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.
"I heard what you said..."
What every happened to Edward, Peter, Paul, John, Michael, William, Robert and Matthew? The country started going down the toilet when people stopped naming their kids the age-old common names.
Probably in the list of “top ten words that sound dirty but aren’t”.
Gene Chandler is the Duke of Earl
In my many years walking this earth I have never met or seen a black girl named Madison.
At the elementary school my kids attend, one of the fifth-grade teachers is a black man with the first name of Christian. He was our son’s teacher a couple of years ago and we loved him.
Our younger son, who is autistic, had a black woman as an aide last name. Her name is Charity. Again, we (my husband and I, plus our little boy) absolutely loved her.
My older son’s reading teacher this year is a black woman named Sherri. At the alternative school in our district, the assistant principal is a black man named David (and we live in a town where over 95% of the population is white).All of these people are incredibly well thought of in the community and you would be hard pressed to find anyone who would say a bad word against them
I knew a couple of boys named Madison before that movie, no girls.
Yeah, get back to me when blacks start naming their kids Chip and Buffy.
Back in those days a number of people with Jewish, Italian, German, or Polish names anglicized them for professional reasons. In some cities with large Irish populations, I’ve read that Jewish or Italian boxers would change their names to an Irish name and even call themselves Irish Mike McBride or Irish Dan Malone. And of course, many people in showbiz anglicized/prettified their ethnic names i.e. Frances Gumm became Judy Garland.
“just pulling names out of the Scrabble bag”
Great line.
Heh.
One of the characters in _Unintended_Consequences_ had a comparable, albeit worse, name - always shortened to “G” and never would admit what it was. Gotta wonder how common such names actually are.
I'm a big Sarah Palin fan, but one thing that gives me pause about her intelligence is the names of her children. Not one of them has a traditional first name. And although black Americans are tops in giving their kids goofy names, white Americans aren't too far behind. Even some members of my family (brothers, nieces, nephews) have given their kids some goofy names.
I hate all these “soap opera” names. The only saint’s name mentioned in this entire article is “Katherine.”
Talk about under-educated: A popular name in the late 70s was “Jordache.”
Well put & observed. It’s not the name per se, it’s that the name is indicative of the parents’ mindset, which is passed on.
Another example of the divide being cultural, not color.
Ah, I’m not the only one who thought of that passage while reading this thread!
I think it’s a relatively new phenomenon. Back in high school in the 70s the black boys were named Charlie, Steve, Gregory, Brian, David, and Percy. The black girls were Regina, Sonia, Valerie, Yvette and Janetta. Not a one -shon, -isha or -iqua.
From now on I will answer those race questions with "native American." I was born here. That is what "native" means.
I am a native American.
A friend of mine became a third grade teacher in FL in the early nineties. One year during the first parent-teacher conferences in the fall, there was one conference where the mother stared oddly when he referred to her daughter as "Virginia - this," or "Virginia - that," etc.
Finally the mother declared, "Her name ain't Virginia, her name be VAGINA!" ("Oh. I apologize....")
True story.
I still laugh about a story my wife tells when she was student at Delta State. It was the first day of class and the teacher was reading names and having the students raise their hands. She said she almost busted out laughing when she got to a little black girl that her parents had named VAGINA. She said the teacher siad it out the way it is usually said, but the student said it is pronounced VA JEAN A. The teacher then told her from now on in class she was GINA.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.