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I know many black people with normal names that white people DO use.

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Emphasis mine, of course. I fully admit I'm nitpicking here, but isn't it also offensive to say that so-called black names aren't "normal"? That only the white ones are? The names black people use are plenty normal to them.

This message was edited 2/15/2011, 2:54 PM

jeez, I only meant it as a mental association

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It's like saying "Ingrid is a Swedish name in my mind" even though it's used by plenty of people who aren't remotely Swedish. I never said that certain names couldn't be used by whites because they too associated with usage by blacks or whatever.

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It is really necessary to be so PC at all times?

This message was edited 2/15/2011, 12:21 AM

I don't think Chloe was at all implying that all black people have only "black" names or that any name necessarily belongs to any one race but as Kitty mentioned we all have our own associations. Octavia and Renata were the only girls I had ever known with those names so, for a long time they seemed to me like "black" names. I now think both names are completely gorgeous and even though I still have the same associations for them, I also wouldn't hesitate to use them. Coretta Scott King is the only Coretta I've EVER heard of yet Coretta is one of my TOP names.

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Also, it goes both ways. I have a friend named Chandra who often got told, by black girls, that she had a "black" name. I also don't think referencing a name as being "black" or "white" or whatever, is always a bad thing. There are a few of my favorite boys names that my bf has said he likes but isn't sure a white guy could pull off - somehow to him Whitney and Sidney sound a bit girly on a white guy but suave on a black guy

This message was edited 2/14/2011, 10:21 PM

I understand what you mean. It's one thing to imagine a charactor with a name and another thing to pass off a name as "belonging" to a particular color of people.
Especially since, in my history of loving names (undisclosed number of decades), something being called a "black name" has never been considered a good thing by the person saying it. Ever.
In this case, it seems that it's less about the actual opinion and more about using language that some ignorant people also use. I AM NOT SAYING ANYONE HERE IS IGNORANT! (for the record) Anyone can have a bad choice of words... happens to me WAYYYY too often! ;-)

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That being said, I don't think New Chloe meant anything negative by it, I think she was actually saying that she disagreed with her family's opinion.

Just because you've only heard of black people with names that white people don't use doesn't mean that all black people have such names.

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Of course not, and nobody has said that or meant to imply it. I think for Chloe's family, perhaps they just associate Cora with certain people as it is used largely by them in their experience. We all have associations, right?

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I'm Australian, and being a name nerd I know that certain names are more popular in the indigenous community than the non-indigenous community here. Thus, I can sometimes hear a name like XYZ think 'indigenous name.' This doesn't extend to my thinking that all people named XYZ are indigenous or that it should not or could not be used on a non-indigenous child.

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As a side-note: Ella Fitzgerald can't be traced back as the reason for Ella and -Ella names being popular, whereas Aretha Franklin definitely influenced her name's rise up the charts for a short time.

This message was edited 2/14/2011, 6:20 PM

I don't think they meant to offend anyone(m)

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Unfortunately, the way society and mass media portray races implants the idea that certain names seem to only fit with certain races. Like how certain fashion trends and clothing are associated with different cultures, ethnicities, etc.