should we change our names?

starphoenix · (#1 (**permalink**))

i've been thinking, a lot of black people still have their slave surnames. do you think future generations should start making up surnames in order to reassert oneself?

Kunjufu · (#2 (**permalink**))

I definately think we should reclaim our original names..but I do not think we should resort to 'making up names' to achieve this that for me would be a mistake....

CINQUE · (#3 (**permalink**))

Think about this Afro Americans are the only people on the face of the earth that I know, (I could be wrong) that carry a foreign last name.

For instance, my name from birth was Omar Cinque Vanputten. Being that I'm Muslim and my religion is Islam I dropped that phuckin' disastrous Dutch slave last name, and kept my middle name Cinque after Joseph Cinque, the slave on the amistad who along with his brothers killed a whole bunch of crackers.

Excuse the rant, yes we should change our names to identify our culture and get rid of the chains of oppression our names represent.

cindy_2 · (#4 (**permalink**))

salaam alaikum broeder omar

ik wist niet dat deze site ook populair was onder de nederlandse (muslims)

greetings

translation:

salaam alaikum brother omar

didnt know this site was popular under dutch (muslim) folks

greetings

starphoenix · (#5 (**permalink**))

cinque, i love dat quote by black panther huey newton. it is so true. and dat is why ppl r afraid to stand up 4 their rights.

CINQUE · (#6 (**permalink**))

Walaikumsalaam cindy_2.

I'm not actually Dutch, the Slave masters who owned my family were. I was born and raised in the Cursed Land-AmeriKKKa.

Nevertheless, that name was passed down to me from generation to generation until I learned the history of the Dutch throughout Slavery. After that I got rid of it to the dismay of my family, but I just couldn't call myself a man and keep that wretched last name.

Now at least my name commands respect when ignorant people hear it, and I also feel proud just to utter my name to other folks as well.

Thank you starphoenix, I respect the Black Panthers tremendously. That's why I have that Avatar. ower

Backatya · (#7 (**permalink**))

No argument from me on this one. Not only don't we have to 'make up names'.....we have a wealth of great names to choose from already....but in our heritage we have have names that have power and meaning.

I just wish I was more 'awake' and more knowledgeableof the names of some of our great ancestors at the time my children were born (I was still too Westernised then) as I would have given them different names to the ones they got.

I tell you Nsinga is a far better name than Maxine anyday.....no offence intended to all the Maxines out there by the way

Respect

sms · (#8 (**permalink**))

Black people have been carrying around these surnames for far too long. I spend almost 10 years (I'm only 23!) deliberating as to whether I should change my surname. I thought if I change it to an African name it will almost be disrespectful to African born people as I a English born woman of Caribbean grand parents has littleconnection with currentAfrica. Any way to get to the point it was simple. All I did was drop the stupid name off and since last week amofficially using my middle name as my surname.(I done this by deed pole)It meant I did not have to go through an elaborate plan of changing my name to something which in effect is totally meaningless to me. My names are now 100% given to me by my mother and family. It means something 'Protected by God' and honestly, I mean honestly I am feeling the difference.

Saida.M · (#9 (**permalink**))

CINQUE wrote:

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Think about this Afro Americans are the only people on the face of the earth that I know, (I could be wrong) that carry a foreign last name.

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You're wrong. What about the Caribbean? confused3

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Starpheonix - we still have slave names period. That is both our first and last names. But we need someone to teach us about what the various African names mean - because I know its deep.

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Until then you and if you got kids, should adopt African names.

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Because, 'In order to walk a thousand miles you have to start with one step at a time'. (Something like that and I think it was Ghandi!)

Masai05 · (#10 (**permalink**))

starphoenix wrote:

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i've been thinking, a lot of black people still have their slave surnames. do you think future generations should start making up surnames in order to reassert oneself?

[line]It all depends really. It would be a very good symbolic thing to do but it is hard to reclaim something you never knew in the first place. Through the Black Studies movement I know a few heads who became Soyinka's, Muhammad's and other names. They grew Locs, had a new name but still did the same crap! From where I stood it didn't seem to make a difference in regards to their lifestyles.

To me the most important change has to be attitude and knowledge. If you change your name and still hold the same slave/colonized mindset you just wasted $80 for the name change (in the USA). I think it is important to best represent what it is you intend to convey through a change in lifestyle and more. Once you have mastered that then the name change will make more sense.

@ Cinque:

Ever been to the Caribbean? All over the world Blacks have European surnames. Whether it be Spanish, Dutch, Arab, Portuguese or french, these all represent white Names!

CINQUE · (#11 (**permalink**))

Athaba, Masai05, when I say AfroAmericans I'm referring to my people's in the caribbean too. See this is what I'm saying, a lot of us are still caught up in this separation bullshit. Maybe I should've specified by saying Blacks' in the caribbean, to make myself clear, Anyway I'm referring to my black folks' in the caribbean nations too. Hope this clears it up.

Toloane · (#12 (**permalink**))

what's in a name? originally, when they were invented they merly served as linguistic identification, but later evolved to indentify not only the person, but the lineage, ie. where you come from. in Africa what i know of names is they not only tell you off from the rest, they also include your character, your family line (ancestry) and the present family line (middle name). in this light, the firstname James simply identifies you as James, whereas the surname MacDonald traces your ancestry back to MacDonald, and if it was a slave master relationship then in effect you are just that... his property still, identified as such in the present.

a name like James Chester MacDonald would mean "James son of Chester of the MacDonald family line".

what should be remembered is Africans have a more evolved system of naming than other tribes around the globe. Europeans for example only got their naming system from the Romans, hence the more or less inchoate, arbitrary method of naming. they do not for example attach relational meaning to a middle name. it's more or less either a fashin thing, or is used because it rhymes, and the first name usually bears no resemblance to the prognosed character of the person born.

this is my African understanding of the naming system. there is more to it, more i know than i would put down here. unfortunately many continentalAfrican people are adopting the more degenerate western system of doing things, and not thinking twice before namingn their children.

cindy_2 · (#13 (**permalink**))

CINQUE wrote:

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Walaikumsalaam cindy_2.

I'm not actually Dutch, the Slave masters who owned my family were. I was born and raised in the Cursed Land-AmeriKKKa.

Nevertheless, that name was passed down to me from generation to generation until I learned the history of the Dutch throughout Slavery. After that I got rid of it to the dismay of my family, but I just couldn't call myself a man and keep that wretched last name."

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Now at least my name commands respect when ignorant people hear it, and I also feel proud just to utter my name to other folks as well."

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I agree