Terrell Darnell
In my research on Black Ghetto Baby Names, there is an entire class that I have come across that really begs discussion. The class is “First names that have become associated with blacks, but are really surnames of English lords.” There is a surprising number even on the list of most popular African American names. In this two-part article, the ones we will discuss are:
Terrell, Darnell, Marquis, and Tyrone. Yes, they are all former surnames of English lords.
Terrell
The Terrell family hearkens back to the middle ages, at a time when even the names very spelling was not standardized. For example, in those days Terrell could be spelled “Terrell”,”Tyrell”, “Tirell”, or “Turrell”. Kind of reminds you of the same variation you see in namings in the community, right? It’s difficult to trace this one back in time, but the 700 years since the middle ages finished is history enough isn’t it? This name came to America via Daniel Turrell, Edward Tirrell, Alice Turrell, and John Tirrell, all of whom arrived in the 17th century from Boston to Virginia to Barbados. My opinion is that the name was ingested by our community at the time of freedom, when we took our masters’ names and made them our own.
Darnell
The darnell family has a similar background. The names’ other spellings included “Darnell, “Darnall”, “Darnoll”, “Darnel”, “Darnhill”, and “Dartnell”. The name entered the American lexicon in 1684 with the immigration of Thomas Darnel. His descendants were probably slave owners, which pinpoints the time of interface between that family and African America.
In this short post, we have discussed how surnames of European lords have come to be adopted by the community here. It goes to show that, again, the majority of these names are not “Black Ghetto Baby Names” at all, but rather names used throughout history. If you will be naming your child Terrell or Darnell, just remember that really you are referencing the lords of England, from a time of fiefdoms and kings, a time that would never have imagined an African, much less an African named like an Briton.
That is all from Black Ghetto Baby Names this morning, and have a great weekend!
DeShawn.
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.
Jasmine Jazmin Jasmeen Yasmin
Dear readers, today we discuss the most popular of “Black Ghetto Baby Names”, Jasmine (Jazmin, Jaasmeen, Jaasmin). The attentive reader might cite this statement against my summary of popular African American names as published in Freakonomics, but actually, with all combinations, that name was the most popular. I will discuss it, give my words as usual, and share my favorite poem involving the name Jasmine.
Jasmine
As with many of the names we’ve mentioned thus far at Black Ghetto Baby Names, Jasmine, though adopted by the United States, made a long journey from afar before arriving here in the present. The name originated from Yasmin, a Persian Pharsi word for a fragrant bush that grows in that arid climate.
I sometimes wonder how a name achieves such high standing in certain cultures, and I wonder if it has to do with the name’s history and meaning. As if phonetics and semantics are forever sutured into each other, each lacking meaning without the other. And I wonder about the name Jasmine. Is it possible that the mothers of our race have somehow embedded a desire to see their children one day free as the jasmine bush that grows freely out in the desert, in a place where the reign of social construction has given way to that of aridity and the occasional dark volume of a sandstorm.
In closing, I would like to share a segment of my favorite poem by Luis Cernuda with you, as translated by Stephen Kessler.
“In the long summer evenings we went up to the terrace. On the moss-covered bricks, between the railings and the white-washed walls, there was the jasmine bush, its dark branches covered with little white corollas, next to the moonflower vine, which at that hour was opening its little blue bells.”
from Evening by Luis Cernuda (Transl. Stephen Kessler)
Thank you for coming here to Black Ghetto Baby Names again, friend, and may choirs of angels sing you to your rest.
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.
Imani
Oh dear readers of Black Ghetto Baby Names,
As many know, we African Americans are a people of faith. As a people, few other than the Jews have known the same pain and pressure that has been applied to our bodies and spirits over the last many centuries. And I think that today, in a day of the calendar after the birth of our savior and before his death, it is worth discussing a name synonymous with faith.
Imani (Swahili name)
Imani is Swahili, an East African tongue, for “faith”. Swahili has existed at least since 1728, and is thus a rather young language, which may lead one to believe that the name’s roots go far less deep than the others we have discussed. However, we now know that the name digs into the sands of
Imani (Arabic name)
In Arabic, Imani means believer. As you can see both the name and aspects of the meaning migrated down from
The history of this particular name brings me to wax upon the interconnectedness of us in the
You know your buddy Daniel down the street? There is a Daniel right now taking shrapnel in the eye because of war. You know David? A David is right now being buried in a shallow grave by opportunistic robbers in the security nightmare that is the
Believe in peace. Have faith in God, or at least have faith in dreams of a better tomorrow. Every Imani in the world, those growing, those taking their last breaths, and those only now being dreamed of, beg it of us.
Peace unto all of you, even where lightning rends the sky with its cracked lips.
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.
DeAndre
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.
Aaliyah
Today’s post is going to be difficult for those of us that have been around on this earth longer than the last 10 years. Here at Black Ghetto Baby Names, we are huge fans of soul music and R&B music, and few artists in the genre have been as tragic as Aaliyah. Today we’ll talk about her name and her history, and end with a few musings from yours truly on the topic of African American names.
Aaliyah
First, the history of recent memory’s most beloved Aaliyah. The name Aaliyah entered the American mainstream conscious in the 90s with advent of the likewise named singer. Aaliyah was a famous singer, dancer, actress, and model who, in her short career, sold over 80 million records worldwide in collaboration with Timbaland in Missy Elliott. As we all know, she perished in a plane crash leaving the Bahamas in 2001.
When it comes to the dead, there are few soft comforts we can take with us through the rough and lonely days without. However, one of those is the legacy of a name. The name Aaliyah is in fact not a “Black Ghetto Baby Name”, but rather a name steeped in the religion of Islam. The female version of the Arabic “Ali”, Aaliyah means “high, lofty, sublime” in the original language.
And that is how we would like to remember her, just as, since her death, hundreds of others have commemorated her with the names of their wide-eyed young children. And Aaliyah will always live on with us in the first small mewlings of a brown child opening its eyes to the beauty and tragedy of life.
Epilogue
We’ve learned today about Aaliyah. The name, though it appears to be a “Black Ghetto Baby Name” in the modern U.S., truly resonates in history back to the roots of a powerful religion. So let us never truly belief in the segregationists that say races are separate and grow up separately, for cultures will naturally mix and loves will be made, broken apart, and reformed. The cream and the coffee will always mix to their wonderful joint consistency.
Love to all the world, love to my readers on this night, and to the moon that slips its silver thread through the eyes of the wondering.
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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