Qs: African-American First Names like Latoya, Denzel, Condoleeza and Keisha

Question

When did African-American mothers first come up with names like Latisha, Lakisha, Tawana (sp.?), Latoya, Jamal, Denzel and Darah? Condoleeza Rice looks like she's in her 40's and she's one of the oldest people I know of with an African-American first name, but I'm guessing that they go back a lot farther than fortysomething years. Is Jemima one of them? If so, they go back a long time. Are there any interesting aspects on this that you can disclose? Are they a combination of both English and African names? Or did they simply take a name like Sarah and put a "D" in front of it to make it Darah, or both? Thanks again.

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]When did African-American mothers first come up with names like Latisha, Lakisha, Tawana (sp.?), Latoya, Jamal, Denzel and Darah?[/nq]
Research has been done on this question. One useful article is on the Web:
http://economics.uchicago.edu/download/blacknames1 applications.pdf

and a Google search for "distinctive african-american names" (be sure to include the quotation marks) will lead you to other published articles (but you'll nead a pretty good library to locate them).
In view of the scholarly activity on the subject, I see no reason to offer my own uninformed views.

Bob Lieblich
Plain old Robert

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]When did African-American mothers first come up with names like Latisha, Lakisha, Tawana (sp.?), Latoya, Jamal, Denzel and Darah? Condoleeza ... a name like Sarah and put a "D" in front of it to make it Darah, or both? Thanks again.[/nq]
A. I think you might do better asking on an African-American group. (I would call Condoleeza a "name of that sort" because I'm not sure it is an African-American name. In fact iirc it's not (I think it's Anglicized French, and might have existed as a name in French or English before she got it.), so I might just ask an open-ended question about it, with no embedded assumptions.
B. I don't think Jemima is in the same category as the other names, but I can't remember why, what I've heard about Jemima. It might be worth looking up on the web.
C. I probably first saw this style of name in the 70's, but I'm not the first person people tell. Of the people you name Latoya Jackson or Denzel Washington (was he given that name at birth? I think she was.) are probably the oldest. Wasn't the most famous Jamal named Lew Alcindor at birth and he renamed himself in his 20's. (If not, who am I thinking of?) All the other Jamals might be loosely based on him, and on Arabs if Jamal is an Arab name. (BTW, it's not just among Blacks that one famous person generates a lot of babies getting the same name. There are loads of other examples.)
But the most interesting thing included in your question seems to be about the coined names, no two alike if possible, I assume. My two door away neighbor is Shenaiya. She's about 11. This answer is not well organized, but that is what I assume they didn't tell me about when it first started. So I'd guess around the time Latoya Jackson was born or a few years earlier, but no earlier than 1965. This is in many ways a guess, so if you can, let me know if I guessed right.

s/ meirman If you are emailing me please
say if you are posting the same response.
Born west of Pittsburgh Pa. 10 years
Indianapolis, 7 years
Chicago, 6 years
Brooklyn NY 12 years
Baltimore 20 years

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]When did African-American mothers first come up with names like ... of it to make it Darah, or both? Thanks again.[/nq]
[nq:1]A. I think you might do better asking on an African-American group. (I would call Condoleeza a "name of that ... names, but I can't remember why, what I've heard about Jemima. It might be worth looking up on the web.[/nq]
Jemima *is* in a different category than the other names. It was a Hebrew name and a relic of slavery, when white owners had the right to determine the names of their slaves, and gave them, among other sorts of names, Old Testament and Classical names. See
http://rainbowwarrior.coa.edu/laura/move/africanamerica.htm

and
http://www.stratfordhall.org/africa.html?RESEARCH
And see the review for "Slave in a Box: The Strange Career of Aunt Jemima" by M.M. Manring at
http://www.upress.virginia.edu/books/manring.html

Raymond S. Wise
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
E-mail: mplsray @ yahoo . com

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]B. I don't think Jemima is in the same category as the other names, but I can't remember why, what I've heard about Jemima. It might be worth looking up on the web.[/nq]
In the UK the name Jemima was in use long before there was the slightest possibility of any African-American influence.
I have just looked in a book with lists of suggested names for children. The book is undated but was purchased in 1936 or 1937. Jemima is in the list of girls' names. It is also in more recent books of names. I haven't actually met a Jemima - ever.

Peter Duncanson
UK
(posting from a.e.u)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]B. I don't think Jemima is in the same category as the other names, but I can't remember why, what I've heard about Jemima. It might be worth looking up on the web.[/nq]
JEMIMA f Biblical, English
Pronounced: je-MIE-ma
Means "dove" in Hebrew. This was the oldest of the three daughters of Job in the Old Testament.
Source:
http://www.behindthename.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?terms=jemima&nmd=n&gender =both&operator=or
A nice name forever tainted because of its associatin with "Aunt Jemima" in the minds of black Americans, and therefore as suspect for them as "Uncle Tom."

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Of the people you name Latoya Jackson or Denzel Washington (was he given that name at birth?[/nq]
DENZEL m English
Pronounced: den-ZEL
From a surname which originally belonged to a person from Denzell in Cornwall. The name of the town possibly means either "fort" or "fertile upland" in Cornish.
As far as I am able to determine it is the name he was given at birth.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]When did African-American mothers first come up with names like ... of it to make it Darah, or both? Thanks again.[/nq]
[nq:1]A. I think you might do better asking on an African-American group. (I would call Condoleeza a "name of that ... web. C. Wasn't the most famous Jamal named Lew Alcindor at birth and he renamed himself in his 20's.[/nq]
Lew Alcindor's chosen African name was Kareem Abdul Jabbar. I recall that some part of his name means "light". I looked up the name Ahmad Jamal in Google (because I remember his great music) and found it at http://www.ahmadjamal.info/ . He was already recording in 1950 under that name, and was born in 1930. His bio doesn't really give any reason why he has a Muslim name.
People who became members of Black Muslim groups frequently adopted these Arabic or Muslim names, (Cassius Clay= Mohammed Ali) but knowing when that movement began requires more time than I can spend right now. I think I recall that the first days of the movement were back in the 1920's.

Now, you can probably come up with the name of a (?Vikings) football player who used either Jamal or Ahmad.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]C. Wasn't the most famous Jamal named Lew Alcindor at birth and he renamed himself in his 20's.[/nq]
[nq:1]Lew Alcindor's chosen African name was Kareem Abdul Jabbar. I recall that[/nq]
Right. It was the Ja that confused me. Sorry, Kareem.
[nq:1]some part of his name means "light". I looked up the name Ahmad Jamal in Google (because I remember his ... can spend right now. I think I recall that the first days of the movement were back in the 1920's.[/nq]
Something like that, but like most groups, it was small at the beginning.
[nq:1]Now, you can probably come up with the name of a (?Vikings) football player who used either Jamal or Ahmad.[/nq]
I thought all Vikings were named Lief or Eric.
s/ meirman If you are emailing me please
say if you are posting the same response.
Born west of Pittsburgh Pa. 10 years
Indianapolis, 7 years
Chicago, 6 years
Brooklyn NY 12 years
Baltimore 20 years

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]B. I don't think Jemima is in the same category ... Jemima. It might be worth looking up on the web.[/nq]
[nq:1]In the UK the name Jemima was in use long before there was the slightest possibility of any African-American influence. ... of girls' names. It is also in more recent books of names. I haven't actually met a Jemima - ever.[/nq]
You mean you've never seen Frederick Ashton's production of a ballet from Beatrix Potter's tales, starring Ashton himself a Jemima Puddleduck? See
http://www.danceview.org/archives/ashton/walker1.html but note that the 1992 date for "bring to the stage" is not true. The ballet, with Anthony Dowell dancing, was being staged by the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden in the early 1960s, with Antoinette Sibley as his partner.

wrmst rgrds
Robin Bignall
Quiet part of Hertfordshire
England

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Research has been done on this question. One useful article is on the Web: http://economics.uchicago.edu/download/blacknames1 applications.pdf[/nq]
Thank you.

Qs: African-American First Names like Latoya, Denzel, Condoleeza and Keisha

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