Black Ghetto Baby Names | DeAndre

DeAndre

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Today’s post at Black Ghetto Baby Names will take a different trajectory than previous ones. In previous posts we would discuss a name and then move to famous people and conclude with how the name was not actually among the “Black Ghetto Baby Names” at all. Well, today I would prefer to focus on the historical aspect of the process with one of the most popular colloquial African American names today: DeAndre.

DeAndre
Today we will be following the name DeAndre in its curse through history, and you might find that like onions and Shrek the ogre, it has many layers. Let’s examine this onion layer by layer.

The name is a combination of “De” and “André”, and was coined in the United States during the 80s. Adding “De” to a name, (such as DeShawn, my own name), has become a popular naming scheme in the United States. If we peel back this particular onion’s brown skin, however, we find that, however much like “Black Ghetto Baby Names” this name appears, its next level of history lies in Europe.

André
Andre is the French and Portuguese form of “Andrew”, who was an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the Christian Bible. Legend says that he underwent crucifixion on a cross the shape of an X, and he is the patron saint of many European nations including Scotland. It is surely this Andrew that popularized the name, back in the days of Christ and the Romans, but even it dips its ladle deeper into the pool of history.

Aner/Andros
Greek for “man” or “of a man.”

At this point we have reached near the limit of recorded human history: the ancient Greek civilization. How is it that a single, simple name like DeAndre could grow such deep roots? Such is the manner of human culture. And I urge each my readers to understand with pride that the African American carries the cultural inheritance of Jesus Christ and the genetic inheritance of the earliest man. And I want the European American to understand that, in his rock and roll music, in his blues, and even in his name, the histories of these things wind their way back to Africa, and that first small village where man was first found lighting his signal fire to the heavens.

If you found this post interesting, I hope you’ll check out our list of popular black names for similar posts on other historically black names.

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