Under the top 20 guys names hey forgot: Jermaine and Jerome

From the article:

"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. Giving a child a super-black name would seem to be a black parent's signal of solidarity with her community—the flip side of the "acting white" phenomenon. "

Does anyone agree with this? At one of my previous jobs, I dealt with A LOT of low income AA's and Latina's. To me, this statement is about 99.9% true. I certainly don't think these names are out of the ordinary, b/c I'm sure I know someone with every name on the lists. I just don't understand why it gets out of hand, like making up names that are impossible for others to pronounce (even though I know it's not about everyone else). Sometimes I would have to spell the child's name out b/c I didn't want to mispronounce it. A lot of kids were named after liquor and cars was common. One lady, I will never forget this, had daughters named Alize and Remy. :o

I think all of it rings true except Xavier. I've met way more Hispanic Xaviers than AA ones.

In one of my previous roles at my company, I saw an application for twins named Praise and Blessings. That is all.

A lot of factors go into naming children -- being different/unique, being EXTRA, in addition to ones mentioned above.

I think what some might be overlooking is not that these names are not found with Caucasians or Latinos or Asians, i.e. Jasmine, Xavier, etc., but within the Black community, a lot of these names predominate and/or are common.

Yes, but they were probably Javier, instead of Xavier, but it's pronounced the same.

While I agree that inner city African Americans often give their children 'unique' names, I don't agree with the reasoning here. I think it's more what we think sounds attractive, or religious reasons, and yes I'm saying we because my name is Malika and my daughter's name is Imani, I guess 'black' names. Like I said, my mother was white, so we really don't fit in this example. I also wasn't a teenage mother nor am I undereducated. So I don't know, I would like to see the 'data' that this person is referring to.

My, I didn't know Xavier (pronounced like Savior, not Jah-ve-air) was considered a "black" name. :confused:

it's pronounced "Savior?" hunh, didn't know that. i just spend an entire school year calling this boy X-avier...

that's how they pronounce it in X-men!

I always thought it was X-avier too. Oh well.

Naming your child Imani is one thing. Naming your child Tae Kwon Da is another. :)

Amen on that!

I pronounce it Zavier, as in xylophone as opposed to x-ray.

I think that Imani is a pretty name. :)

Thanks PnC. For the life of me I couldn't figure out how to spell the pronouciation, and "Savior" was all that would come to mind. LOL

I think "Imani" means "peace" doesn't it?? What language is it?? I love that name.