Prometheus 6

When did the name "Darryl" become identified as a black male name? What is really odd about this finding is that "Darryl" is derived from an old English name that meant "darling." Does anybody out there remember the white film producer Darryl F. Zanuck? Or the white film actor Darryl Cox? This is an odd finding. I know two black attorneys over the age of 50 who are named "Darryl".

I want to add something else to my earlier postings. Although Leavitt and Fryar draw a correlation between these "black" names and the low socio-economic status of the birth mothers I think their findings represent only a small portion of the picture of these young women. What Leavitt can't know because he isn't black and Fryar is, perhaps, too young to understand is that these names, as strange, weird and funny as they may seem to others, actually sound unique, exotic and even romantic to these young mothers.

Let me go further, I believe these women actually see these names as bestowing a strong sense of identity, albeit African American, on their children because, if for no other reason, they know that whites are not giving their children these names. In other words, these young women, whatever their failings and difficulties, are making a clear effort to distinguish themselves from whites. This is not sufficient to gurantee them worldly success but I do believe it indicates a measure of ego strength on their part that is too often overlooked and ignored.

In their world view people with unusual, exotic, racy, gender bending and faintly Africanized names can also be successful, wealthy and famous. Entertainers and celebrities with names like Beyonce, Oprah, Denzel, Waymon (Tisdale), Halle, Jada, Keisha (Knight Pullam), Raven, Romeo, Usher, Jamal (Williams - UNC basketball player), Jamie, Mykelti and Queen Latifah represent just a handful of blacks with names that white parents don't give their children.

To be fair, Levitt isn't the one Fryer is providing insulation for. I get the sense that however Levitt roles, he doesn't need it. He's going to go for what he knows regardless. And I think they only co-authored one article, on the names. The most interesting stuff to me--the link between abortion and crime, and the analysis of the chicago drug trade, wasn't written with fryer. correct me if i'm wrong.

I am posting this message here because I find it too difficult to post at Cobb and, anyway, this was where the thread such as it is began.

No one is arguing that names don't mean anything because they obviously do mean something or people would not give names to their offspring or, in some cases, take on new names for themselves. In some cultures, for example, the name that a male child is given at birth will change as that child matures and reaches manhood.

My issue is why would the names that some black people give their children place those children at a disadvantage when they are, for example, seeking employment? The answers provided by Leavitt et al. seem to imply that the onus for this situation lies with the naming parent(s) and not with the racially tinged bias of white employers. White parents can give their children pre-18th Century Irish names such as Caitlin or Old Testament names such as Aaron, Naomi or Joshua or, following the traditions of the east coast upper-crust elite, give their daughters first names such as Jordan and nary an eyebrow is raised. To go further, corporations owned and controlled by whites have paid and will pay millions of dollars to companies whose full-time business is devoted to coming up with names for products or other companies which don't mean anything at all and, again, this passes over everyone's head with scarcely a critical comment.

If, however, a young unmarried and relatively poor black women living in West Oakland names her baby Taquisha or Quenelle then the heavens open up and endless drops of derision fall on her head. And they will continue to fall on her head even if she pulls it together gets her GED and cops an AA degree at Laney and starts working full-time.

What I see is that the majority white culture in this country wants their view of reality always confirmed and if any black person doesn't co-sign for this arrangement then he or she is considered outside the box of what is acceptable comportment.

No. Levitt and Fryer are arguing explicitly that it isn't the names, it's the PEOPLE. To Levitt and Fryer, names don't mean a thing. If anything, people who DO believe in the power of names get the arrow of causality going in the wrong direction. Black people don't become poor because of the names they are given, black people who ARE poor tend to give their children black poor names.

Their research definitely points to the intergenerational transmission of poverty.

But it doesn't prove their essential point, and it doesn't DISPROVE the social psychological research that indicates that employers routinely engage in discrimination against people based on their name.

Yes, I know that Leavitt and Fryar are arguing that it isn't the names. I was responding to Cobb's statement that names do mean something. Yes, names do mean something but in the case of what we may call "the-names-that-poor-black-people-give-their-children" the names appear to take on a connotative meaning in which the holder of the name is regarded unfavorably.

Sixty years ago during the Great Migration of blacks from the rural south to the urban north many, many blacks, for example, had names that were considered archaic and odd sounding even then. I can well recall older and younger black people in my neighborhood with names like Demosthenes (he was called Demo for short), Obidiah, Hezekiah, Ezekial, Prominence (his last name was Butts), Worthy, LaVel, Moses, Jasper, Cleophus, Leotis, LaFrance, Oscarine and Lurleen. I can't recall when there wasn't a time when the black community had people with funny sounding or odd names.

Later this afternoon more "black" names bubbled up to the surface from my memory banks. I haven't seen most of these people since high school. Here goes: Alque, Cottrell, Ronnell, Linell (not Lionel), Napolean, Magreta, L.V. and his sister, I.V., Orenthal and Lynwood.