Slave Names*
coselmed
1,114 Posts
I came across this article in the NYTimes yesterday; "for the first time, two Hispanic surnames ??? Garcia and Rodriguez ??? are among the top 10 most common in the nation, and Martinez nearly edged out Wilson for 10th place."What I found even more interesting was the following:"The durability of some of the most common names in American history may also have been perpetuated because slaves either adopted or retained the surnames of their owners. About one in five Smiths are black, as are about one in three Johnsons, Browns, and Joneses and nearly half the people named Williams.[/b] The Census Bureau???s analysis found that some surnames were especially associated with race and ethnicity. More than 96 percent of Yoders, Kruegers, Muellers, Kochs, Schwartzes, Schmitts and Novaks were white. Nearly 90 percent of the Washingtons were black, as were 75 percent of the Jeffersons, 66 percent of the Bookers, 54 percent of the Banks and 53 percent of the Mosleys. [/b]"While none of this was particularly shocking, it did suddenly occur to me that I have never actually met a white person with the last name Washington, Jefferson, Johnson, or Brown...In fact, I usually think of "White" as being a surname more commonly associated with black Americans. It reminded me of an old friend whose last name was "Jenkins;" she told me that she used her middle name "Lakesha" when she "wanted people to know she was black..." I asked her why she didn't think that "Jenkins" was enough of a giveaway?*Disclosure: I am a black American who "inherited" a British surname.
Comments
you are showing yourself to be from outside the Midwest, where there are an abundance of (white) Browns, Whites, Jeffersons, Washingtons, Jenkins, even some white Bookers.
I did a four-year stint in North Dakota, but a lot of the surnames are of the Nordic variety...That, coupled with my family being from Jaw-Juh/South Carolina, probably skews my views a bit!
I refuse to believe you didn't meet any white Johnsons in North Dakot-y. Not everyone is named Knudsen (although a lot of them are!). Our names probably all started to sound the same!
My last name is Walker and I met some Caucasoid Walkers in college.
I'm pretty sure Ironfeet is a slave name....s'up IJ.
Most Jewish people have white skin, and both of these surnames are totally heebed out, so it's no surprise that there aren't a bunch of asian, hispanic, native american, black, or pacific islander Novaks getting their menorahs ready right now.
Good work census bureau.
There aren't many white people with these last names in this area because most white people are more recent immigrants of european ethnicity, so if you do meet someone with an anglo name they might have a visa/green card and be an import from the UK.
But for any white person with an anglo name here you get downpoured with piles and piles of solicitation from the 'port fairy,
and you get 3x's the advertisements in general too.
It blows my mind to think no matter what people say or believe, no one will ever be able to stop this mail! It's a conspiracy that's taken on a life of its own.
I know that there are Jewish people without white skin (Argentina, Ethiopia, and India but I'm hard-pressed to conjure up any other notable non Euro-American Jewish populations) but I'm pretty sure that most Jewish people have white skin. Am I overlooking something?
China
b/w
:5pager:
Chew is a common Chinese surname...it is not short for Chinese Jew.
Always felt best not to talk about how this situation may have occurred.
Ray Chew & The Crew - Apollo Theatre House Band..
Jew.
(we speculate that had something to do with an overzealous Ellis Island speller changing it from Joo, but still...pretty funny.)
But Novaks however is Ukranian, I suppose jewish-ukranian and there are plenty of ash knazi (no clue of sp) there who have a darker complexion. I have a safartic(also no clue of sp) friend who everyone mistakes for hispanic. But he's real big and more resembles Michael Strahan of the NY Giants than anybody else, lol.
Religious denomination aside, a lot of people in that whole region are of Iranian, Serbian, and historical Persian descent and have dark arabesque features. There is also the whole cigany population there too who's history is sorta off the books, but its probably from those regions as well. Not that any of these people are black, but they don't consider themselves essentially white at all, I don't think you can assume everyone is either one or the other and I don't think thats what the survey is trying to convey, it's more like you could only guess what that small percentage is cause all somebodys gotta do is make a baby!
I don't see Jewish people with white skin, and white people as the same thing, but that's my take on it. I would just assume that Eastern european Jews (that's my lineage) are lumped in with white skin people, not otherwise. Saffardim are both Hispanic and Jewish. They're basically the remnants of the Spanish inquisition.