Working Paper: NBER ID: w28101
Authors: Trevon Logan; Lisa D Cook; John Parman
Abstract: This paper explores the existence of distinctively Black names in the antebellum era. Building on recent research that documents the existence of a national naming pattern for African American males in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (Cook, Logan and Parman 2014), we analyze three distinct and novel antebellum data sources and uncover three stylized facts. First, the Black names identified by Cook, Logan and Parman using post-Civil War data are common names among Blacks before Emancipation. Second, these same Black names are racially distinctive in the antebellum period. Third, the racial distinctiveness of the names increases from the early 1800s to the time of the Civil War. Taken together, these facts provide support for the claim that Black naming patterns existed in the antebellum era and that racial distinctiveness in naming patterns was an established practice well before Emancipation. These findings further challenge the view that Black names are a product of twentieth century phenomena such as the Civil Rights Movement.
Keywords: Black Names; Antebellum Era; Cultural Development
JEL Codes: J1; N3; Z13
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| distinctively black names identified by Cook, Logan, and Parman (J15) | common among blacks before emancipation (J47) |
| common among blacks before emancipation (J47) | continuity in naming practices (J12) |
| distinctively black names (J15) | racially distinctive in the antebellum period (J15) |
| racially distinctive in the antebellum period (J15) | uncommon among whites (J15) |
| distinctively black names (J15) | increased racial distinctiveness from early 1800s to Civil War (N91) |