‘The Obama Effect’ on the names of African American babies
Barack Obama’s election to the US Presidency didn’t just change history.According to new research in the journal Ethnic and Racial Studies , collective pride in his achievement also changed how African Americans named their babies, with many post-2008 parents opting for more ethnic-sounding names. As Tracy N. Anderson-Clark and Raymond J. Green of Texas A&M University explain, names matter. They naturally represent ‘culture, family, heritage, and tradition’, but they can also reflect how individuals and groups perceive