Like slang, some personal names that are predominately used by African Americans will die a sudden death. Others will linger for a while and then fade away, and others will live long and prosper.

And "standard is as standard does" [to paraphrase a saying]. Most African Americans males and [even] females when I was growing up had what people call "regular" names.

But with African Americans there could be hidden significances to some of these names...for instance the name John Henry is a double first name or a first and middle name that refers to the legendary steel driving man. "Marcus" often refers to activist Marcus Garvey and "Malcolm" refers to "Malcolm X".

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I believe that some names used by African Americans are becoming standard with us and may already have passed over to non-African Americans. If not now, eventually-and what usually happens when this occurs is that books on names will [conveniently] forget those names African American origin.

Here's a few examples of the "contemporary" names and nicknames that are becoming standard among African Americans are:

Keisha, a female name [pronounced KEE-shah] variant forms: Kesha; Keshia; Keesha, Kisha,Keysha; Keshyah; LaKeisha; etc etc etc}; This name has a Hebrew origin "Ketzia" which is pronounced different than Keisha; [meaning of Ketzia "sweet smelling spice"; and/or a Central African origin "Nkisa" [favorite one]

Deshawn, a male name {pronounced DAY-shon}-for all Shawn, Shon, Shaun names I use the meaning for "John" ["gracious gift of God" or "God is Gracious"]' The De prefix has no meaning...Very very common nickname [for alot of De names Day Day"; although note that "Deon" is pronounced DEE-on and not DAY-on].

"Juwan", a male name [pronounced JEW-wahn", is another "John" name that was borrowed consciously or unconsciously from the Spanish "Juan". This name is becoming very common in my area {Pittsburgh, PA]- I would give this name the same meaning as John.

Dre, male nickname for Andre, Dre is pronounced DRAY.
meaning from teh Greek male name "Andrew" [strong and manly]   

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I'm not sure if any of these names have crossed over to non-African Americans. Because of the popularity of the nickname "Dre" among Hip-Hop fans [given its use by rappers, I can only think of Dr. Dre and others.] I would expect that of those examples I gave "Dre" is the most likely to cross over-and if it does I predict it will still be used by African Americans.

And why did African Americans start using "Andre" instead of "Andrew"? I think French names have more appeal for us than British names because the French names are seen as "different" in an exotic way, more exciting, and less square [no disrespect intended]. "Dre" is a logical clip of the name "Andre". But there's more to this story-IMO, the name "Andy" is too negatively linked to "Raggedy Ann and Andy" and especially-that stereotypical [but some say funny]radio and TV show "Amos and Andy" [again no disrespect intended].

Henceforth the name "Andy" was dropped like a hot potato...The name "Amos" was not given that often and seems not to have the same negative connotations as "Andy"...

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Okay...I'mma stop...As you see I could go on and on and on-I really love this topic!