Customer Reviews

Proud Heritage: 11001 Names for Your African-American Baby

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I was very disappointed to find that out of 11,001 names for African-American children, there weren't many I found that were African-American based. Though just about every name in the book was a name of at least one African-American, many had European roots. The names I found most interesting (under the new name section) had no meanings and naming my child with a name that has known meaning to me is very important.

It's also a little outdated. Khalid Muhammad is listed as a national representative of the Nation of Islam and anyone who's up on current events knows that that fact is no longer true.

When I purchased this book, I expected to read about thousands of African names for geared towards African-American. Instead, the book focused more on European names for African-Americans. The small section, in the back of the book, they had about African names did not insist you in how to pronounce the names. The majority of the names did not tell you the orgin in which the names were derive. If I had a chance to purchase this book all over again, I would NOT waste my time!

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!

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!

This book had many Afriacn America names, I was pleased that my own childrens unusual names were in there also, will be passing this book on to family member who become pregnant.

"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!