boys:

hunt

whit

jake

jackson

spalding



Girls:

penelope

lucy

palmer

emily

My beautiful son was named after his dad and paternal grandfather, Mohamed Issa Joshua. The name Mohamed as most already know is the name of the most high Prophet in Islam.

Issa is the name that my son goes and is the Islamic translation of Jesus. Joshua, his middle name was given by a pastor and as Christians know, it was Joshua who lead the people to the promise land (i'm getting all religious here, dont stop me now).

All of my son's names have strong meanings for me as I am always reminded how powerful those names are andthat I have a duty to fulfil as a parent and as ateacher! Mohamed Issa Joshua, came into my life to lead me to a promise land at a time when I was lost.

However, if Issa had been a girl he would have been named after both grandmothers, Kadija or Khadija. The prophet Mohamed's wife. For real this kid came to me as a blessing and is proving just how miracles occur in everyday life!niceone.gif

Jeez, i can't beleive how long this thread is...niceone.gif

Anyways, so far my favourites for boy namesare: Mali, Chad, Nsemi, Djoho(jo-ho) which is my nephew's name, Sankara and Lodja(my former crazy hometown....

For girls: Zulia(i know Abs still beleives that it was her who got to hear of the name first, but i KNOW that iheard it first.....its the name of one of the Cuban athlete), Akasa, which is my older sister's name, Olenga, Nzinghaand Dimoke.

I am NEVER calling my childern by any Western, Arab or any importedreligiousnames ....colonialism stops with me, its bad enough i have to carry around the silly name thats completely alien to me as an African and now that i know better, my children will carry their natural, righfull names that ties them to Africa!banana.gif

AC9311,

The name Diara seems to be a winner with my one of my cousins. She doesn't use the Blacknet, but she just happended to look at the "Baby names" section when I was playing on it. She like the name sio much that she named her first son( she has two daughters before him)" that name. She's even happier to know that it's an authentic African name. Ironically, you said that Diara means a gift. I guess for her her newborn son is a gift because she always wanted to have a son. Now she has one. It's a beautiful name. Unfortunately, she got to the name before I did.

AC9311,

So far with the name, the only questions that are being asked is " where did you get the name from?" because it's to the unusual sounding name at least here in the states( and was also told that they got it form here). I remebered saying that I like the name Dayanara( pronounced die-ya-nar-a).The same cousin named her her seven year old daughter this name. It's a Latino name that she named after the Former Mrs. Universe Dayanara Torres. In general, she seems to love names that start with D's. She has 17 year old daughter who is named Dana. I think that I like the name Diara and Dayanara a whole lot better.

AC9311,

Oops! I forgot, her daughter is not 17 she's 11. I'm thinking about her stepddaughter's age.

i work with a young mixed race person called kayode. he is constantly being bullied and ridiculed because of his name, they call him coyote and howl! after a while he stopped attending my provision cos he was sick of the names.

i called round to his home and spoke to him and his mum to see what could be done, cos i didnt want him to stop attending, as he also has dyspraxia and the football he played helped with his co-ordination.i asked him waht the name means, he didnt know, neither did his mum, so i went away and researched it. i then called him and explained the meaning of his name to him. he went very quiet on the phone, then quickly hurried of as he said he had something important to do. then 2 weeks later i sat my group down and had an issue-based discussion on names and identity.

each young person said their names and what it meant, whether from a language or personally. when it came to kayodes' turn, he stood up and proudly annouced his name, what it meant where it was from and what it meant to him. he then went on to say that coyotes were one of the most intelligent and resourceful species of animal on the planet, and it wouldnt bother him if they called him that.

well, i was bloody gobsmacked, not only had he gone away researched his name again, but alsocoyotes and their habitat, etc. after that session, he attends every week, nobody calls him 'coyote'anymore, and to top it off, he wants to be a vet!what have i started? seriously, true story.

kayode (ka-yo-deh/masculine)='he brought joy/god has brought joy'. from the ife yoruba spiritual centre, family of akire or keepers of the shrine of life.

niceone.gifpeace

CeeCee,

This is the book that we used. We bought at a black bookstore, they hadso many to choose from at the time. This was the one that had several names that we liked.

Angel- i,

You have completely changed that boys self esteem. I can just imagine how proud of him you and his mother are.

definatley!...if only all kids i work with were that receptive! if im blessed, my future baby names are:

aaliyah - the name is beautiful and so was the namesake!

acion - made this one up watching american idol...ace young...aci-on?geddit?

aya - one of my friends daugthers' names, means a verse or chapter from the qu'ran.beautiful!

niceone.gifpeace

AC9311,

Hmmmm, I must find that book! Thanks a bunch!