(no subject)

[arbus.livejournal.com]

ok so #ghettobabynames is a trending topic on twitter right now, so of course i had to check it out.

some pretty outrageous ones on there, mostly made up, or named after alcohol, but someone posted their cousins name, which is:

Qortni

(pronounced Courtney, of course!)

another one that stuck out was Cashmere

do i even have to ask? ;)

Comments

[sunshinefleur.livejournal.com]

lol, this trending topic amused me because according to my brother and his friends, my "alter ego" (aka when I'm in a bitchy mood) is named Shanequa XD

[sweetest-asylum.livejournal.com]

mine in highschool was shatinka. we had a shanaanaa and a shanequa, too in our group.

[auxoriousrex.livejournal.com]

you know, I'm not a fan of the "unique" name spellings as much as the next guy, but i wont even get into how wtf it is to call it "ghetto baby names".

[janenx01.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.

[kort-ni.livejournal.com]

me three

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

I agree.

[hwar.livejournal.com]

Me too. It's really classist and probably racist too.

[satunian.livejournal.com]

And also, probably true (which is the worst part!)

[cremepuff.livejournal.com]

Qortni is pretty bad, but it doesn't surprise me at all--mostly because I've seen Cori spelled as Qori.

[lizziey.livejournal.com]

*sigh*

A friend of mine named her son Shaqkwon. Yes, I spelled that right. This was bout 14 years ago, though. We call him Kwon. :/

[sweetest-asylum.livejournal.com]

my friend from college named her baby Chrishawn Zane. it irritates me. its like half chris and half sean.

[sphynx1983.livejournal.com]

Someone must have been really drunk to name their child Qortni.

[hwar.livejournal.com]

Seriously. Should have just named her Qwerty.

[sphynx1983.livejournal.com]

I bet that Qwerty will pop up somewhere soon. Ooh that thought is scary.

[adamant-turtle.livejournal.com]

Awww, little Qwerty! *pets affectionately* That's kind of adorable, in a horrific kind of way...

[satunian.livejournal.com]

That seems far too deliberate and thought out to be a case of drunknaming. I'd put my money on stupid. :P

[satunian.livejournal.com]

Don't you just love how some people seem to be crouched and waiting to pounce crying "RACISM" - no where did it say that these people are of a certain ethnic group or economic status and unfortunately I know from much personal experience you do not need to have a certain ethnicity or economic position to be ghetto - or stupid. And these names still are ghetto. And stupid.

I don't think Cashmere is that bad because I've encountered a couple of women named Cashmere/Cashmir/Kashmir (sorry, not sure on how they spelled it) and they were Arabic, older, and not really ghetto. But Qortni is pretty horrendous.

[arbus.livejournal.com]

thanks for this, i was thinking the same thing about some of the responses here. if they went to twitter and saw the responses, they would actually see how most of the tweets are by african americans. not sure how that racism card works then.

[hwar.livejournal.com]

The issue is with the word ghetto. It's not an adjective. It's a problematic term and often used by white people who are trying to stigmatize black American cultural practices (like unique/invented names, for example). You can say it's used to characterize "run-down inner city neighborhoods and things you might find in them" but let's not pretend that ghetto doesn't indicate people of color, and specifically black people. It's almost impossible to separate race and class in this country. That doesn't mean that black people don't use the word ghetto...but I think ghetto is the new N word. It reminds me of how straight people use the word "gay" to describe things that are negative. It's offensive even if it isn't meant as hate speech.

[hwar.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to say, I apologize if I've participated in hijacking your original post. I didn't mean to at all. Just wanted to register my discomfort with the ghetto baby names concept.

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