From Hello Beautiful

In October 1984, my 16-year-old mother, Charmaine realized she was pregnant. A lot of decisions as a mom would have to be made on my behalf, and the first would be my name. She thought about Taylor for a bit, but that lost momentum. She dug the name Adrien because a woman named Adrien Arpel made a facial cream she loved, so she decided to go with that. On June 17th, three weeks past my original due date, doctors induced Charmaine. Eight or nine hours later, I was born.

Moments before the birth certificate and pen were in her hand, a family friend came to see Charmaine and I, and made a suggestion that drastically changed my life,“Why don’t you name her Shenequa?”

Read more at HelloBeautiful.com.

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Naming your child is an important task that shouldn’t be taken lightly. This is the name people will call your little bundle for the rest of his or her life…Unless it’s so terrible that they have to change it– like in the case of 9 year old New Zealand girl named Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii. (Don’t worry the court ordered that she become a ward of the state until she could legally change it.)

Most people, black people included, take the power to determine what a child will be called very seriously. Black people, always known for setting trends, have a legacy of naming their children something unique (if not the word “Unique” itself). There’s history behind the tradition though. In the 1960s, black parents were deciding to do away with the traditional, European names in favor of celebrating African tradition or creating and blending their own new sounds.

So while we know the history behind such “interesting” names, there are still some that just give us pause. Check out this list of names that just do way too much and not enough at the same time.