My roots go back to West Africa, but my last name is Kirby, which is not an African name.
I picked a name that was a combination of an island name and a very English name. Havana was one choice and Dominico was another, but I liked the combination of Jamaica Kincaid.
My first name is a boy's name. It's Tanner. I've always gone by my middle name but, yeah, my first name is Tanner. And King is my mom's last name. I took my mom's last name since I was 18.
I know that if a team had a derogatory name for African Americans, I would help those who helped extinguish that name. I have quite a few friends who are Native Americans. And even if I didn’t have Native American friends, the name of the team is disrespectful.
They called me Little Milla. He was one of the best in the world, not just in Africa. A lot of us think he did not win the best player in the world award just because he was African. It was an honour to have the name - he was an inspiration.
I was fascinated by the word 'Rudy,' which is connected to the Jamaican term 'rude boy,' which migrated from Jamaica to London. I was also fascinated by that name, because it exists in Persian culture and Iranian culture. There is actually a place called Rudy in Iran, and there's Iranians that I know with the name Rudy.
I can remember, at the start of my career, there were reports of about 100 words here and there, and they would have got your name wrong or the name of the scorer wrong. It just wasn't taken seriously at all.
It messes me up sometimes when I go on stage and people say my name wrong. Say my name wrong with all these different syllables. I've heard everything. My name is easy as 1-2-3. Jer-eh-mih, syllable-wise.
I know of a world that is sunk in shame, Where hearts oft faint and tire; But I know of a Name, a precious Name, That can set that world on fire: Its sound is sweet, its letters flame. I know of a Name, a precious Name, 'Tis Jesus.
That is the way with people ... If they do you wrong, they invent a bad name for you, a good name for their acts and then destroy you in the name of virtue.
I'm first generation American, and my parents were both from Nigeria. And so I always say that I'm literally an African American. So my last name is Famuyiwa, it's different. And so that was a part of my experience from people not being able to pronounce it to not sort of having sort of a shared, common history with a lot of the kids that I was growing up with because my parents were from Africa.
Obama's middle name differs from my last name by only two vowels. Does the McCain-Palin campaign view me as a pariah, too? Do McCain and Palin think there's something wrong with my name?
While I was doing the first season of 'Girl In The City,' a lot of people remembered me through my character name. None of them knew my real name, and my onscreen name, Meera, became my identity.
We have signed an exclusive licensing agreement with a company called TurnerPatterson, another African-American company, and what I thought would be a great vehicle for 'Ebony,' since it is such a strong brand name with tremendous loyalty, is to grow that brand name even more across different areas.
I didn't have much, but I was always happy to share what I did have. It seemed like every African that came to New York City would show up at my apartment door at dinnertime, and I couldn't turn them away. I wasn't much older than any of them, but they started calling me 'Mama Africa' and the name stuck.
The land itself, of course, was careless of its name. It still is. You can call it what you like, fight all the wars you want in its name. Change its name altogether if you like. The land is still unblinking under the African sky. It will absorb white man's blood and the blood of African men, it will absorb blood from slaughtered cattle and the blood from a woman's birthing with equal thirst. It doesn't care.