About a year and half ago Raven-Symonè (yes the cute kid from the Cosby Show) made a rather controversial statement that she would never hire someone with a ‘ghetto’ name for any job so someone whose government name is ‘Watermelondrea’ should not even bother sending in an application because they would not even be considered. Well, all hell broke loose as people were offended and felt that people should not be penalised as basically they had no control over what their parents were thinking (or smoking!) at the time of naming.
This leads us to ponder just how some parents concocted the names they gave their children? Was it biblical? African retention from the Motherland? Was it in memory of a dear loved one who has passed on or a combination of the mother’s and father’s name? What really is in a name? BUZZZ Magazine sought to look at this ‘name game ‘phenomenon and get insight into how people go about holding their babies up to the sky (like Kunta Kinte) and bestowing upon them three words that shape the course and direction of their lives.
We all know George Foreman, not so much for his grills and his legendary boxing status but, because he is the proud papa of four sons he sired, and this conceited man had the ‘cojones’ to name not one, but all FOUR sons after himself. Yes, their names are George Foreman the first, George Foreman the second and so on. I can only imagine the confusion in that house when he is calling for one of them: “Four! Don’t you be eating all the food in the fridge! Two! Did you do your homework?” I doubt there is a dull moment in that household.
Now back in the day, names were found in a baby book and for years Michael (which means ‘of God’) was the most common and used boy name. Most boys’ names were Biblical based such as Mathew, Andrew and Peter etc., and girls names while also biblical in nature as these, were modeled after saints such as Dorothy, Bernadette and Mary. These were the names of the 1920s up to 60s before the era of the Heather, Nicola, Sophia, Michelle, Shelly, Erica and Marcia that populated the 1970s. Remember how Natasha became common? Rumour had it that after Michael Manley named his daughter Natasha, then everybody wanted a little Natasha (which is Russian in origin and typically given to girls born in December) of their own because if it good enough for the Prime Minister then it good enough for the people.
Fast track to the 80s and everybody was going back to Africa with their baby names so it was all about Kwame and Kenya and following hot on that trend came the ‘isha-i-tis’ meaning, every other name ended with ‘isha’. There was kenisha, Lateisha, Felisha, Punkisha and my all-time favourite – Tekisha! One would wonder what these parents were thinking when they went to register these tiny bundles of joy. Did they not think about the long term ramifications of not only saddling their children with names they would have trouble spelling and pronouncing but also names that may get them bullied in school. For instance when your 15 year old daughter comes home pregnant, why make it worse by naming your grandchild ‘Diploma!’ Isn’t that rubbing salt into the womb? And when you put ‘Fornication’ or ‘Virginella’ as a first name you definitely need your head examined as that child is going to get punched or punch someone on their first day of school.
To Read More: Purchase your copy of Volume 9 #2 – May – June 2017