What's in a name?

[OOhsoflyDELTA#9]

I didn't want an European name for my daughter, and I didn't want a "Kita, -nica, -asha, either (like what my mom gave me )
so I choose a African name with a profound meaning.....that way if anyone ever asks her what it means she'll be able to give an intelligent answer...her name is ethnic enough to suit my "militant" side, yet easy enough for "everyone" to pronounce...
I must say that my name hasn't presented a real problem for me thus far and once I finish medical school I'll probably go to just using my first two initials...(so patients will be very surprized once I walk in the room)

[Steeltrap]

Originally posted by OOhsoflyDELTA#9
I didn't want an European name for my daughter, and I didn't want a "Kita, -nica, -asha, either (like what my mom gave me )
so I choose a African name with a profound meaning.....that way if anyone ever asks her what it means she'll be able to give an intelligent answer...her name is ethnic enough to suit my "militant" side, yet easy enough for "everyone" to pronounce...
I must say that my name hasn't presented a real problem for me thus far and once I finish medical school I'll probably go to just using my first two initials...(so patients will be very surprized once I walk in the room)

You've got it -- you seem to have put some study and thought into your daughter's name. I don't have kids yet, but if I find a husband (yeah, I'm closing in on 40 ) and if he and I choose to give our kid an African name, we will do research.

Good luck w/med school.

[sigmadiva]

Originally posted by Swamp Thang
Shawnquanishia comes from the native american language.. It means "She who uses horses tail for hair".

et al the Cherokee Unabridged Dictionary..

Oh Swamp Thang!!! You are too funny!! I laughed SOOOOO hard when I read this. Especially since I have a cousin with a similar sounding name!!!

[1savvydiva]

Well, when I have children I want to name my children something of 'ethnic' influence...though not too far from mainstream. I always wished my name had a little more 'flair', but then again, I don't think anyone could guess my race from my name either. Besides my uncle and my grandfather, I am the only one in my family with my last name. I have only met 1 other person in life with that last name, and he was white (...go figure ).

OOhsoflyDELTA#9...I agree with you on that initial thing! Once I finish my bachelor's in nursing, I want to enter into a Medical School of Anesthesia program, I will be using my initials too! I look forward to the look of surprise when I walk into the room, especially since my first initials are EJ. I look forward to walking into the room and my patient telling me they want to speak to the doctor and me saying, "I AM the doctor! "

[AKA2D '91]

ttt for ice and ivy

[Exquisite5]

I don't know if this is what was in the newspaper link or not, because I couldn't open it. If it is, mods please delete, if not...be enlightened...

What's in a Name?
How Clues to Ethnicity Can Be Misused in Recruiting
by Olivet Jones
Monster African Americans and Careers Expert

Leroy Washington and Brett Hartsfield are fictitious job seekers with identical credentials. They apply for a job in response to an ad. Which one is more likely to get the interview?

According to a 2002 study conducted by University of Chicago and Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers, Leroy Washington may be 50 percent less likely to be called in for an interview. That means that for every one resume Brett submits, Leroy would have to send in 15 to have an equal chance of being interviewed.

“I'm appalled by the study,” says Cathy Johnson, owner of In The Game, a company that advises clients like Aon Corp., the Chicago Tribune and Black Voices.com on how to develop a diverse talent pool. “The findings point to a lack of training among recruiters. Recruiters are the first line of defense in diversity work. They have to be in tune.”

Has Johnson witnessed this phenomenon? “People like to deal with people they are comfortable with,” she says.

The study hypothesizes that some recruiters, or at least people who screen resumes, may attribute negative qualities to potential candidates based on name alone. For some screeners, so-called African American-sounding names, defined as the most common names on birth certificates of African American children during the study period, may conjure images of candidates who are less intelligent, reliable and resourceful.

Who's at Fault?

Johnson feels that companies have an obligation to train recruiters to eliminate bias in their perceptions. “One hiring manager couldn't pronounce a candidate's name, so he said I'm going to call you ‘Pete,'” she says. “I said, ‘No way.' I call this the lazy recruiter's syndrome.”

Marian Carrington, a principal in the Chicago-based, African American-owned retained search firm Carrington and Carrington, Ltd., has a similar reaction. Her firm works with multinational companies placing senior managers in a variety of industries. “I've had to explain that the origin of a name was Swahili, for example, but I'm surprised at the study's findings,” says Carrington. “With so many companies trying to identify diverse candidates, I feel a name can just as easily lead to inclusion as exclusion.”

Pointing out the shortcomings in some recruiters' understanding of diversity is one thing, but that doesn't help candidates avoid their names' potential negative impact.

What Should You Do?

“Use initials,” says Johnson. “I'm a realist, and I advise candidates to eliminate elements in the resume that point to race and gender.” In addition, Johnson suggests that email addresses and voice mail messages should be what she calls “professionally neutral.”

Carrington has a different view. “Using initials is ridiculous,” she says. “At some point, I'm going to have to know the person's name. But remember, I've been hired in most cases specifically to identify people of color. Plus, at the higher levels where we're placing candidates, this is less likely to be an issue.”

Some recruiters argue that they're just the messengers -- the hiring manager makes the decision, and the recruiter's job is to present candidates who are most likely to be hired.

Johnson doesn't buy that logic. “Companies tend to focus on the qualities you have rather than what you've done,” she says. “At root, it's an approach that is task-oriented, not relationship-oriented. Good companies are building the skills their recruiters need to identify talent, whatever the form.”

The bottom line is that you are who you are. True diversity is not about hiding differences. It's about capitalizing on them to make for a more productive and desirable work environment. “Smart companies are interviewing strategically and checking that their values are embedded in all aspects of recruiting, from sourcing to reference checking,” says Johnson.

[De6]

The Gospel station here in STL announces the name of this little girl almost every morning,here it is: Kenya Helena Ruby Lee Johnson. That is tooooooooo much playing . I wonder if parents think about the future of that child before they name him/her. Now, someone with a name like that might get second hand to someone with a simple name like Michelle Smith. Some long names can be very cute,but for the childs sake don't loose your head.

[Steeltrap]

Originally posted by De6
The Gospel station here in STL announces the name of this little girl almost every morning,here it is: Kenya Helena Ruby Lee Johnson. That is tooooooooo much playing . I wonder if parents think about the future of that child before they name him/her. Now, someone with a name like that might get second hand to someone with a simple name like Michelle Smith. Some long names can be very cute,but for the childs sake don't loose your head.

I actually like that name, even though it's a lot of name for a little girl. Better than Kenyanisha Helenashaquasha Ruby Lee Johnson.

[Ivy QT2]

Originally posted by FeeFee
Aren't names supposed to have meanings to them? If someone wants to give their child an "ethnic" name, why don't they go and find a book of African or Islamic names and find out their meaning instead of trying to create one of their own.

I agree that names should have meanings. So, don't set your little ones up for playground cracks like, "It means your mama is stupid." It amazes me how little value people place on a name because it is the only way they feel they can exert any power in a world in which they obviously feel powerless. Education is power. Make sure that our little ones are able to use that initial statement of their person to educate others on broader issues. So that what they have to say will be readily received by all races.
Put some thought into it. When Soror Maya Angelou decided to change her name from Marguerite Johnson, she put some thought into it. When Soror Iyanla Vanzant decided to change her name some thought went into it.
People tell me all the time that the names I would like for my kids sound like little, white, catholic school girl names. However, they are derived from the names of women family members whom I hold in the highest esteem. Some people aren't going to be happy whether you go with the plain or the ghetto name. Just remember, you don't have to sell out to get people to buy in to you.
Please, don't set your children up for failure.

[btb87]

Originally posted by Ivy QT2
Make sure that our little ones are able to use that initial statement of their person to educate others on broader issues. So that what they have to say will be readily received by all races. Put some thought into it. Some people aren't going to be happy whether you go with the plain or the ghetto name. Just remember, you don't have to sell out to get people to buy in to you. Please, don't set your children up for failure.

Powerful statement, Soror!

My daughter's first name is Adia, a derivative of Hadiya, Swahili for "a gift of God has come". We did wait for her for a few years, so my husband and I thought her name was befitting our little gift.

[Ivy QT2]

Originally posted by btb87
My daughter's first name is Adia, a derivative of Hadiya, Swahili for "a gift of God has come". We did wait for her for a few years, so my husband and I thought her name was befitting our little gift.

Beautiful and right on the money.

[RedMusiq4U]

Having a name that's not the norm is pretty hard( speaking from experience). My name isn't all that ghetto: JeMarl (not Jamal) and I've been called everything under the sun: Jamil, Jermaine, Jamel, Jamarrol, even Jamac (yeah I know doesn't even come close to JeMarl). When I was little I hated my name for 1. no one said it right and 2. I would go to the store and look for the keychains with your name on it and would stand there for like 30 minutes looking( I was only 7 or 8). But I've grown up to love and appreciate my name even though people still butcher it to death. Now in college I'm simply known as Jey to those who struggle w/ my name but majority of my friend call me by my name. The funny thing is that people who've been calling me Jamal for so long find out that it's JeMarl they're like Oh my God For real..........Anyway name your children whatever you feel but keep in mind that name will follow him/her all their life so pick carefully.

[Steeltrap]

I find good and bad points in this column, but it's still interesting as heck.

NOVEMBER 3, 2003

ECONOMIC VIEWPOINT

What's In A Name For Black Job Seekers?


In some respects, economic conditions for black Americans have improved substantially relative to those for whites over the past four decades. Recent studies by University of Texas economist Finis Welch show that the ratio of black to white wages for the average employed male rose from 43% in 1940 to 80% in 2000 (though the surge in black unemployment over the past couple of years may have eroded some of the gains).

On the negative side, some of that convergence reflects the withdrawal of low-skilled blacks from the labor force, including the large jump over the past 20 years in the number of black prison inmates. This rise in incarceration, by removing many low-wage black earners from the labor force, may account for much of the apparent gains in black wages since 1980. Moreover, gaps between whites and blacks remain large in schooling, out-of-wedlock childbearing, health, and other economic and social indicators.

In a new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research, economists Roland G. Fryer Jr. and Steven D. Levitt point out that children's names are another area with a large gap between blacks and whites. This research was inspired by so-called audit studies, begun in Britain in 1970, which found that potential employers systematically discriminated against job seekers with résumés that contained minority-sounding names. But Fryer and Levitt conclude that in the U.S., the black-white differences in naming are a consequence of disparities in socioeconomic conditions of blacks and whites, not an independent cause of disparities.

There's no question that gaps in naming practices are striking. As an example, in California from 1989 to 2000, out of 457 boys named Tyrone, 445 were black. Out of 277 girls named Shanice, 274 were black. In contrast, out of 2,328 girls named Molly, only 6 were black. Using "white" names as the comparison group, the tendency for distinctive naming was much weaker among Hispanics and nonexistent for Asians.

However, the type of name chosen turns out to reflect the parents' socioeconomic status as well as their race. For example, a distinctive "black" name is much more likely to be chosen when the mother is unmarried, when the mother has other children, and when the mother is in poorer health (as signaled by a lower birth weight of the child). In data available only for the 1990s, a more distinctive black name is also associated with lower parental education and lower per capita income in the mother's Zip Code.

Using data on all births in California from 1961 to 2000, (that would include me, 1964 ) Fryer and Levitt find that black names were similar to whites' up to the early '70s. That changed in the early '70s alongside the Black Power movement. By contrast, in the '60s, a black child's first name was not closely related to the mother's socioeconomic situation.

Fryer and Levitt's study shows that the more black-sounding a person's name, the more likely the parents have a lower socioeconomic status. Employers thus might infer that a job seeker with a black-sounding name is more likely to have grown up in a less educated and poorer family. If employers believe, rightly or wrongly, that such a background lowers the chance of job success, this may help explain why audit studies find that employers react negatively to black-sounding names on résumés, which contain current education but little other socioeconomic information. Thus, a recent NBER working paper by Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan found that call-back rates on identical (and made-up) résumés were substantially higher for white-sounding names such as Emily and Greg.

True, employers could be racially discriminating. But once Fryer and Levitt take into account parents' socioeconomic status, the researchers find that a person's name no longer predicts much about later economic outcomes, such as whether he or she winds up living in a rich or poor area. That is, ultimately it matters whether your parents are well-educated or rich but not whether they name you Shanice or Molly. Despite the apparent bias of employers against black names on résumés, the whole hiring process operates efficiently enough not to give much weight to names per se.

Thus, the key issue is whether black-white gaps in income and other economic and social indicators are still narrowing rather than whether employers are discriminating against black names. It's the socioeconomic status of blacks that needs attention, not whether a child is named Shanice or Molly.

By Robert J. Barro




Copyright 2000-2003, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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[De6]

How about these names:

Aldeya (Al-dee-yuh)Joyce and Leonor Nicole

[SummerChild]

Originally posted by De6
The Gospel station here in STL announces the name of this little girl almost every morning,here it is: Kenya Helena Ruby Lee Johnson. That is tooooooooo much playing . I wonder if parents think about the future of that child before they name him/her. Now, someone with a name like that might get second hand to someone with a simple name like Michelle Smith. Some long names can be very cute,but for the childs sake don't loose your head.

I actually have what I consider to be a long name (two middle names) but I really haven't had too many problems. My biggest problem is remembering which middle initial to use for standardized school tests and my college degrees. I like to keep it uniform. LOL

I will also give my child a name with meaning, commonly referred to as an "ethnic" name. I like Leilah and Adia, which mean "black beauty (that's right )" and "a gift from G-D," respectively. As for me, my approach will be to work to change the discrimination in our community as opposing to bowing to it and giving my child a name of European origin simply b/c of a possible job interviewer 20 years into the future. Besides, my child will be equipped to "wheel and deal with the big boys."

SC