African American names are themselves a cultural story — of forced renaming under slavery, of post-emancipation reclamation, of religious devotion, of the Black Power era’s African name revival, and of the contemporary creative naming tradition.
Historical patterns
Before emancipation, enslaved African Americans were often given names by their enslavers — common European names (John, James, Mary, Sarah), classical names meant to be cruelly ironic (Caesar, Pompey, Hercules, Cato), or sometimes day-names from West African traditions (Quashee/Kwasi, Quamino/Kwame, Phibbi/Afua). Distinctive Black names existed even before emancipation — Booker, Perlie, Pres, Titus, Alzo, Wash. Around 3 percent of Black Americans had distinctive Black names during the antebellum period, a share that mirrors the percentage observed after the Civil War.
After emancipation, freed African Americans often took surnames for the first time legally — sometimes a former enslaver’s name, sometimes a chosen name (Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Freeman, Freeborn). Biblical names were used widely — Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Mary, Sarah, Naomi, Ruth. Grand classical and aspirational names — Imperial, Caesar, Demetrius, Aphrodite, Cleopatra.
The 1960s–1970s African name revival
The Black Power and Black Arts movements catalyzed a revival of African and African-inspired naming. Swahili names — Jamal (“handsome”), Aisha (“life”), Tamika, Kenyatta (after Jomo Kenyatta), Imani (“faith”), Kwame (Akan day-name), Asante, Habari, Salaam. Arabic names — Malik (“king”), Aaliyah (“rising”), Jamaal, Tariq, Khadijah, Ayesha, Hakeem, Rasheed. Yoruba names — less common but present. These names spread widely in the 1970s–1990s and remain prominent.
Distinctive Black American names
Beginning in the 1960s and accelerating in the 1980s–2010s, African Americans developed a distinctive creative naming tradition: unique prefixes (La-, De-, Sha-, Ra-, Le-, Ke-, Ka-, Ja-, Ty-, Tre-); unique suffixes (-isha, -ique, -ay, -elle, -ese); apostrophes and creative spellings (D’Angelo, De’Andre, La’Quan, Mo’Nique); reclaimed and invented names (Lakeisha, Tanisha, Latasha, Shaniqua, Quentin, Quincy, Trevon, Devontae, Daquan, Aaliyah, Marquise, Tyrese).
The Conversation: although the names have evolved, distinctive Black names trace to the earliest days of the United States. Since none of these Black names are derived from African languages, they constitute a unique African American cultural practice that originated during enslavement.
These names — sometimes mocked as “ghetto names” — are a creative African American cultural tradition of long standing: innovation, family pride, and self-determination. They have also produced documented hiring discrimination. Bertrand and Mullainathan (2004) showed identical résumés with names like Lakisha or Jamal received 50 percent fewer callbacks than those with names like Emily or Greg. The names are not the problem. The racism is.
Religious names and surnames
Black Muslim Americans often use Arabic names — Muhammad, Ali, Hassan, Hussein, Khalid, Aisha, Fatima, Khadijah, Mariam — and many converts take new Arabic names upon embracing Islam: Muhammad Ali, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Malcolm X (rejecting “Little” as a slave name), Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def).
Most African Americans bear surnames descended from English, Scotch-Irish, and other European-origin family names — often the names of former enslavers. Common surnames include Williams, Johnson, Brown, Jones, Davis, Miller, Wilson, Moore, Taylor, Anderson, Thomas, Jackson, White, Harris, Martin, Thompson, Robinson, Clark, Walker, Hall, Allen, Young, King, Wright, Scott, Green, Adams, Baker, Nelson, Carter, Mitchell, Roberts, Phillips, Campbell, Parker, Evans, Edwards, Collins, Stewart, Morris, Murphy, Cook, Rogers, Reed, Cox. Some African Americans have adopted new surnames as acts of self-determination.
Most African American women adopt a husband’s surname upon marriage, though hyphenation and keeping maiden names is increasingly common, especially among professionals. Ask how to say a name. Do not Anglicize or simplify creatively spelled names. Mocking a Black name is a documented form of racism.
