behind the “resume” proof phenomenon.
Roland G. Fryer Jr., a young Black economist who has analyzed the “acting White” phenomenon and the Black-White test score gap, is cited in Freakonomics: a Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen Dubner.
The book notes several audit studies where two identical (and fake) résumés, one with a traditionally White name and the other with an immigrant or minority-sounding name, are sent to potential employers. The “White” résumés have always gleaned more job interviews, and even in scenarios where the resume of a typical “Black” name was amplified and better, the White name resume still got more call backs.
How did certain names become more Black in the first place? Based on a longitudinal analysis of names Black and White California parents gave their children, Black children were given names like DeShawn, Terrell, Malik, Darryl, Tyrone and Jamal for boys and Jazmin, Tiara, Diamond, Deja, Imani, Ebony and Precious for girls. These names compared to the top girl names for White children: Molly, Amy, Claire, Emily, Emma and Holly for girls and Jake, Connor, Tanner, Cole, Luke, and Logan for boys.
In the early 1970s, there was a great overlap between Black and White names. The typical baby girl born in a Black neighborhood in 1970 was given a name that was twice as common among Blacks than Whites. The Black Power movement also impacted Black names in between two decades because by 1980, a particular name was twenty times more common among Blacks than Whites. By the 1990s, the distinctions became clear. Of the 626 baby girls named Deja in the 1990s, 591 were Black. Of the 454 girls named Precious, 431 were Black. Of the 318 Shanices, 310 were Black.
What kind of parent is most likely to give a child such a distinctively Black name?
The data offer a clear answer: an unmarried, low-income, undereducated teenage mother from a Black neighborhood who has a distinctively Black name herself,” Levitt and Dubner write about Fryer’s assessment. “In Fryer’s view, giving a child a super Black name is a Black parent’s signal of solidarity with the community.
“If I start naming my kid Madison,” Fryer said, “you might think, ‘Oh, you want to go live across the railroad tracks, don’t you?’” If Black kids who study calculus and ballet are thought to be ‘acting White,’ Fryer says, then mothers who call their babies Shanice are simply “acting Black.”
But the sterotypes and discrimination of names are not limited to blacks.
In a recent study of 89 undergraduate students, participants were asked to guess the success of students with various names on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the most successful. The highest scoring names turned out to be Katherine, scoring a 7.42, and Samuel, scoring a 7.20. With a score of 5.74, Amber ranked lowest among female names while Travis ranked overall lowest with a score of 5.55.
The Freaknomics authors noted that as lower income Whites started adopting certain names that middle class White parents gave their children, they too started abandoning those names.
Dictionary.com cites Bloomberg University researcher John Waggoner, who said, “Katherine goes to the private school, statistically; Lauren goes to a public university, and Briana goes to community college. Sierra and Dakota, they don’t go to college.”
So it may be more about class than race, after all.
Just wondering...how does one juxtapose contrast? And the author has a law degree?
'Athole' seems to be a proper British name (you can google it). The two should get together sometime and exchange anecdotes.
“Black” names are very uncommon here in Canada. Probably because they are better integrated into the mainstream here.
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All six of them?
The actor Archibald Leach was born in England but for some inexplicable reason decided to change his name to Cary Grant.
I read once that there was a governor of Massachusetts whose name was Peabody. Someone claimed there were three places in Massachusetts named for him—Peabody, Marblehead, and Athol.
We actually have a lot of blacks in Canada; descendants of slaves in Nova Scotia, descendants of Americans who made it here via the Underground Railroad, and Caribbeans who started arriving in large numbers in the 1960s. Most blacks here in Toronto are from the latter group. One of the reasons they are so integrated here is that there are no real “ghettos”; it’s easy enough to get around town that even in the worst neigbourhoods here people get away on a daily basis.
my boys have Christian names after Saints, and my daughter has a normal name , unlike what we see today.
I have a friend who became a cop who has arrested his share of people with interesting names. My favorites were Le-a (ledasha, and has already been mentioned) and “female” which was pronounced “fem-a-lee” (and when I explain the pronunciation the dash ‘do be silent’). Well, apparently “female” would fly into a rage whenever someone pronounced her name in the expected manner and she apparently had no clue, even as an adult, why anyone would call her “fe-male”.
Have you ever been in a store and saw their name tags, and then asked how do you pronounce that name because you have never seen it before, only for the woman to reply with some gibberish?
there are two Christian names in there which are my sons name.
Their middle names are also Christian normal names too.
I’d bet your checked airport luggage is less likely to get it’s valuables extracted if the name tag says “Shaneequa”.
I was wondering if that was a typo. I don’t associate Clarence with being a “black” name, even when we have a black supreme court justice who happens to be using it. “Clarice” on the other hand I mentally associate with black women though, fortunately, I don’t particularly associate it with the ghetto.
I have four black children with traditional names...although my oldest was named Morgan (Morgan from King Arthur legends). They have a statement that I have heard....oh she is a Shatiqua...which isn’t a compliment.
I have two black children myself, with traditional names. I looked up Shatiqua, and I think I have one of those, too. Minus the dialect, of course. She’s a good counter to my quiet older daughter.
“Historically and traditionally ? Virtually no one named their daughter that prior to 1984 when the movie “Splash” came out. After that, there was an explosion of “Madisons.” “
That’s right. The supposedly historic names the author mentions aren’t. They are more recent trendy names that were traditionally last names.
When I went to school in the 60’s and 70’s there were:
Marks, Daves, Garys, Petes, Bobs, Toms, Tims, Jims, Eds, Teds, Larrys, Johns, Rogers, Carls, Darryls, Eugenes, Gregs, Pauls, Scotts, Kirks, Charlies, Brads, Dans...
No one had a first name like Conner, no Dylans or Jakes.
The 1984 movie Splash with Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah had a mermaid named Madison. In the movie, since humans can't pronounce her mermaid name, she named herself Madison after Madison Avenue in New York City.
That started the popularity of Madison as a girl's name.
The triplet sistahs down the road are named Januvia, Byetta and Victoza...and babymama is named Etiwanda.
Bump
Right or wrong I think that's how many people perceive it. A name like "Shaneeka" implies to me a leftist upbringing, angry against society and raised with the belief that all whites are prejudice and out to get the blacks. In other words, they probably have chip on their shoulder and will be difficult to get along with.
Buy contrast a black person with a name like "Craig" or "John" or "Lisa" implies someone raised with values like hardwork, politeness etc etc.
Clarence?
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