The naming of a child

So I have been deliberating for a long time in what to call my online magazine and a suggestion that was close to being the official name lost out based on the fact that has already been taken (damn). The naming of any entity is obviously important as this is what will affectively define it. You wouldn’t name a cookery book for 40 year old housewives Gangsta Grillz, because quite frankly that would not go down so well. Perception of your product is very important to your demographic and it literally makes you or breaks you.

This made me think about the naming of a child and what are the implications the name has on the child as he/she grows older. This sadly made me think about being not only being black, but African and how having an African name can influence my life.

I have never (well not to my knowledge at least) been a victim of racial discrimination based on my ethnicity. Every contest I have been involved in has been fair or even biased in my favour. It is not unusual however, to hear of people who have been discriminated against based on their names. In the case of France whereby you were most likely to be turned down if you had a name of ethnic origin...

It does beg the question whether, for the sake of conformity to name a child a typical English/German/Spanish/etc name. This would at least help to overcome the first barrier of racial profiling, i.e. CV won’t automatically be thrown in the bin at glancing at Babafemi Adeyinka. What then happens when Babafemi, gets called for the interview? Even though the company where impressed with his CV, the racist perceptions held by the company would still stand and unless he really does performs  outstandingly well, would loss the job to his white counterpart.  

All in all, naming your child is a very personal choice and factors such as how society views the name or your ethnic group should not really matter. We unfortunately cannot eradicate racist views of some people but at least ensure that our children are brought up right to help debunk the stereotypical myths of our ethnic groups.