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.
Nothing says throw away this resume like “Jawabada Dabada”.
I would actually be OK with black Americans changing their last names to something besides a slave-holders name, if that is what they want to do, but they should first realize that it isn't likely their last name came from the master. When slaves were emancipated 60-70% chose surnames other than their master's name. Thus, they have a surname that was chosen, not given. How many European surnames were given? After all, your name is what people call you, not what you necessarily choose it to be.
If employment agencies or large companies’ HR depts. are really concerned about possible discrimination based on names and or race/ethnic parameters there is a solution.
The resume’ of each applicant should only be given to the hiring Managers after blocking out those parameters, thus allowing decisions based only on experience and qualifications; completely eliminating any possible bias.
I was a hiring Manager at a large company, but never had resume’s with strange names favored by Blacks. I had employees of numerous ethnic groups and only one Paki had the given name of Perdue.
Truthfully, I was more biased regarding applicants from elite universities of the Ivy League and Stanford, because they all were brainwashed by their schools and profs to believe that as soon as they graduated they could command jobs paying a minimum of $50-75k (back in the late ‘80s-early ‘90s)! I was forced to interview many. Idiots all!
I recall some other weird English pronunciation, “St. John” comes out as Sinjin. Rog Moore’s Bond while undercover used it in AVTAK.
The problem with giving girls first names that go well with their ethnic last names, is they often then go marry somebody with a very different last name.
> Jayden is a black name? Doesn’t sound it to me.
I sure hope not because we have a family member with that name and he sure looks Irish to me...: )
I work with engineers from Kenya, Ivory Coast, Uganda, and a few other places on the continent of Africa. Their names are George, Phillip, Charles, Robert, and a Miguel. They look quite puzzled when the locals here in Memphis are named, Keneesha, Shaniqua, L’aundre’, etc.... They were born and raised in African countries and the people there do not share this weird phenomenon. Maybe Nelson, Winnie, Desmond, Nissen, Nigel, but not the “Amafrican” made up names that black Americans are so eager to create?
Epinephrine.
With how “it” has tuned out, the “black pride” thing has become “black embarrassment.”
> The study might really be “on” to something though. Names really are cyclical
There is power in the names that are given to individuals. I’ve noticed certain names are more predisposed towards criminal behavior while others are not in my 20 + years of doing thousands of background checks. One example us that I’ve noticed that a larger percentage of people with the middle name of Ray commit criminal acts for some reason and that persons that have Jr, III, or IV attached to their names are more apt to commit fraud or financal crimes for some reason. There’s probably more examples if I were to sit down and think about it.
The funny thing is, my wife and I are among 25 or so Caucasians in a predominantly black church. We know many black people with made up names. There are also many West Africans in our church, mostly Nigerians and Ghanians. They are native Africans with real African names, but not one is named Laquonda or Trayvon or any such name. The West Africans don’t speak Ebonics either. One Ghanian couple’s daughter was class valedictorian and is currently at Harvard. Both of her parents are M.D.s. The native Africans also tend to be more conservative.
Those names are ghetto names. They are not “black” names, as blacks from other countries do not name their children “Lakeesha”, “Quaneesha”, etc. and American blacks before 1970 didn’t name their children those names either.
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Maybe blacks woke up to the realization that a 400-pound welfare sweathog wasn’t going to suddenly become an exotic hottie because she had a pseudo-seductive name like Shandalier or Klamidiya. In fact, it just made her look even more ridiculous by contrast.
The authors of “Freakonomics” found that having an oddly spelled or pronounced name does not interfere with the child’s financial future. However, it does usually reflect parents who have little financial future.
Reminds me of the old joke about the young Indian boy who asked his father just how did he decide what to name his children.
“After they are born when I leave the teepee, I name them after the very first thing I see”
That is why I named your sister “White Cloud” and your brother “Soaring Eagle”
Why do you ask, Two Dogs Fu...ng?”
My blonde, green eyed daughter has a Jamaican first name, an Hispanic maiden name, and a Scandinavian married name. People are often surprised.
Mineral Niece, who has an african American mother, is named Noelle Anastasia.
Further, it is important to note that may black citizens changed their last names as well so not to be associated with the white roots of the name.
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When plantation slaves were given freedom (a common thing even before the CW) they usually took the last name of their former owners, as they were generally several generations removed from their African tribal names.
My surname derives from England and there are/have been numerous Blacks with the same surname since the 1800s in the US, because my ancestors in the 1600-1800s did have slaves.
Madison sounds like a boy’s name. Why is it so popular with girls?
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