The Complete Guide to African-American Baby Names

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Summary: A celebration of people of African descent!
Review: Every name in The Complete Guide to African-American Baby Names celebrates the name of a real person of African descent. It also celebrates the traditions, creativity, spirituality, families, history, and lives behind those names. To write this book, I went to the heart of the African-American community to gather names. I questioned individuals about their own names. I asked them to provide names of African-American role models. In addition, I searched history books, popular magazines, and newspapers for names of famous and historical people in the black community. I researched and crafted their brief biographies with great care and with respect for the roles they have played in making America the country that it is today.

The result of this two-year effort is a book unlike any other African-American baby names book on the market. Organized in an easy-to-use alphabetical listing, by female and male names, The Complete Guide to African-American Baby Names celebrates the diversity and the unity of the black community by listing together all types of names-traditional American, creative, African, and Muslim. It does not relegate the creative names and African names to separate lists with little information about meaning or origin.

The Complete Guide to African-American Baby Names also celebrates the importance and sacred quality of each person's name. It recognizes that each name becomes a symbol of "being" after it is attached to a living person; it becomes an instrument for honoring the life behind the name. Even more, this book recognizes that each African-American name is a vehicle for exploring and understanding American history and African heritage, because each name is a medium for expressing the culture that passes down from one generation to the next.

Although written with the prospective parent in mind, The Complete Guide to African-American Baby Names attracts readers beyond that audience. People with an interest in names enjoy the diversity of names and the wealth of information about meanings. Those who want a quick read of African-American biography find the book a good starting point for discovering the breadth of contribution made by the black community over the course of American history. Students find the book a good place to begin to explore possibilities for writing assignments about great African Americans. Teachers turn the pages in search of meaningful figures to present in history and literature classes. Sports fans cheer for familiar names from sports history and also discover lesser-known heroes and heroines.

To keep the book alive and to open the pages to an ever-widening circle of people of African descent, I included a questionnaire in the book for readers to copy and fill out.

Rating:
Summary: Book Defies Naming
Review: This book is a beautiful creation, not a mere listing.I think a good subtitle for it would have been: "Magic words and personal histories." Ms. Keister's opus manages to be both scholarly and fun, worth reading on its own whether or not you have a new baby to name. I enjoyed getting the chance to look over the author's shoulder as she recalls conceiving, (extensively) researching and writing the book. Her subjects (every name represents an actual individual) come alive for me. I particularly enjoyed the bits of history and sociology in the "Did You Know" shorts sprinkled throughout the book. The author's perfectionism and nice style add to the pleasantness of the journey through time and language. Who's Minnie Lee Jones, and why did so many African Americans of a certain era name their children Moses? How did the Tiger get his nickname? Make sure you "read the book and find out." It's a little paperback with a deceptively simple cover, full of nice surprises. I wish I'd written it. Cathie O. Schoultz

Rating:
Summary: Book Defies Naming
Review: This book is a beautiful creation, not a mere listing.I think a good subtitle for it would have been: "Magic words and personal histories." Ms. Keister's opus manages to be both scholarly and fun, worth reading on its own whether or not you have a new baby to name. I enjoyed getting the chance to look over the author's shoulder as she recalls conceiving, (extensively) researching and writing the book. Her subjects (every name represents an actual individual) come alive for me. I particularly enjoyed the bits of history and sociology in the "Did You Know" shorts sprinkled throughout the book. The author's perfectionism and nice style add to the pleasantness of the journey through time and language. Who's Minnie Lee Jones, and why did so many African Americans of a certain era name their children Moses? How did the Tiger get his nickname? Make sure you "read the book and find out." It's a little paperback with a deceptively simple cover, full of nice surprises. I wish I'd written it. Cathie O. Schoultz

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Summary: A find! Scholarship makes it better than other name books
Review: This book is a find! Most name books read like the yellow pages but The Complete Guide to African-American Baby Names gives you a grounding in the name, its history, its African roots. There are lots of small "featurettes" on the background of some famous people and their names.Keister has done her research. A serious fun book!

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Summary: An inspiring, thorough name guide
Review: This is the best book of African American names I found, after reviewing quite a few. Lots of the others limit themselves to African names, and while I can see their usefulness I was also interested in unusual, created names. This book is unique because it includes only the names of actual African Americans who filled out questionnaires in person or on the internet. It includes unusual, unique, and created names alongside traditional African and European names, with a definition and country of origin listed for every name from Swahili to Scottish. There are also lots of boxes in the text describing historical or famous people who shared the name. Overall I think this is the best Afican American name book out there and I look forward to a second edition incorporating the new names that people are sure to send the author!

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Summary: A lovely personal history of names
Review: This unique book is best appreciated as an informal cultural history rather than a what-to-name-your-baby guide. Each name in the book is linked to at least one real individual, giving the book a personal "oral history" feeling. As a practical name guide...well, the author is a bit too loving and celebretory toward her subjects to serve as a guide. She's hesitant to categorize anything, and a little over-eager to find African origins for invented names. (Come on, not *everything* is a form of Aisha!) But that doesn't detract from the book's core strengths and the warmth that pervades every page. Great for inspirational browsing.

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Summary: Perfect Timing
Review: What a great time for this book. Parents are constantly trying to come up with unique names for their newborns. This is the perfect "baby shower" gift. Like the title says, it's complete and offers some truly different alternatives as well as traditional names to parents-to-be. It is the kind of book that will remain in families and be passed on to their newlywed couples.