Black Ghetto Baby Names | Jada

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  Black Ghetto Baby Names is a website celebrating the paradoxically concurrent history and novelty found in African American names. We will discuss everything having to do with the names, and look forward to having you with us on all or part of our adventure.

Jada

Welcome back to Black Ghetto Baby Names, where today we will be discussing another popular african american name made popular only recently.

The life and times of the name “Jada”. 

Jada is a name that can do double duty as a boy’s name or a girl’s name. However, the two forms have different origins and meanings, and while the popularity of the name has risen dramatically for girls in recent years, it has never been a popular option for boys. 

The masculine version is much older, in fact it comes from the Hebrew for “he knows”. The modern meaning is either “knowing” or wise”. In the Old Testament of the Bible, Jada was the son of Onam. As a boy’s name, Jada doesn’t even crack the top 1000 most popular baby names in the US, so I’ll focus on the feminine usage. 

The feminine form of the name appears to have come into general use in the 1960’s and 1970’s as a variant of the name Jade. Jade is originally Spanish and comes from the semi-precious stone of the same name. In 2006, Jada ranked as the 93rd most popular baby name in the US; a steady rise from 745th in the rankings in 1992. This rise can be explained in large part by actress, singer, songwriter and wife of Will Smith, Jada Pinkett-Smith. 

Pinkett-Smith’s rise to prominence in the 1990’s almost perfectly mirrors the rise in popularity of the name Jada for new baby girls, which underlines the impact that celebrities have on modern society, particularly in African America; the popularity of Jada as a name is almost exclusively among the African American community. 

The names of whites and African Americans have been diverging for a while. Sometimes names cross over from one community to the other; for example in Britain the name Winston has become far more popular in the Caribbean community than amongst whites. At the same time, there has been a counter movement against using names that are perceived as being stereotypically African American; the fear is that these names may increase prejudice that the child may suffer. A name like Jada shows a middle way forward. It’s a name that has been taken enthusiastically by the African American community, but it has links to other cultures, such as Spanish, Hebrew, and even Arabic where the name means “goodness”. It also celebrates the achievements of a talented African American woman. It’s also a very beautiful name, which is quite important after all =).

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