Are black names weird or are you just racist?

[Reginald Ret]

I always figured if I had children, which I'm not, but in the off chance of unexpected surprises, I would give them Mythological or Byzantine Greek names. Because it's sort of a shadow of who I am, but I'd have to be extra careful with it.

Epiphany for example, love that name for a girl, but what the hell would it be shortened to, Pip? Ew.
Euphrosyne (Yoo-fro-see-nay) or Eudoxia (Yoo-doch-ia): another issue.

Boys just seem to have better options for nicknames, even in the exotic. I would probably want to put the odd historical names as middle names, just to save the kid grief growing up from teachers and bullies.

The grief does not come from the name, that is just an excuse used by bad people who should not be allowed near children.

[LMNO]

I thought the main beef with some names are the forced homophones -- when "Qevyn" sounds like "Kevin" or "Zhannone" like "Shannon".  I used to think it came off as very Special Snowflake, but these days I don't really care.

I have heard "non-Western" names used in a socio-economic derogatory sense, though.  Never thought it was that funny.

[Suu]

I always figured if I had children, which I'm not, but in the off chance of unexpected surprises, I would give them Mythological or Byzantine Greek names. Because it's sort of a shadow of who I am, but I'd have to be extra careful with it.

Epiphany for example, love that name for a girl, but what the hell would it be shortened to, Pip? Ew.
Euphrosyne (Yoo-fro-see-nay) or Eudoxia (Yoo-doch-ia): another issue.

Boys just seem to have better options for nicknames, even in the exotic. I would probably want to put the odd historical names as middle names, just to save the kid grief growing up from teachers and bullies.

The grief does not come from the name, that is just an excuse used by bad people who should not be allowed near children.

On the other hand, my brother refuses to shorten his name. He's Anthony, and he absolutely cannot stand Tony. Much like how I absolutely cannot stand Angie. I am NOT an "Angie," And there are two people who are legally allowed to call me that, one is my mother because well...she pushed me out of her damn body 31 years ago, and my grandfather, who passed away in 2009. Everybody else just does it to piss me off. And apparently it's "the norm" in New England. I'll show you fuckers a norm, right up the bracket.

[Faust]

I thought the main beef with some names are the forced homophones -- when "Qevyn" sounds like "Kevin" or "Zhannone" like "Shannon".  I used to think it came off as very Special Snowflake, but these days I don't really care.

I have heard "non-Western" names used in a socio-economic derogatory sense, though.  Never thought it was that funny.

I know a Quevyn, He's french and pronounces it Kwee Veen. I think its a pretty name.

[Suu]

Irish Gaelic names can be quite difficult too. Like Siobhan.

[Faust]

Irish Gaelic names can be quite difficult too. Like Siobhan.

Shove on. Actually that would be a really funny one to see spelled phonetically or otherwise simplified.

[Cramulus]

Worked with a Siobhan -- had never heard it said out loud. When I met her I almost called her "Sybian".

Maybe don't google that at work.

[LMNO]

Worked with a Siobhan -- had never heard it said out loud. When I met her I almost called her "Sybian".

Maybe don't google that at work.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Thread is about weird names in general now?

I haven't had a lot of exposure to the "blacks have weird names" meme, except through American comedians, but definitely think there's something to the idea that these names are only associated with the minority status of the people in question, as many other unrelated traits are.

The point was made that there is an impression that weird names either equal black, or outside of the US, chav, and that weird names have an implication of socioeconomic status. I was pointing out that rich white people also demonstrably give their kids weird names.

Yes, and that ties into the link I gave above to the underlying racism/classism embedded in almost all of the "funny names" stories that circulate.

Whether we're talking racism or classism, it is valid to explore the attitudes we may hold toward names we perceive as being "weird" coming from an underprivileged demographic, vs. the attitudes we may hold toward equally unique names coming from a highly privileged demographic.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I always figured if I had children, which I'm not, but in the off chance of unexpected surprises, I would give them Mythological or Byzantine Greek names. Because it's sort of a shadow of who I am, but I'd have to be extra careful with it.

Epiphany for example, love that name for a girl, but what the hell would it be shortened to, Pip? Ew.
Euphrosyne (Yoo-fro-see-nay) or Eudoxia (Yoo-doch-ia): another issue.

Boys just seem to have better options for nicknames, even in the exotic. I would probably want to put the odd historical names as middle names, just to save the kid grief growing up from teachers and bullies.

I know a girl who goes by Pippa.

You will, however, find that many people will assume your child is black.

[Faust]

Eleftheria Is a lovely classical Greek name you see a lot for girls. Might carry bad connotations now with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleftheria_i_thanatos and the Right wing movement in Greece.

Now that I think about it, I take all the Irish names for granted but outside of Ireland you hear Lots of awful attempts to pronounce it just like Siobhan. Padraig, Ciaran, Aoifa, peader etc are all names that unless you are Irish tend to be mangled.

I know there was a strong racist sentiment towards Irish people in the US back when we sent all our builders over. How popular would they be now in the US and would they carry any stigma of lower class?

I've Anglicised my name because I got sick of people trying to pronounce it, mikalis would come out MA-CALL-IS instead of Me cal-ees, now I just use plain old michael or mike but it never fully feels right.

[LMNO]

While we're at it, I believe Iason called his daughter Eris.

[Faust]

No one ever wants to go with Discordia

[Pope Pixie Pickle]

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/07/05/holly-willoughby-this-morning-katie-hopkins-video_n_3548849.html

there was a kicking off about this in the UK a couple of months ago sparked by this video.

also this- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExS2YsLzR20


(edited to fix link)

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/07/05/holly-willoughby-this-morning-katie-hopkins-video_n_3548849.html

there was a kicking off about this in the UK a couple of months ago sparked by this video.

also this- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExS2YsLzR20


(edited to fix link)

Oh yeah, I remember when that went down, and my favorite part was that she was saying that she wouldn't let her children play with other children who had "geographical" names, and the interviewer pointed out that her daughter's name is Asia. And then she tried to say that "Asia" doesn't refer to a place or territory.

It was facepalmelicious.