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elaborate names and poorness..?

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joko | 00:42 Mon 23rd Apr 2007 | Body & Soul
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I recently read that a report has found that the poorer an area, the more elaborate and invented the names become.
Parents somehow feel that by making a name up or spelling it oddly makes their child 'special' - they feel that it is the one thing they can give them, and some believe it may help their future.

it is evident in poor areas of america, which names like shaniqua, tinashqua, nesheekita, lateeshqua etc etc

and perhaps in the uk with names like chardonnay, chantelle-marie, etc

odd spellings like Karell, mishell, teena, jewely, etc

what do you think?
do you think this is true - that they do this, perhaps even subconsciously, or is it just an environment/trend thing and they just do it to be like the neighbours etc?
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i wonder how many tamiquas and shaleequa's there were before the age of 'celebrity'...? say about 50 years ago.

and do these names mean anything? where are they from?
or are they just a mix of letter that the arents thought was unsual?

i would agree, fashions and trend influence names, but these usually become very dated and awful quite quickly - such as all the 13 year old kylies, and the 5 year old britneys - but this is not usual or special, it is quite common and obvious.

the survey seems to claim some sense of making their baby stand out and be special as the reason they make up their own names, so its the only one.
joko.....I'm proud to say my mums name "emily" has been passed on to ......couldn't choose it for my daughter .....not as a first name.........but did as a second name.......another sis had choosen it for a first name of her daughter :)..........and my grandaughter has it as her middle name to :)
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play misty - you began the childish responses with your ''right i'm leaving and not coming back'' drivel.
i was just letting you know i am not interested in what you think of AB or whether you come here.

I posted a simple question and you reply 3 times with huffy moaning, mentioning largely irrelevant things, because you didn't like the idea of a survey.

when i asked for clarification of your points, you accuse me of arrogance and bullying - yeah good one!

i would think sly sneers because i hadn't considered and researched william shakespeares signature in a question about 21st century child name habit, rather more like 'bullying' than anything i have said.

if you wish to barge onto questions, ranting and raving because you don't like the tone, complain about words used, make accusations, and generally have a hissy fit, go right ahead.

have i hit a nerve here? is your name shamiquila and your daughters is named kaliniqua or something.

yes, the black american community is relevant in this issue - because the survey lists them as being the most noted for doing this!
Does that make me a racist who apparently thinks all black people are dumb because i mention it? don't think so!

i said poor people, not black, white, etc - you started all this.
this name thing happens all over the world.

can you show me a white person called shantiqua?

seriously your argument is so ridiculous, it bears not relation to what i actually said.

perhaps you should leave ab, as you appear to have misunderstood the point of the site - we do not sit down and construct well researched essays on things, with perfect english and grammar, and present them for academic study - we ask and answer questions and raise topics to gather opinions.

we don't come on here to defend the work of some study to ranting fool who
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appears unable to grasp the subject and wishes to turn it into a massive throrough lecture on slavery and the class system.
joko I'm off to bed mate.....make sure the lurgy doesn't turn into the plague.. ;-)

catch u later x
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misty, you might want to reread your responses and see exactly who got upset about a 'crappy' survey.
3 posts all whining about minor historical connections.
I am not upset in the slightest by things i read.

you accuse me of being academically elitist - i did not spew out a load of copied and pasted stuff about slavery etc, and wittered on about how i know everything because i have been all across america and blah blah blah.

i have addressed you this way because you have turned a simple question in to a row because you felt the survey wasn't very nice.
your feelings about the snobbery of the survey are irrelevant, the post is about the contents of the survey.

whether you like it or not - many people admitted to doing exactly what the survey says - so your assertion that every single black person in america is name in defiance of slavery is simply wrong.
people do lots of different things and you cannot put them all into a few boxes because it suits you.
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cheers red - my dad does the poultice thing too - he calls it a potis though - they are medical marvels, cure anything!
oh boo hoo, are you getting arthritis with all that typing, you outmoded old fool.
(A) Don't tell me I have barged onto your question...since when has anyone had to request permittance before posting a reply on AB. It was supposed to be part of an adult discussion and I would have been genuinely interested to know of your thoughts, but I couldn't have a proper discussion because you waded into my opinions and you are still showing prejudice in comments such as
(B) Has it hit a nerve...(drone, drone, zzzz)...no it has not, as I have very English names, very standard and any name suggestions I have ever given have been rather boring too. Why do you think I would feel irritated or annoyed to have a name such as Shaniqua? Who cares?
and btw (C) AnswerBank is not 'we' in your regal way of expressing it...it is a collection of individuals, and even though I am leaving anyway, I can't understand why you are even bothered. Who is 'We', you and your army...well can you inform your army that I am totally bored by this sort of waste of pixels. I've never once cared whether any one member leaves or stays, maybe you could try to reach the same conclusion and chill out...and stop mocking other posters for poor spellings, when English is obviously not their first language, for example. BULLY
Where did I say that everyone did it as a result of the slave issue? I did not say that anywhere at all, I said that some people have done that and still do that, it is a great INFLUENCE on nomenclature. Most people,as you say, simply go for what they think is the prettiest name, so we do agree on certain points. On the other hand, my aspirational in-laws deliberately chose very plain names for their kids, so that they would not stray from the path of boring suburban office mentality all their life. They have ended up the ugliest, plainest dorks ever, as other surveys say, people end up living up to their own given names.
Maybe you could focus sometimes on points of agreement rather than disagreements and you might not get as worked up.
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blimey, you're even more nuts than i thought! - boo hoo? arthritis? army? what are you dribbling on about?

you keep calling me a bully as though you think it might bother me... it doesn't because i know i am not bullying you - that you feel bullied perhaps says more about you than me....mmm?
you obviously do care, so all this 'not bothered' stuff doesn't ring true - just look at the way you responded over the mere mention of a survey!

i said all that shaniqua stuff as a joke to annoy you - it worked.

you absolutely barged on, no-one needs permission but you stamped your feet about the subject - as i said, the reason or niceness of the survey is irrelevant.

people use the word 'we' a lot, when referring to a lot of people in a general situation, when i said it here i meant the users of ab, i have been here a long time and i know how it works, so i can speak collectively if i wish...like i said picking up on individual words and getting irate about them is not only pointless but a bit anally retentive. i am not going to analyse every single choice of word - if you don't get it, thats your problem.

spelling? i have not corrected anyone - what are you on about?

i have copied my first response to you below - if you can point out where i attack and bully you, then i will apologise profusely.

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''the famous have very different reasons for choosing bizarre names. peaches, fifi, moon etc are relatively modern thing used by celebrities.
this is about the poor wanting to give their child a leg up, such as it is.

how did shakespeare spell his name? what other ways?

signing with a flourish is not an issue, it is the spelling and invention.

i can't see your average 17 year old black american thinking about defying slave names when choosing a name like tanishqua for her child....do you really think that is what guides them in their choice?

i am not sure if the report was looking down on anyone, just reporting the instances of unusual name occurrences in the world.

it did mention that the more comfortably off people, tended to choose names like alice, sarah, ann, charlotte, elizabeth etc

(i think it all pllied to boys names too but they weren't as fancy as the females) ''
I can also speak collectively, if I wish, as I have been in AnswerBank for longer than you know and I have many friends on here. So I would equally entitled to use the regal 'we' but I just can't be bothered with your petty inanities. You are quite clearly unhinged and the reason that I see you as prejudiced is that you have bullied other users in the past, in similar ways. You are the nutter, I have been working and answering at the same time, I don't know what your sad excuse for wasting so much time on the internet but I sincerely hope I never, ever, meet you again Goodbye and explode in your own fury of typing, god bless you
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oh i am not worked up in the slightest - you are the one who objects to this survey being done, calling me a bullly and using capitals.

as i said, in my first post i responded to your points, as a few i didn't agree with and a few i didn;t understand the relevance - you didn't like that, and accused me of being disrespectful, over a choice of grammar, then moaned that you think ab is crap and you're leaving!

in my question, i made no leanings one way or the other - you chose to accuse me of being offensive to black people.

i agree with you that many black people may well choose names for defiance - but you refused to accept that a great many - these days - don't.

i agree it is a bizarre thing to do a survey on, but the results are there and so are the statements of people who have done it.

like you said, you haven't seen the survey - but you instantly decided it was offensive, snobbish, wrong, etc etc - there appears to be no bias either way, just a report of the findingd and possible reasons behind it - i just wanted opinions on the reasons - not an argument over whether the survey should have been done at all, and accusations of racism!
PS btw 'Poverty' sounds better than 'Poorness'
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still clinging on desperately to individual words eh?

you mentioned the utter inanity of the ''royal'' 'we', not me - or had you forgotten?
i did not say you could not use it, you silly old fool, just that i could - are you always this stupid? - why do you not read or comprehend what is said to you?
why not actually try to get the meaning of peoples words instead of scanning for key words and having a fit about them?

i too am working - so good one, i am so hurt by your accusation that i *shock horror* use the net, so cutting!

coming from someone who struggles to grasp such simple language, insults really don't mean very much, there is nothing you could say that would make me feel bad - i only feel pity for you.

you also have just admitted that you deliberately started the arguments on this post, because of some imaginary vendetta you have against me - so good one for that too, well done, feel better?
you still sound like a ranting lunatic, but hey, as long as you get it all off your chest, eh?

I notice you have not pointed out the terrible attack you accused me of in that first post...mmmm?
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poverty, schmoverty
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i think it is meant as a level of wealth and poorness - i don't think it was referring to people in poverty especially, but that the levels of unusual names rose in a direct scale with levels of wealth, in that they got less and less as the people surveyed became richer and richer
I don't think Wayne, Donna or Lee are chavvy - they might not be modern but these were very popular in the 80's

I agree about the made up names though
Joko, I couldn't agree more.

The peasants have little to do with their life apart from fill in benefit claims and shoplift, so I guess they sit at home and think of stupid (I think elaborate is a trifle too kind) names for their many offspring, many of which come from unknown or absent fathers. Many of the babies are also brown.

I think the names of the lazy class is also correlated to the quality of their tattoos and size of gold hooped earrings.

I have said it on here before, but shall repeat that I once nearly fooled a pregnant poor person I met on a train once to call her unborn girl "Chlamydia". After explaining it was urdu for beautiful, she made a note with a cheap bic (she was too dirty to use my personalised Regent pen) and "fanked" me wholeheartedly.

And whilst not necessarily bad names if I hear another little boy called either Jacob or Joshua in Waitrose, I shall steal their sweets when mother isn't looking.
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ahh, its just dawned on me who playmisty is - she did exactly this once before - completely misunderstood the point, jumped down my throat about some imaginary slight, ranted on about random irrelevant pieces of text, accused me of bullying her and accused me of picking on someone else because of spelling (which i don't do) which she felt vindicated her nonsense and generally came across as bit disjointed and full of histrionics - yet claims not to care one little bit! Mmmm...?
she also later admitted she had deliberately started the row because of some past grievance that is long forgotten by me.

last time she apologised for the spelling one, as she had got me mixed up with someone else, similar names, but seems to have forgotten that.

i thought it all seemed a bit de ja vu, imagina that, eh?

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