Unusual (first) names

[Joel S. Berson]

Re the Salon article:

1)  One could go further back, to the "unusual" names given to their
children by New England Puritans -- clearly a naming freedom assumed
not by African-Americans but by WASPs.  Just as one example, Wait
Still (some render it as Waitstill) Winthrop, of *the* Winthrop family.

2)  I would bet that there was ridicule in the 18th century of the
"unusual" names given to black slaves  -- not, of course, by their
mothers but by their mothers' owners.  (I mean explicit, expressed
ridicule, beyond that implied simply by the choice of the name, such
as the "Caesar" example of the Salon article.) But I don't remember
seeing such myself, and perhaps the literature of the period is too scanty.

Joel

At 8/27/2008 12:31 AM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 4:39 PM, Benjamin Zimmer
><bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> >
> > On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 4:34 PM, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
> > >
> > > Accounts of the unfortunate naming of young Shithead abound in
> (and from) countless
> > > locales (all of them also "absolutely true")--along with the
> naming of the twin girls
> > > Lemonjello [l@ 'man j@ lo] and Orangejello, and the lad Nosmo
> King (from a sign glimpsed
> > > in the hospital maternity ward). The jokes often have a racist
> component--perhaps an
> > > unintended tribute the greater freedom in African American
> naming practices.
> >
> > http://www.snopes.com/racial/language/names.asp
>
>Further discussion here:
>
>http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/08/25/creative_black_names/print.html
>
>
>--Ben Zimmer
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org