I do believe that a name can hurt you if you're outrageous. Just because you have 4 best friends does not mean that you should combine all of their names in order to give it to your child. That's not fair to the kid folks. I'm not saying go and name your child agnes or mildred or something like that...just be reasonable. I happen to like my name: Trista Danielle. Trista is Latin for sorrowful (I don't agree). Danielle means GOD IS MY JUDGE. All my aunts and uncles are Anns, Margarets, Jeans, Patsys, Clotildes, Roberts, Toms, Michaels, Edgars, etc. I understand wanting to be unique, but as I said lets be reasonable. I know a girl who named her little girl LaPrecious DelUnique Talika Scott. I'm sorry but that is entirely too much going on. Okay I'm finished now.

Hi folks,

New GCer here. Just wanted to share a little-known fact with everyone: The demographic with the craziest names on the planet is ... Mormons from Utah!

The Utah Baby Namer

http://www.wesclark.com/ubn/faves.html

My personal faves: Tugdick, Nudity, and VulvaMae. :eek:

oh my gosh.

People do NOT name their children those names....:eek: :mad:

I wholeheartedly believe that names can hurt you. Prime example is MY name.

My name is pretty much one that you would not think is African American (just by my last name). I have no problem getting interviews...but when I walk in...the look of...."How did we let this one get in" appears on thier face.

I discovered that people also donot believe my resume or my qualifications once they SEE me. I spend more time answering questions that are obviously "you lying and we are going to catch you in a lie" type questions then talking about what I can offer the company.

I finally just gave up.

^^^
 

LOL, I know that feeling all too well. What cracks me up is when some interviewers ask me what my GPA was in college :rolleyes: (Even though I graduated in '97, have an MBA, and almost 10 years of experience) knowing FULL WELL that it doesn't have squat to do with the job. LOL I guess they're just trying to "stump" me or can't believe "I'm real".



Jerks.... :mad:

I think Joi is actually cute! But the others are less to be desired.

Yes, I agree there's nothing wrong with Joi because it's my middle name!

I work at a school where there are boy that are brothers. Thier names are:

Scandolous
Scandele
and
Scandelence

To much damn Prince ...and God KNOWS I LUBBB me some Prince

My name--Kamesa--is so Black sounding (but not ghetto) but it really has not hampered my career prospects because I am in social services which traditionally is a field dominated by Black women. But some of these names that my clients have will give you a headache!! Like this one child's name was Raytaquananishay. I was :confused:.

Jessica went through a period where it was really super popular, but I don't automatically think Jessica = certain age. It's a traditional type name - there were Jessicas in my class and I'm sure in older GCers' classes as well. There are a lot of Jennifers around my age (mostly because of the movie Love Story, I guess) but in all actually Jennifer's a really old name.

On the other hand, if you introduce me to someone named Farrah, Rhiannon or Tennille, I can probably guess within a year or two exactly when she was born. ;) Or at least that her parents have seen I Love The 70's lots and lots of times.

We actually had twin sisters named Angie & Aimee. Guess what year they were born? I honestly had to fight to keep a straight face! (I'm sure kddani or fire1977 can verify this!)

My real name wasn't popular when I was born (which is how I got a nickname so fast!), but now every tenth 20-something has it. I kinda liked having a different, but not strange, name.

:eek: at lil' Raytaquananishay. I swear, some people's brain cells are shot or something. If it's a girl, I don't now how you can clean that up.
:confused:

I guess you call her lil Ray Ray? :confused: :confused:

I hate when some parents make up the kids name; its a combination of the mother's and father's name.
Some parents just need to think about the names seriously. I am not saying that we should give up on our heritage and choose white names,but just think more.

Well yesterday at work, I came across an application for a baby girl named DIVA


The madness must end.
:mad:

I went to high school with a girl named Diva.....who was not black, btw.

A name whereby the reader of your resume doesn't connect to your cultural/racial/religious background will hurt you 9 times out of 10.

-Rudey

I like name that reflect a person's culture/heritage/ethnic background. It's names like Precious Joy and Princess that I can't stand (yes, I did go to school with girls who were named that). I think those are the names that can hurt anyone.

My grandfather is Irish and I love Gaelic names. I plan on use Gaelic names and Gaelic spellings for children. Such as Niahm or Siobhan. I think names that reflect ones background can make a person stand out.

When I was a child...
 

I could not stand my name:mad:

But now I love it b/c it is different.:D

People are not sure what to think about my name. White people are usually love it. Black people are usually the ones that give me the look:eek: And no, my name does not sound anything like Boom-Boomquisha! :rolleyes:

I don't see what the big deal is. If a name is that bad just use initials instead. Making sure you are educated, prepared, qualified for the position is the bigger concern. Shoot if they really want to call you by your name do 'em like Janet did and give that Ms. *insert your last name here* (if your nasty!)

Which is a good point. I also remember a woman whose name was Talisha going by "Leigh" when she entered college.

That happen to my friend.
I’m not going to type her name but it was s_____qua Johnson.
She graduated from a tier 1 law school and could not even get an interview. She change her resume to S. Johnson and started getting calls.

I think it might work for white people as well. I don’t know if I would look twice at a resume if the name on it was Moon Unit Zappa or Rainbow Love Smith.

Sidebar: One of my 5 percenter peoples name his son.
Magnificent Johnson.
and his daughter Royal Queen Johnson. LOL

Exotic Names
 

Has anyone read this article or heard about this saying that children with Exotic names do not do as well as African-American children who don't have exotic names. I don't agree with the article.

http://www.wftv.com/irresistible/4482169/detail.html

A girl in my class works in HR at a company and she said she is more likely to call somebody for an interview if she doesn't have to stumble on their name. She doesn't want to embarass herself by mispronouncing their name on the phone, so even if they are qualified, she won't call them back and a lot of her co-workers follow the same procedure.

That's interesting that you say this because just the other day I got a call from a recruiter who had my resume and wanted an interview. Her first words were "I don't know if I am pronouncing your name right, but...." and then she attempted to pronouce my name. (Yep she got it wrong!)

Re: Exotic Names
 

I disagree with the article on that point also but what I have noticed also (which was pointed out in the article)
this...

and this

Well, congratulations! A lot of people have trouble pronouncing my name, too, though I don't see why, it's spelled almost phonetically and it's only 2 syllables. I think it's just b/c if you're not an AA, then you've probably never seen it before.

Oh, btw, I just noticed my mistake, I meant to say "a girl in my class."

A friend of mine is having a baby and I asked if she and the father were thinking of names yet? I told her also about the concern over "exotic" names and the job situation.

Her response was profound and I admirable. As an entreprenuer herself she said, "I'm not concerned about that b/c we are going to be raising an entreprenuer."

Good idea I thought. Especially since I'm on the road to self-employment.

Did she consider that the same reservations that people have hiring someone with an "ethnic" name might make them hesitant to associate their business dealings (read purchase from, sell to, enter into contracts with) with the 'ethnicaly' named person as well? Her perspective is interesting to me because it completely misses the ROOT of the problem.

If people think "ethnic" names denote "Ghettoness," or whatever they think they denote :rolleyes: -- wouldn't the same reluctance to hire transfer to reluctance to enter business? I mean if Tashika is too whatever to hire, wouldn't she still be too whatever to support/use/patron/contract with/etc... her business?

My name ends in the famous 'isha' and I think that we as a people have to work together to let people know that our names do not always reflect us. Just because my name ends in 'isha' does not mean I'm ghetto, or not a hard-work or whatever. I know girls and guys with what would be considered not ethnic names who are exactly what majority of employers are trying to avoid hiring.

If we support our own business we won't have to worry about other people not supporting us because of our names. If I come to your store regardless of your name, but just because you are a Black person and I want to supprt you rather than the Asian, White, Indian, Persian, Hispanic, or whoever down the street, people of those same ethic backgrounds will soon disregard the owners name as well.

How can we expect others to disregard our ethnic names and support us in our business endeavours when we do not support ourselves.

I agree, but I think we have a generational gap developing here that is adding to the problem. Many of us have traditional "ethnic" names that were given us by educated and socially conscious parents. Whether our parents were simply pro-Black or pan-African in their youth, they gave us names with meanings – meanings they knew and understood the history and origin of. Those names were beautiful and, though “ethnic”, they were spelled properly and were usually pronounceable.

Since that time, though, we’ve seen these ‘traditional’ ethnic names replaced by 'new school' names, names of vehicles, fashion houses, alcoholic beverages, and made-up words from rap songs or slang. I know this is an old thread, but in addition to this, some parents are now giving their children grossly misspelled traditional Afro-American and European names (including basic English words).

Is this going to hurt their employment prospects? Unfortunately, I can't see how it wouldn't. Employers know 'our' names, but they don't know "Choclit". :rolleyes: