A Black American History of Names

i knew a white girl named alexis and her first car was a lexus. always made me giggle.

Did I see Fallopian on that list of names? 😂

my name is spelled Monéy (Monae) and my middle name is Love LMFOAOAOA my mom chose it after one of my cousins suggested it. Unfortunately same thing for me they é don’t rlly show up and so ppl read it as Money🙄

sort of opposite, but my name is thomas and i think it had a big impact on how i thought of myself and how then other people thought of me.

thomas is an old name and has a lot of very important and very intelligent people attached to it. I’m named after St Thomas the apostle, and i grew up hearing about St Thomas Aquinas and all of his massive contributions to theology and philosophy.

so growing up i kind of “knew” that i was supposed to be smart and good and highfalutin. haha hopefully im not too pretentious anymore, but i still have a lot of that “ideal” self modeled after an intellectual man. 

dont know if thats interesting or helpful, but its been my experience anyway.

Sounds like some cultural appropriation there, Afeni.

My granddaughter, Jaedyn; my greatgrandaughter, Unique Divinity Rae.

“did my mother name me after a car”

that got me im in

This was a great video essay!
Comment for the algorithm gods.

Ladumbisha is my fav

I dunno about naming a black girl Banana... That's setting her up for a hard time, and setting yourself up to get into a bunch of fights.

This shit kicks ass

Alot people think my name is Black, but it's Japanese. However, it may fit the description of naming your child after a product since that's where my family got it from. From one of the top products of that time meaning brightness.

The trend of naming female black slaves "venus" was also ironic. It was done in the same way as slaveowners naming their slaves things like "hannibal" or "virgil." They were mocking the physical appearance of the black female slaves, not fetishizing them.

I heard Freeman was a common surname Black people gave themselves during Reconstruction

My mom started this trend where she and I have ("Black sounding") middle names that start with the same syllable. I hope to continue that if I have a daughter someday 😊

Finding out family members' real names is wild. My aunt Tina's real name is Adrienne. Tina is nowhere in her real name, not first, not middle, not last.

i ALWAYS love your videos. as a white person, i learn a LOT both from your videos and from discussions in the comments, and there's so much im able to bring into my own conversations and educate other people with.

there's really no way to express how grateful i am to have resources like your channel to expand on my limited understanding of the world and my fellow humans.

also, i LOVE the way you present information and edit your videos. straight to the point, clearly defined and explained topics/points, inclusive language and information, and lots of images to help hold my attention... the formatting of your videos makes them really accessible to me, personally, which im even more grateful for!

thank you for all that you do Elexus!

My name is Adia Jaleesa. Adia has multiple origins, but I was named after the Swahili meaning " gift from God(dess)". Jaleesa was originally a combination of my parents names. I later found the meaning "promise of God(dess)"

I’m not black nor do I live in america but my name is Sietske Laninga, which is a very typically Frisian name. I moved to Noord Holland years ago for university and for the first time in my entire working life I struggled to get a job, on a whim I decided to start submitting resumes and applications with Carlijn De Jong which is a more typical Dutch name and I got almost every job I applied to with Carlijn instead of Sietske. A friend of mine who’s name is Nynke Aukema had the same issue living in Rotterdam but after changing her name to something more Dutch got hired easily. It’s just a hunch but I think alot of Dutch people see Frisians as under educated and less capable despite whatever experience we have on our resume.

Thank you for the reminder not to pre judge people by their names. Every now and then something comes along to change your world view. This is one of those things. As a white person I have been guilty of judging people unfairly by their names. I truly regret that and while my judgements were private and I have always tried to be a fair and decent human being, you have made me realize that I was wrong. Although I wouldn’t call myself a racist, this was certainly racist thinking. I know that it’s not enough but I am truly sorry that I ever allowed myself to think that way. I can’t change history or society but I can and am changing myself. There are very few white people that haven’t been either unintentionally or intentionally complicit in societal racism in this country. Mine was unintentional. That doesn’t excuse it. I was a lifetime recipient of white privilege. I didn’t ask for it and for most of my life I didn’t even realize it. Any white person that tells you otherwise is either completely stupid or a liar. Prejudging people by their names is just another way of dehumanizing them. I’ll never allow that to enter my thinking again. It’s never going to be enough but I regret not only my own stupid thoughts but I regret how horrible this country is and has always been to anyone non white. I did raise my kids to be better and each of my 3 kids has a non white partner and my grandbabies are of every color. Thank you for this eye opening video. It may have been intended for entertainment but it also has an important message.

I’m not black (I’m Filipino) but the fact that I went about two decades of my life and realized that my grandfather’s given name was Nestor instead of Lolo Boy was baffling.

So strange hearing Obama say that about his name then blow the living daylights out of thousands of Hussein’s

Oprah is the Ops as always

I'm white and grew up in a very white town in Canada. I had a classmate named Keysha, and my aunt named her dog Keisha. I never knew it was a weird name for a white person until I was a teen 😂

Why are you quoting Bill Cosby?

that shift from picking a strong name to picking the most unique/clever name

I literally know a girl called Molly!

I have used my middle name on resumes. I used to wish that my name was like Samantha or something now I can only imagine how much worse my internalized oppression would have been if I had a proverbially ⚪️name. As it is, I’m proud to be named the feminized version of my father’s name

my chosen name is amaru! im trans from south america and didnt want a spanish name. im white tho and now im a little embarrased i chose an indigenous name, so i gotta honor it by keeping myself in check constantly lol

My mom told me her mother my grandmother companied that she named all her kids "Black Names" our names at that point were Deidra, Tiffany and me Felicia. I always thought she was just being an old racist.

That be ba rightba fatba albert

🗣️✋🏾O-H🤚🏾 lol

Have you taken a look at old Greek names!?

Smh. I thought it was just my mother and I. My moms name is Tamara but on her BC it’s “Tamar” without an A. It’s still cute but still they didn’t correct her name. Mines is Briesha pronounced Br-eee-shu My OG spelling is “Briesha” but the nurse misspelled my name -STORY OF MY LIFE!!! I sincerely believe when they see a black child they automatically assume we have these “difficult” names and don’t bother handle BC’s with caution as our other friends

That girl with the 1000 names sounding like she started rapping lol

It's better when a name has a meaning. If we're gonna create new names, let's give them meaning.

Just a few century and any popular black name will sound as normal as any other.

my grandma’s husband name is literally LD …

Wait until you find out that Obama is an ethnic Indonesian.

I'm a white guy named Gerard and more black people than anyone else say 'I've never met someone named Gerard that isn't a brother'. I always take this positively and I love my unique name

Nah they are ghetto af

My name's MytheBe, so I don't judge. I'm new to this channel, and this video rocks.

“Who the f@ck is Melissa?” 😂

My name is Kiersten (I’m white) and one of my closest friends is also named Kiersten (she’s black) 🫱🏿‍🫲🏻

Just want to say as a white girl, I love all of your video essays. They’re so informative and educational and I appreciate being able to learn all you have to teach.