Dr. Anna-Maria BalbachInstitute of German Studies Department of LinguisticsUniversity of Münster, GermanyE-Mail: AnnaMariaBalbach@gmail.com

LaKisha, Tamika, DeShawn, and Antwan Linguistic Strategies of Cultural Reconstruction in Today’s African-American First Name Practices

“ In the hands of the earlier slave traders, slaves seem to have been simply merchandise en masse, not distinguished by individal names. ” (PUCKETT 1975: 472)

The beginning of the African-American naming history is nameless. Slaves are not registered with names, but as “one negar”18 or “2 negro boys 14 years old a piece”13.

» Only names of 65 slaves have been preserved. » Mainly Christian Spanish and English names, few African names.

JohnFrancisco

Joseph

Couchazello

Andrew

Figure 1: Slave names. Size represents frequency.

“ Free Blacks eschewed the most frequently used names of their slave brothers. ”

(PUCKETT 1975: 10)

Names of slaves and “free Blacks” show a strong orientation towards the Anglo-American names – African and Spanish influences diminish. But there are differences between names of slaves and free Blacks:

» Slave names are temporary: new owner = new name. » Free Blacks avoid the most common slave names. » Slaves: short or mocking names (Cato, Caesar, Jupiter). » 40% of slave names, 30% of free Blacks’ names are unusual (old fashioned, inappropriate).

Jack 5,9%Tom 4,8%

Harry 3,5%Sam 3,1%

Will 2,4%Caesar 2,2%

Dick 2,1%Peter 2,1%John 1,9%

Robin 1,9%

4,3% John3,9% James3,7% George3,7% Sam3,6% William3,4% Peter

2,9% Dick2,8% Jacob2,6% Jack2,6% Tom

12345678910

Bet 6,3%Mary 3,6%

Jane 3,0%Hannah 2,7%

Betty 2,5%Sarah 2,5%Phillis 2,3%

Nan 2,2%Peg 2,0%

Sary 2,0%

5,9% Sarah4,7% Hannah4,7% Rachael

3,0% Bet(t)3,0% Mary3,0% Phillis

2,5% Jane2,0% Ann2,0% Elizabeth2,0% Nancy

12345678910

Figure 2: Top 10 names of slaves and free Blacks.

“ Free Blacks tend to employ names with sound patterns less staccato and names more dignified and elevated than those employed by, or foisted upon, their slave contemporaries. ”

(PUCKETT 1975: 45)

Short, mocking, and other typical slave names become less frequent; free Blacks completely avoid them. Therefore, unusual names significantly decrease, to 26% (slaves) and 18% (free Blacks).

» Biblical and saints’ names are most common. » Female names become more diverse (flowers, literature, antiquity).

52%identicalnames

52%identicalnames

32%identicalnames

88%identicalnames

18thCentury

19thCentury

FreeBlacks Slaves WhitesWhites

↓ ↓

Figure 3: Progress of assimilation of male first names.

“ The strongest tradition among Blacks at the present time is the giving of completely original names. ” (BlaCK 1996: 109)

» Striking feature of African-American names: huge diversity and uniqueness.12, 28, 6

» Orientation to African naming practices. » Diversity and uniqueness increased after 1970 (Civil Rights Movement), still does until today.21, 26, 5

» In 2000: 44% of African-American names are newly coined, mostly female names.

Shaniqua LaKeisha

LaquetaMakaylaTanisha

ZaritaKimani AlyshaJayla

Ayana

Tiana

Figure 4: Popular female African-American names.

1. Name creation by certain morphological patternsAffixation

» Most frequent morphological name pattern. » Used since 19th century, very popular after 1970.23, 21 » Affixation for word and name creation is inspired by African languages.

Suffixation » Female suffixes: -ika, -etta, -onda, -sha. » Male suffixes: -el/ell, -on/onn, -ett, -ess.

-shaLakeysha

Tamisha

Kerisha

KieshaLatesha

Tyhisha

Crishell

Mandell

Devell

Remell

Carnell

Marshell

-ellFigure 5: Examples of name creation by suffixation.

Prefixation » Female prefixes: La-, Lo-, Le-, Lu-, Da-, Ra-. » Male prefixes: De-, Da-, Te-, Ta-, Ke-, Ka-, Na-.

Lacinda

Latasha

LaKeyshaLadora LaVonda

Latonda

La-

Deshawn

DeonteDeroy

D’Shawn

De-

Delane

DeandreFigure 6: Examples of name creation by prefixation.

Name Variation by AffixationCombination of a name with a pre- or suffix.14

Shawnak

Shawney

Shawnti

Shawnel

RashawnDeShawn

DaShawn

LeshawnShawnKeyshawn

Quashawn Shawnee

ShawntelShawntaye

Lashawn

Figure 7: Variation of the name Shawn by affixation.

BlendsTwo established names blend to a new name:

Marsha+Michelle=MarshelleMaxine + Lucille = Maxille

Consonant change and additionAn established name is altered by exchanging or adding a consonant:

Beatrice DeatriceYvonne Dvonne

Eva→ Neva→→

2. Gender-Indicating EndingsFemale Anglo-American names often end in the vowel -a, male names end in consonants. Although in African languages, male names can also end in -a,27, 17 newly created African-American male names follow the Anglo-American rules to indicate gender and end in consonants.

3. Stress and SoundsCreating exotic sounds by pronunciation

» Anglo-American names: stressed on the first syllable, e.g. Tiffany [ ̍tıfɘn i̩].

» African-American names: stressed on the second syllable, e.g. [tıf ̍ʌ:ni].

Creating exotic sounds by spelling Antwon Anton Tiffonee Tiffany Shawn Sean

Different sound structures: » Based on African sounds: “sha, ka, kwa, ki” and “t”.21 » Scrabble score method: African-American names have higher scrabble scores.

Score: 18 Score: 8

Over 400 years of multifaceted African-American naming history begins nameless, continues with Spanish and English names, turns to short, mocking, and unusual names. Then it completely assimilates to the Anglo-American naming system and finally resolves with distinctive name practices of unique und creative names.

The new creations use various linguistic strategies from African and Anglo-American languages. In a rule-governed linguistic way, African-American names reconstruct African culture and reconcile it with American culture: they are true African and American names.

Today’s African-American names differ strongly from the Anglo-American names. But in what way and why do they differ? What are the linguistic features and how did the naming practices develop? This study offers a historical and linguistic approach to answer these questions.

First, we trace African-American naming history to highlight external influences and social change to which the first names reacted. Second, we investigate the linguistic strategies of the invented African-American first names. Name data were collected from historical documents, modern census registers, and different studies23, 17, 10.

17th CenturyAssimilation to the new habitation –

English or Spanish Christian names predominate.

18th CenturyFurther assimilation to Anglo-American naming practices

– differences between slave and free Blacks’ names.

19th Century (until 1865)High similarity to Anglo-American names,

male names even more so than female names

19th/20th Century (from 1865)Acculturation to Anglo-American names by choice,

but male names conform stronger than female names.

20th/21st CenturyNewly created names:

Diversity and uniqueness

Nam

ing

Hist

ory

Research Questions

Data and Methods

Ling

uist

ic S

trat

egie

s

Conc

lusi

on

“ After the coming of freedom all the people were agreed: that they must change their names. ” (WaSHINGTON 2012: 11)

After the abolition of slavery (1865), the opportunity to freely choose a name is “one of the first signs of freedom”:29 Country-wide, former slaves take the chance to choose the same names as Anglo-Americans.

» As early as 1877 and for the following 60 years, the top 10 African-American and Anglo-American male names are the same, only the order differs.

» The end of slavery means the end of short male names. Therefore, unusual male names decrease to 10% (Anglo-Americans 4%). » In contrast, female African-American names strive for more diversity: even more short names, even more different names, many new names every decade.

» Only assimilation to white women’s names: Unusual names become rarer (African-Americans 17% in 1877 to 11% in 1937; Anglo-Americans 10% to 8%).

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Literature/References

Dr. Anna-Maria BalbachInstitute of German Studies

Department of LinguisticsUniversity of Münster

GermanyE-Mail: AnnaMariaBalbach@gmail.com

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Teil 1: Von Beginn der Sklaverei bis ins 19. Jahrhundert. In: Beiträge zur Namenforschung 1 (2018), 1–45. Abstract: https://bnf.winter-verlag.de/list/articles/author/Balbach,%20Anna-Maria

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