On Ridiculing Names
Apr. 26th, 2025 08:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elyusionI wasn't able to finish the thing I was supposed to share in time, so I'm going to replace it with an opinion piece written while very tired instead. (Might have to replace my plans for Day 4 too... we'll see.)
You may have seen graphs floating around about the reddest (Republicancore) and bluest (Democratcore) baby names. And maybe you've seen this picture before:
Well. I thought the picture was funny the very first time I saw it, and that's it. Hasn't been funny since. It just makes me feel :/ now. The reason is that I don't believe in making fun of names, except for under very narrow circumstances like naming your child a keysmash or consistently using the letter X because you're obsessed with dystopian scifi while being the one creating said future. It's overplayed and possibly counterproductive, and the Republican-coded names are interesting if you try to look into why they've sprung into popularity. Just like another culture whose names are oft-derided.
I think you should treat others the way you want to be treated. As you may know, I'm African-American. I'm extremely well-acquainted with people making fun of names, even though our names have meanings and histories of their own.
For example, many are French or faux French because of naming trends originating in New Orleans (post-emancipation, I think), like Monique or Andre or Quan. Might even throw a "La" or "De" in the front, like Lasandra or... Deandre! And Laquan!
Some names honor the child's parents by combining the parents names. Yes, we sometimes name our children ship names. Ex. Latisha + Daquan = Quanisha.
Some names are """normal""" names but spelled differently to be unique, which is what many of those red baby names are doing. Latisha is just a variant of Laetitia, and one of my names was created in this way too.
Some names originate from Arabic sub-Saharan African, an origin that no doubt became more popular with the growth of black pride and radical black thought during and post the Civil Rights Movement. These include names like Jamal (Arabic) and Ashanti (Swahili).
And some names are completely unique, maybe composed of two random names combined or just sounds the parent(s) liked in a pleasing order. I find how the name will look on paper comes second to the musicality of it. Is wanting your child to have a name that's unique and entirely theirs not also honorable?
Some of these naming trends I see are taking place among a certain subsection of white people. Things that are unfamiliar can be funny, so at first I laughed, but now I see a reflection of my own people. Maybe many of these people would hate me for what I am or be suspicious of my negro intentions. Even so, I think it's pointless insulting people for things completely unrelated to the things actually wrong with them. Their children's names aren't racist, homophobic, transphobic, regressive, etc. (Someone pointed out it's interesting they're giving their girls all these androgynous names while liberal girl names are incredibly feminine.) The names aren't derived from these things. The names aren't making them those things.
And I know some may say "well I don't want someone so weak-willed on my side anyways," but I think that we're losing people when we make fun of harmless things like this. True anti-racism likely won't ever be popular among white people because it requires giving up their power and privilege, so maybe this is a fool's errand. It's just... SO useless. And overdone. The same joke can only be funny so many times. I know it can feel good punching up, but this fight is too familiar to me for it to be enjoyable. These names have interesting origins too, even if said origins might be regressive in some cases. Ex. Naming your son Gunner is wild, but it says something about their history that that name made it so high. Fascinating. Stroking my beard in thought right now.
And frankly, Gracelynn is a cute name. You can't convince me otherwise.
I can't think of how to conclude this. I hate conclusions. See you tomorrow!
You may have seen graphs floating around about the reddest (Republicancore) and bluest (Democratcore) baby names. And maybe you've seen this picture before:
Well. I thought the picture was funny the very first time I saw it, and that's it. Hasn't been funny since. It just makes me feel :/ now. The reason is that I don't believe in making fun of names, except for under very narrow circumstances like naming your child a keysmash or consistently using the letter X because you're obsessed with dystopian scifi while being the one creating said future. It's overplayed and possibly counterproductive, and the Republican-coded names are interesting if you try to look into why they've sprung into popularity. Just like another culture whose names are oft-derided.
I think you should treat others the way you want to be treated. As you may know, I'm African-American. I'm extremely well-acquainted with people making fun of names, even though our names have meanings and histories of their own.
For example, many are French or faux French because of naming trends originating in New Orleans (post-emancipation, I think), like Monique or Andre or Quan. Might even throw a "La" or "De" in the front, like Lasandra or... Deandre! And Laquan!
Some names honor the child's parents by combining the parents names. Yes, we sometimes name our children ship names. Ex. Latisha + Daquan = Quanisha.
Some names are """normal""" names but spelled differently to be unique, which is what many of those red baby names are doing. Latisha is just a variant of Laetitia, and one of my names was created in this way too.
Some names originate from Arabic sub-Saharan African, an origin that no doubt became more popular with the growth of black pride and radical black thought during and post the Civil Rights Movement. These include names like Jamal (Arabic) and Ashanti (Swahili).
And some names are completely unique, maybe composed of two random names combined or just sounds the parent(s) liked in a pleasing order. I find how the name will look on paper comes second to the musicality of it. Is wanting your child to have a name that's unique and entirely theirs not also honorable?
Some of these naming trends I see are taking place among a certain subsection of white people. Things that are unfamiliar can be funny, so at first I laughed, but now I see a reflection of my own people. Maybe many of these people would hate me for what I am or be suspicious of my negro intentions. Even so, I think it's pointless insulting people for things completely unrelated to the things actually wrong with them. Their children's names aren't racist, homophobic, transphobic, regressive, etc. (Someone pointed out it's interesting they're giving their girls all these androgynous names while liberal girl names are incredibly feminine.) The names aren't derived from these things. The names aren't making them those things.
And I know some may say "well I don't want someone so weak-willed on my side anyways," but I think that we're losing people when we make fun of harmless things like this. True anti-racism likely won't ever be popular among white people because it requires giving up their power and privilege, so maybe this is a fool's errand. It's just... SO useless. And overdone. The same joke can only be funny so many times. I know it can feel good punching up, but this fight is too familiar to me for it to be enjoyable. These names have interesting origins too, even if said origins might be regressive in some cases. Ex. Naming your son Gunner is wild, but it says something about their history that that name made it so high. Fascinating. Stroking my beard in thought right now.
And frankly, Gracelynn is a cute name. You can't convince me otherwise.
I can't think of how to conclude this. I hate conclusions. See you tomorrow!
