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Help[Facts] Re: Thanks (and a related question about French names)
in reply to a message by clevelandkentevans
I wonder if this still isn't in some way a relation to the popularity of the Arabic names among Black Muslim organizations, since many male Arabic names end on the 2nd syllable -- Jamal, Jaleel, Karim, Rashad, etc. My guess is many Americans today would view those as "black" names and not realize they are even Arabic in origin.
If you think about the generations up until about 50 years ago, white American men were named Bernard, Maurice, Tyrone. Now, those are seen as black names. So I wonder if this was all started by the influence of Arabic names in the '50s - people unconsciously heard the similarity between the 2nd syllable accent names and the Arabic names, so that the white community gave them up and the black community continued to use them.
If you think about the generations up until about 50 years ago, white American men were named Bernard, Maurice, Tyrone. Now, those are seen as black names. So I wonder if this was all started by the influence of Arabic names in the '50s - people unconsciously heard the similarity between the 2nd syllable accent names and the Arabic names, so that the white community gave them up and the black community continued to use them.
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Or is it possible that names like Jamal and Rashad became popular among Black Americans because their sounds already fitted into Black naming patterns? As far as I know, neither of those names are particularly significant in Islam - why didn't the much more distinctly Muslim Muhammad and Abdullah (and Fatima and Khadija for girls) become more popular in Black communities? Maybe because they just didn't have as fashionable a sound as Jamal and the others.
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