Shout-out to the black barista at this Orlando mall whose nametag was written in chalk and smudged so I couldn't read her name. She's, like, the only barista outside of the ones at the Starbucks I frequent in my town that actually managed to get my name right. Usually the conversation goes something like this:
"What's your name?"
"Adrian."
"Henry? Andrean? Andrew? Angelus? Anjean?"
It's not THAT hard people. My name's on my goddamn card!
Would I be wrong in assuming "black names" put a lot more emphasis on attractive, cohesive phonetics over the actual spelling? I've got pretty high-level synesthesia which doesn't help, but my bf's name is Juwan, for example. He goes by Jake for convenience's sake. Now, Jake's a little more attractive (imo) from a spelling standpoint, but Juwan is an awesome name from a phonetic standpoint. Two syllables, moderate-level sharpness, short, sweet and to the point.
It's why I've never really had a problem with or shit on names like Shaniqua or Tyischa. They usually sound a million times better than "safe" comparative names like Shannon or Tyler.
