Seriously, people.
What you name your child is important. It's been discussed in Freakonomics (which I've added to my reading list), and apparently, dissertations have been devoted to the subject. Even more fascinating to me is the fact that there's a subset, if you will, to this whole naming thing.
Black folk (with good reason as the examples are boundless!) have their own subset. I'm not here to get all technical or inspired with reasonable reflection on the topic. I'm here to observe.
This is what I see:
My people have gone on 'head and examined the alphabet fully, and they have therefore cited opportunities for differentiation to be established.
The letter "q."
That ain't being used enough, so quite a few folk have gone ahead and exercised that letter right there.
Bump Quincy. That's obvious. You ain't gonna get no bonus points in Scattergories for using Quincy.
The key with "q" is to incorporate it. Put it in the mix in ways one has not yet seen. Most keep the "u" with the "q," but erry now and then you'll see the "q" all by itself. At those times, I feel like I'm back in the spelling bee inquiring, "May I have the origin of the word, please?"
I don't know if people care so much about the origin as they do about being the original; it ain't about how you got there, the point is just to be there.
Keisha was born in 1980-somethin'.
But Quisha?
That's it right there. Ain't gon be nobody else with that name spelt like that. Yeah, spelt.
Of course, for the rest of us, we won't know whether to pronounce it as "quee-sha" or "keesh-ah," but hey, that's our problem.
Uniqua. Uniquee. Laneequa. LaQueeta.
Boys are not excluded, and I know this personally because I have at least one cousin whose name has the "q" in it. Jaquavius.
I probably didn't spell it right. I've never seen it spelled. When I first heard that name (and subsequently others like it ... well not like that, because it's unique, but you know), you know what the first thing I thought was?
Man, that po' child gonna have a time filling out those bubbles on his BSAP test.
ESPECIALLY chi'ren who have apostrophes in -- or most annoyingly to me -- after their names. And I only say that because folk are serious about putting that apostrophe after the name. There's a difference between an apostrophe and an accent mark, first of all. Secondly, there really is no secondly, because the first part is so crucial that I really just can't get past it. You have to know that there is a difference and what that difference is, you really do. Because an apostrophe denotes some possession or an omission. Cashae' all by itself makes me think she lost something that was hers and would like to have it back. And it makes no sense to accent the "e" because the "a" is right in front of it. Geesh.
Moving on. My thing is, and I admit that I'm highly influenced by my mama, is, if you're black in this country, aren't you already different enough? It's no secret that people stereotype. We all do it regardless of whether it's right or wrong, but I worry that not enough consideration is being given when people name their children.
Ignorance is only a small part of it. Defiance I feel is another, because for every person that names their kid something "crazy" there are at least 2 family members gathered in the midst pleading to please not name your baby "Temptress" or "Shaneequa" or "Peaches" or "Lemonjello" or "Abcde." But they do it anyway because this they baby, and this baby special, this one gon' be different.
Different isn't always better, especially when it winds up becoming more of the same differences we're already seeing ... and trying to pronounce.
Why did I go off on this? Because my cousin (a different one) just had a baby. Last night my aunt calls to spread the cheer - she was really excited because she'd just cut the cord and everything - and I'm like, "Well, how is it? What is it?"
"Oh! I cut the cord! It's a boy. He weighed ... he looks ... he is ..."
I take a deep breath in because I already got a feelin' ...
"Well what'd she name it?"
"Oh. It's really pretty. Jacori Alexander, because you know, every boy in our family has that middle name just about."
I hang up the phone and Kim goes, "Alright. Let's hear it."
Mags goes on and gets her "umph" out, as I say, Jacori.
Mags is all, "A ja-what?"
"I betcha five dollars it's spelled with a q," I say as Kim replies, "Jokah that's a done deal. What other letter would it have?"
So in the meantime, we wait to get some photos or something.
And I've also realized "Ja" is to boys what "La" is to girls.
Okay, I'm done. I just wanted to say all that. In closing I give to you --
Haiku Inspired by the "Hello, my name is ..." tag:
Hello, my name is
not of this world -- history
won't dare repeat me.