The Name Game

Being pregnant, I realize that in 23 or so weeks, my husband and I will be responsible for naming our child. This is big. This is something that will affect their future in infinite ways. It will effect how others view my child as well as how they view themselves. Therefore, I pay super-close attention to people's names; I read baby-name books, visit baby-name websites, read all the credits from movies, etc.

Working in a school, I have access to hundreds and hundreds of names. Great resource, right? Actually, no. 99.8% of our student population is black, so the name pool available to me is not typical of our society. It is typical of the African-American society, of which I am not part.

Don't get me wrong, some names of my students are "typical" American names, such as Leslie, Matthew, Lee, Daniel, and Lauren. These are, in fact, a little too mainstream for me. I'm trying to go for something a little less run-of-the-mill.

There are the names at the other end of the spectrum: names that are typically only African-American, like DeAngelo, Antoine, Terell, Jamel, Aquinetta, Lashawna, etc. I have to rule these out, too. Not that they're terrible names, but I am having a white baby after all.

Then there are names that crack me up. It's not that they are ugly names or anything, but they are NOUNS and sound funny as names to me. These are names that I have heard this year alone. Some are in my class, some are just in my school: Mystery, Destiny, Heaven, Mahogany, and Symphony.

A couple of months ago, this was an announcement on our P.A. system. I swear: "Mystery and Destiny, please report to the main office." I couldn't help but laugh out loud. I just sounded so...existential.

Aaaand There It Is

As I have previously mentioned, my class is comprised of almost all African-American students. Specifically, I have 18 black kids and 1 white kid. Everyone pretty much gets along. Nobody alienates the white student based on the fact that she's white. However, there are some major differences that pop up every once in a while that really emphasize the difference between black culture and white culture.

The other day a small group of kids, including the white student, was playing a game. The task on this particular turn was to think of a famous person whose name begins with "R." The white student shouted out "Ray Romano!" The rest of the kids were like, "Who's that?" Even after explaining who he was, the other kids decided that she didn't get the point since none of them knew who he was and therefore couldn't be famous. Another student got to answer then.

"Ray Charles!" one of them shouted.

"Who's that?" asked my white student. ( :