Early African American Names

Until recently, scholarly consensus was that 

 did not differ significantly from those of white Americans. Distinctively Black names were thought to have risen from the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, which promoted the use of names with connections to Africa.

 has revealed evidence of racialized names from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They identified 21 distinctly Black male names, among them biblical classics such as Abraham and Moses, and word names including Freeman and Prince.

early African American names currently in the US Top 1000

 include Alonzo, Athena, Daphne, Elijah, Isaiah, Israel, King, Phoebe, and Titus.

 that were disproportionately popular among Black Americans in history include Boston, Jamaica, York, and Africa.

Also included here are common names among enslaved people, many of which were 

classical and had ties to the Bible or mythology

, such as Keziah and Venus, Cassius and Cato.

Early African-American Names, including names used by African Americans from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, such asMoses, Alonzo, Phoebe, and Titus (Page 6)