Proud Heritage: 11001 Names for Your African-American Baby

As an educator and now author, I WANT and NEED excellent resource materials around my, especially names to use in writing. This one, for a change, gives me a much broader background with African-American names not seen before!

"It is through our names that we first place ourselves in the world" --Ralph Waldo Ellison "If you are determined to give your baby son a name that is different and distinctive, consider this: Among his peers, six-month-old James Lewis Lipford may have the most uncommon first name of all." --no source given I especially liked the quotes that are given at the beginning of each section! I think people of different ethnic groups having distinctive names makes things more interesting for everyone. Hearing African names throughout the day might get people to think about race, and examine their attitudes about those who are different rather than just assuming everyone is the same and comes from the same background. African personal names highlight that African Americans have a rich cultural history and legacy. This is important because cultural outlets like schools and the nightly news do not often discuss African culture. It is dissapointing that the newly created names don't include any explanation about their origin or information about others who have had them. A book that picked up where this one left off and did that is: The Complete Guide to African-American Baby Names by Linda Wolfe Keister. I also recommend that one. Overall this is a very good resource!

The names in this book were inspirational to me while my husband and I were looking for just the right name for our son. It was important to us to choose a name that would honor our son's ancestors and older brothers in the black community, but still be unique and true to him. This is a great resource for black parents and I will definitely use it again when our family grows!