Washington is a black name in America because Black People were forced to lose their own culture and language and had to adopt English names. They had nothing to fall back on, after being enslaved for so long. Same for those who were enslaved in Spanish and French Colonies, where their identity was taken away from them and replaced with another.
@@spacemanapeinc7202 yes I know I just find it so funny how what we Africans consider foreign names in the west is considered "black names" as if 98% of all blacks don't live in Africa
@@spacemanapeinc7202 I assume the black traders did not give the buyers Duarte Lopez & Israel Gomez their real names. When they bore their children they should have given them west names . I wonder if the black owners also have non black names. Grotesque all around
Washington is still considered a white name or just a plain name. A lot of the Washingtons I've met continue to say it's from europe and don't see it as a ancestral part of our culture, just a result of the formation.
King George I who was born in what would become Germany, encouraged German people to settle in the British American colonies, saying, that since he, a German person, was now the King of England, he felt obliged to do so. He suggested, that they also consider anglicizing their names, if they moved there, but he didn't require it. As a result, I have some ancestors who moved to the New World in the very early 1700's named "Carpenter" who may have a sibling named "Zimmerman", Carpenter being the English version of Zimmerman. Even within the same immediate family, some changed their name, and some didn't. I see tombstones in the same family plot. Some are Carpenter; some are Zimmerman.
And Ritter would sometimes be changed to Knight, and sometimes left alone. So two TV actors of the past, Ted Knight (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Too Close For Comfort) and John Ritter (Three’s Company, Eight Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter) might have been distant cousins!
Many of the names given to slaves like Martha, Mary, Jane, and Jack were also common English names among the colonists. George Washington's wife was named Martha. Speaking of Martha Dandridge Custis, she inherited many slaves upon the death of her husband. George Washington gained control of these slaves upon marrying Martha. That is why he couldn't free them. They were hers.
@@martyal Actually she was alright until Abigail Adams wife of the President John Adams who were both Quakers, kinda said how scary it must be you being here with all of them alone........ Martha was claimed to have said to her and others that she" didn't feel as if her life was safe in their hands." So she freed her husbands slaves before she died (Jan 1801) which was AGAINST his wishes. He didn't want to separate families prematurely. He knew that by allowing them to live" together" and acknowledge them selves as married they would and could still BY LAW be separated. The Washington and Custis enslaved persons were not recognized as families. Not recognized as humans and therefore could be separated at will.
@@brendaparker3107 like he cared so much. He was runnin round wearing a corruption of aboriginals people's tribe name. Washington sources frim Washitaw. This is a complete fraud
Jews didn't typically have last names, until they were allowed to own land in Europe at different times in the 1700's. They were then assigned names, so that they could be identified in order to collect property tax. Do a "Name Explain" on that.
I'm Sephardic Jewish, (kicked out of Spain during Inquisition, family went to Turkey, then USA) our family name was Benforma (son of the form? Son of paperwork?) Then we had to change it again because of both Ataturk and to sound less Jewish because of the fear of Hitler.
@@fighttheevilrobots3417 Interesting. ...I think, that what I'm saying about Jews being assigned last names by the state, so that property taxes could be collected from them, applies more to Ashkenazi Jews, although it may also apply too Sephardic Jews. I don't know? I am aware of Sephardic Jews, and that they are from around Spain, but I know more about the Ashkenazi, since they are more numerous, where I live in the US. I should have been more specific.
The naming "Smith's Mary" is a rather northern german thing. But here it is for differenciation. When a village has a Maria Müller and a Maria Schmidt, then it was common, my grandmother used it oftentimes, to say Müllers Maria or Schmidts Maria. But when In the family Müller is only one adult female, than it is said the "Müllersche". So to speak "the woman of the family Müller".
"Franklin", from Benjamin Franklin, is also a common last name among American black people. Benjamin Franklin was a Founding Father who didn't own slaves and actively opposived slavery. Don't know about now, but Franklin was also popular among Native Americans, when they had autonomy over themselves, so they were considered separate nations to the US and England. People nowadays often forget, that Natives lived along side, if not among the European colonists for a few hundred years, before they were taken over by the Department of Indian Affairs. As part of natural cross cultural exchange which happens when culturally different people live along side one another for so long, many natives adopted European names and vice versa. General Willam Tecumseh Sherman and Chief Franklin from my mother's home town for instance.
@@blenshanegro3260He did own slaves earlier in his life, but he quit owning slaves and actively worked against slavery well before his "Founding Father" stage.
My brother in law is a Franklin. He's descended from one of Ben's mistresses, who also had the surname Franklin, so there is both a direct connection and a tenuous one to good ol' Ben Franklin.
I never associated Washington as a black name but I also never looked it up. I know my last name, Carter, is from "Master Carter's" Plantation in VA smh.
@Robert Hunt Love how you bring up Bill Cosby(not defending him), when we are walking about a white man the owned, sold and raped slaves. Anyways I encourage you to look up Sally Hemmings, and she is only one of the more well known examples.
@Robert Hunt people that dislike Thomas Jefferson due to him being a rapist (slave owner too) most likely dislike bill cosby as well. Like that’s not really a thing. Also he wasn’t let out because they proved his innocence so obviously you don’t know what happened there.
Yep, my friend was one of those. I couldn't figure out why his name was Washington. Turns out his dad's family was from one of those small islands outside of Tokyo.
George Washington's family came from Washington in County Durham/Sunderland. The family home is a tourist attraction which was visited by President Carter in 1976
My family ancestry in Maine goes back to 1630. We have a diary from the 1770s and had a slave named Pompey. Pompey’s Family lived in the attic of the farm house that still stands today and is occupied by a Maine state house representative. The diary states they ate meals in the kitchen or at the table with everyone. After an incident where in oxen‘s back was broken Pompey’s family was “sent”, I assume sold, back to Jamaica. My ancestor later went on to fight in the revolution as a privateer.
Actualy, at least in The Netherlands, pets do officially have last names: the ones of the families who own them. These last names are only used on the documentation of the pet (e.g. the pet's passport), but still.
Yeah thats how it is here in the US. Nobody actually refers to their pets with last names but on documentation they do. I remember when I was little I laughed when I found out my dog had my last name
@@Spongebrain97 Here in the states, a pet dog's last name may also be found on that pet's American Kennel Club registration. My mother had a male Scottish Terrier whose parents were registered as Jensen's MacDuff and Jensen's Annie. She named him Macintosh (because both my dad and I owned Macs at the time), but told me she would have loved to use the "Jensen's" part of the name if she did ever complete the AKC registration process (she never did).
Yup. Typically, in the US, if you see someone today with the last name of a famous founding father and/or early president, there's a good chance he/she is black (definitely not a guarantee of course). I know there are plenty out there, but I've met very few non-blacks who have the last names Franklin, Madison, or Monroe in addition to Washington or Jefferson.
The Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves in the rebellious areas, those slaves in Union Territory had to wait for a Constitutional Amendment. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
Even then, a lot of enslaved people in former Confederate territory weren't technically free to leave just because the president of the Union, which their enslavers didn't even recognize as their leader, said they could. The reality is that many enslaved people in those areas did remain enslaved after Emancipation, at least for a time.
True! In fact, the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery in the whole United States entered into effect on December 6, 1865, almost 4 years after the Emancipation Proclamation banned the practice in rebel-held areas!
Slaves were not freed by the emancipation proclamation, they were freed by the 13th ammendment. The emancipation proclamation just said that the United States would recognize all the slaves held in Confederate territory as free, while slaves held in Union territory such as Maryland would continue to be property.
When I worked at West Point (US Army college) students by the family name 'Lee' was either of Chinese background or a southern white - no other representation! Thanks for another interesting video
The surname Washington, was at one time changed from Wessyngton. There is an excellent history on the Wessyngton Plantation located in Tennessee available on TH-cam. "Wessyngton Plantation, A Family's Journey to Freedom". Over 300 African Americans there took the last name of Washington.
I know I’m late to the black name-dropping party, but: Jackson is Anglo-French in origin, Lucius is Latin, Jerome is Greco-Roman, and Rashad is Arabic.
People start saying that a better title could do. But if the common characteristic of the people with this name are their skin color, how is the title misleading?
Of course you end the video the Chris Jackson who played George Washington in the Broadway play Hamilton. Oddly enough, Jackson is also a very popular black name.
My family adopted a pure white cat in the mid 1970's, when a particular very popular mini-series was on TV. My mother named the cat Kizzy. I never realized how irreverent this name was until many years later when I read the book on which the TV movie was based.
Honestly, Washington relationship with slavery wasn’t that complicated. The hypocrisy of being pro-freedom while maintaining slavery wasn’t uncommon and was even mentioned when establishing the Declaration of Independence. Feeling guilty for forcing people into servitude doesn’t make a complex relationship. If anything, it shows how much the founding fathers depended on slave work to set the infrastructure of the country they were trying to establish.
In feudal Europe, most people didn't have last names. Only the oldest boy in a family could carry on a family name. Most serfs got the last name of their landlord, much like later black slaves in the US got the last name of their masters.
Usually I've read that many medieval and renaissance folks had their hometown as their "last name". Da Vinci for example means "from Vinci" IIRC. Some of these names survive to this day. It wouldn't surprise me if some freed slaves did this as well.
@@thunderbird1921 That may have happened some, but most former slaves in the US had the last name of their masters. That's just a fact. I'm afraid, that the book referenced in the video is misleading at best. Slavery itself is bad enough. To exaggerate it, by making extreme aspects of it seem common, only make it seem surreal. As a result, people will tend to think, that it can't happen again in the United States, so rather than remaining vigilant, they'll put down their guard, and it'll happen again.
@@thunderbird1921 In the case of DaVinci, he did not inherit his biological father’s last name because he was illegitimate, so he was referred to as “from Vinci.”
The last handful of NE videos have had very low audio. I'm having to put my laptop volume at 100 and using an extension to increase the volume further in order to hear his narration.
@@DrewSprague1218 im on my tablet and already at max volume and can barely hear him lol. Been having a similar issue with Simon Whistler on some of his channels recently
What makes a name "back" or "white"? If I said the name Caryn Elaine Johnson, probably the last person you would picture is Whoopi Goldberg, thou that is her given name.
I wouldn't of thought specificly of her but that names does "feel" black based of naming conventions I'm used to seeing and being around, though I couldn't explain why
I really dig this channel. I got a name question you may or may not want to touch but it’s something that has been on my mind a lot lately. That is. When a celebrity or “famous” person has a stage name, and that persona or character “dies” in “real” life, is the actual person deceased as well. A bit conspiratorial some might say, but Prince became a symbol bc he didn’t own the rights to his stage name.(rough explanation) and I just can’t see a 85 year old man calling himself 50cent or Shaggy. Maybe Sting? It’s better than Gordon but I hope my question is clear. What happens to the person when the character no longer exists? Or are they just one and the same? JayZ have checks written out to Jigga? Or JayZ for that matter? I seriously doubt it. If someone or something else owns the rights to your persona, and they decide it’s time to shelf that character…? Apologies in advance if this has already been discussed in a previous video.
@@muriyyahbeard5137 Huh? Calm down. Did you really infer that from my comment? Stop stretching. If anything, you’re a prime example of the point I was making. Plus, it was pretty obvious my comment was pure MACRO aggression. 🥁
The Washington in County Durham, where George's forebears are from, is thought to be derived from the Old English personal name Hwaesa, which means 'wheat sheaf'. Scandinavian names are very thin on the ground in this part of northern England - though of course the Angles, who settled there after the Romans left, originally came from Angeln in modern Schleswig so the names could well have had a common root.
My great granny’s maiden name was “Hamilton.” She passed in the early 1990s. He father was born in 1865 in Alabama and someone who was a member of the Hamilton family that owned his mother, was his father. Great granny was born in 1900 when her father was around 35 yo. She had “stories” about how they were related to the white Hamilton family in the town where she was from. I am not related to any AA folks with the surname “Washington,” but I have met tons of them! Ditto for the surname “Franklin.”
eh, most of the criticism i’ve seen in the comments has been extremely rational and well-explained. maybe it’s just you who’s triggered by seeing people voice opinions that make you uncomfortable…?
There's a lot more about that study about names and hiring practices, such as not taking into account many other studies on names and memory, which puts it in a different light than the conclusions people come to based on the study's data.
ING in place names means followers off or sons off. ING is supposed to be the son of mannaz in Anglo Saxon mythology. The place name Orpington means the settlement of the followers or the sons of Orpa
I Typed In : What Is The Organ Of The Sir Name Washington Sooooo, Here I Am…💁🏽♀️ My Grandfather & Grandmother’s Last Name’s Were Both Washington (Tho They Weren’t Related)… I Never Dropped My Families Last Washington So I Decided To Do A Deeper Dig Into Just Where Did The Originate Of The Name Come From… And Quite Honestly Gorge Washington Was The Only White Person I’ve Ever Known With The Washington Last Name… My Family Being From The South It’s Over 100 Of Us At Any Given Time At The Family Reunion… You Did A Great Job 👏 Wonderful Video Thank You… Kem,
5:39 all slaves were freed by the 14th Amendment. The Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves in Confederate territories, allowing them to join the Union army.
Patrick: So don't asking me are for are there any Washingtons alive, because I just answered that one. His half and full siblings and their descendants: Are we a joke to you?
You never heard of the war of Jenkins ear? He was Welsh pirate captain who pirated Spanish ships. His ear was cut off and it caused a war in 1739. So yeah very British name.
@@marceloorellana5726 no. I haven’t heard of that, and I also said I’ve never known. For me to know this Jenkins, I’d have to be older than train smoke.
@@richw.6296 Well he had descendants. And when you say you don't know it doesn't imply knowing someone personally. It just means generally you've never heard, read or know of the existence of the name said. If you study history you'll know more and won't make blank statements like that. Also some grammar classes. Good luck buddy. Have a great day. 👍
@@marceloorellana5726 it’s all semantics, but people usually say “know of” when referring to having knowledge of, but no actual familiarity and relationship to a person or subject. Furthermore, if you never make mistakes, then you are free to go around correcting people. Otherwise, keep it to yourself.
@@richw.6296 I never make mistakes. Ever. So it's my duty to correct you. Get your act together bro. Don't make it a habit. And people don't say that. You say that. Just admit you made a dumb comment because you don't read and are ignorant to history and we'll forgive you. Have an awesome day bro.
Patrick sounds really sick in this video. I'm sorry for a previous comment complimenting weight loss in a live action segment. He really might have something awful.
1:20 as a non american it really confused me when I was a kid that Washington DC wasn't in the State of Washington. I think this confusion must be as common as thinking of New York City as the capital of the New York State
Jews didn't typically have last names, until they were allowed to own land in Europe at different times in the 1700's. They were then assigned names, so that they could be identified in order to collect property tax. Prior to being allowed to own land, if for some reason a government needed a last name for a Jewish person, they would list it as a generic "Israel". Some European Jews prior to being allowed to own land did have the last names of "Cohen" and "Levi", and those had something to do with being a religious official, such as a rabbi, but I can't remember the specifics of that? It's why many Jews have Slavic or German sounding last names nowadays, because they were assigned to their families by Central and Eastern European governments during the mid to late 1700's. Do a "Name Explain" on that.
This video's suggestion that GW was considered a "good slave-owner" amongst newly freed slaves and that's why many chose to adopt Washington as their last name is highly questionable and not supported at all by any evidence presented here. It's a lot more likely that they were just eager to assimilate and present themselves as proud and patriotic American citizens and figured that taking the name of a famous founding father like Washington or Jefferson was a good way to do that. But there's no evidence that America's slave-owning founding fathers were ever widely admired by African-Americans for how well they treated their slaves (an inherent contradiction in itself), and the concept of the good slave-owner is a myth invented by Confederate lost-causers and popularized in books and movies like Gone With the Wind. If you're going to talk about the history of slavery in America, you need to do better than this. I don't think Name Explain is racist or meant any harm, but these myths and misconceptions are harmful whether intentional or not.
You gone be shook when you realize that the USA actually received a small percentage of enslaved Africans. Most went to Portugal, Spain, France, England, and South America ans the Caribbean
There is another explanation for names like Nero, Duke, Queen(ie) (little queen) and so on. For instance often they would have been commonly children of slave masters. Queenie, would have been likely treated like a little queen among there slaves. Yes, there was heirarchy. And this (special treatment) goes also into surnames also... No Lincoln But Abrams, yes. Otherwise, some names you would be shocked are common Black names in the US are those such as Jenkins, Williams, Jones etc.
A small error. The Emancipation Proclamation did not free all slaves in the US - it "freed" slaves in the rebelling states. The 13th amendment (along with the 14th and 15th) actually freed slaves in the US and granted (or at least attempted to) give them rights.
I mean most slaves took the last name of their owners so last names like Washington, Jefferson, Ferguson make sense to be common among black people. Also, the odd fact that some people can trace their ancestry to people like Thomas Jefferson for obvious reasons.
It's not that surprised the slave owners would sometimes give 'unique' names to those whom they owned, these are the same people who (at least by the Georgian Era) often renamed the non family facing servants (e.g. housemaids, footmen etc) in their household
but wouldn’t u also say whitest in reference to a white people? not trying to start anything just genuinely saying. i don’t think he had any ill intentions
@@weejoejimmy9395 No you would not. You would say the same thing that already mentioned, "the most common or most prevalent name among..." The phrasing is not natural, and Patrick is a speaker of English.
Washington never had any biological descendants at all. He raised his stepchildren and was only prevented from formally adopting them by archaic laws of inheritance. He did formally adopt two of his step-grandchildren. And as we all know, he adopted Lafayette in spirit. The answer to this one is pretty easy: After emancipation, it was common for ex-slaves to take the surnames of founding fathers, as they were symbols of liberty. The more readily associated with liberty a founder was, the more ex-slaves took his name. This is how Washington, Jefferson and Franklin are now more common among black Americans than white Americans. What likely helped in Washington's case was that he was the only founding father to actually follow through with freeing any slaves he held, which he did in his will due to Virginia law preventing him from releasing them outright. The prevalence of these names among black Americans is part of the reason Lin Manuel Miranda cast black actors as Washington and Jefferson in his Broadway smash hit musical, Hamilton. He wanted to reach youth, especially minority youth, with this tale from American history, and make these kids understand that this is their history too. The best way to do that was to help them picture themselves in the founders' place. And that he did by putting men with the skin color the kids encountered with the names Washington and Jefferson in every day life on the stage.
If there's any black Washingtons watching this video I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences with the name.
I think you should watch some black centric TH-cam channels before you do another video about black people. Honestly just delete this
Personally, I think a better title would have been: "How/Why Black Americans share Anglo-Irish surnames".
@@PRDreams the whole video is pretty racist. Like he couldn’t colab with a black TH-camr?
@@PRDreams same, I’m gonna give him a few hours but I’m leaving too if it stays up
The title or thumbnail is not racist.
It’s weird how the Irish name of Tyrone is often considered a stereotypical black-American name.
Very funny. County Tyrone isn’t even super famous, it’s just a great name.
I'm not disagreeing that it's Irish, but it has a Roman feel to it
@@EclecticDD - Tyrone is an Anglicised form of the Irish Tír Eoghain.
@@JediSimpson Understood, my point is that people may liken it and like the name for it's Roman emperor vibe. Tiberius , Titus etc
And Antoine is French
Washington In USA : Black name
Washington in Africa: White name
Funny how that works
Washington is a black name in America because Black People were forced to lose their own culture and language and had to adopt English names. They had nothing to fall back on, after being enslaved for so long. Same for those who were enslaved in Spanish and French Colonies, where their identity was taken away from them and replaced with another.
@@spacemanapeinc7202 yes I know I just find it so funny how what we Africans consider foreign names in the west is considered "black names" as if 98% of all blacks don't live in Africa
@@spacemanapeinc7202 I assume the black traders did not give the buyers Duarte Lopez & Israel Gomez their real names. When they bore their children they should have given them west names . I wonder if the black owners also have non black names. Grotesque all around
Washington is still considered a white name or just a plain name. A lot of the Washingtons I've met continue to say it's from europe and don't see it as a ancestral part of our culture, just a result of the formation.
@@lapislazulii141 most likely did as their culture and named were still stripped away
King George I who was born in what would become Germany, encouraged German people to settle in the British American colonies, saying, that since he, a German person, was now the King of England, he felt obliged to do so. He suggested, that they also consider anglicizing their names, if they moved there, but he didn't require it. As a result, I have some ancestors who moved to the New World in the very early 1700's named "Carpenter" who may have a sibling named "Zimmerman", Carpenter being the English version of Zimmerman. Even within the same immediate family, some changed their name, and some didn't. I see tombstones in the same family plot. Some are Carpenter; some are Zimmerman.
Same, but I didn’t know the exact history. Baer was changed to Bear.
I have Zimmerman in my name.
And Ritter would sometimes be changed to Knight, and sometimes left alone. So two TV actors of the past, Ted Knight (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Too Close For Comfort) and John Ritter (Three’s Company, Eight Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter) might have been distant cousins!
US amb. to SFRY Warren Zimmerman came to my mind.
Many of the names given to slaves like Martha, Mary, Jane, and Jack were also common English names among the colonists. George Washington's wife was named Martha. Speaking of Martha Dandridge Custis, she inherited many slaves upon the death of her husband. George Washington gained control of these slaves upon marrying Martha. That is why he couldn't free them. They were hers.
@@maximilianolimamoreira5002 the provision was for their freedom after Martha's death
@@ronmaximilian6953 she must have slept with one eye open after hearing that.
@@martyal Actually she was alright until Abigail Adams wife of the President John Adams who were both Quakers, kinda said how scary it must be you being here with all of them alone........ Martha was claimed to have said to her and others that she" didn't feel as if her life was safe in their hands." So she freed her husbands slaves before she died (Jan 1801) which was AGAINST his wishes. He didn't want to separate families prematurely. He knew that by allowing them to live" together" and acknowledge them selves as married they would and could still BY LAW be separated. The Washington and Custis enslaved persons were not recognized as families. Not recognized as humans and therefore could be separated at will.
@@brendaparker3107 huh.
@@brendaparker3107 like he cared so much. He was runnin round wearing a corruption of aboriginals people's tribe name. Washington sources frim Washitaw. This is a complete fraud
Jews didn't typically have last names, until they were allowed to own land in Europe at different times in the 1700's. They were then assigned names, so that they could be identified in order to collect property tax.
Do a "Name Explain" on that.
My Grandpa was Jewish, so my mother has no middle name either
some I think did choose names like in Austria-Hungary.
And a lot of Central European Jewish names are purely plainly descriptive like “you have an apple tree, your name is Apfelbaum”
I'm Sephardic Jewish, (kicked out of Spain during Inquisition, family went to Turkey, then USA) our family name was Benforma (son of the form? Son of paperwork?)
Then we had to change it again because of both Ataturk and to sound less Jewish because of the fear of Hitler.
@@fighttheevilrobots3417 Interesting. ...I think, that what I'm saying about Jews being assigned last names by the state, so that property taxes could be collected from them, applies more to Ashkenazi Jews, although it may also apply too Sephardic Jews. I don't know?
I am aware of Sephardic Jews, and that they are from around Spain, but I know more about the Ashkenazi, since they are more numerous, where I live in the US. I should have been more specific.
Booker T. Washington adopted the surname “Washington” because his stepfathers name was “Washington Ferguson”. It was a way to honor him i guess.
Cool facts.
@@Maw0 thanks!
@@NamesLuigi Thank you!
You guessed wrong. Please check my comment I made about this.
@@JadeAva It wasn't to honor his ancestor? Sorry, I couldn't find your comment, what did it say, you could just copy and paste it here or something.
The naming "Smith's Mary" is a rather northern german thing. But here it is for differenciation. When a village has a Maria Müller and a Maria Schmidt, then it was common, my grandmother used it oftentimes, to say Müllers Maria or Schmidts Maria. But when In the family Müller is only one adult female, than it is said the "Müllersche". So to speak "the woman of the family Müller".
"Franklin", from Benjamin Franklin, is also a common last name among American black people. Benjamin Franklin was a Founding Father who didn't own slaves and actively opposived slavery.
Don't know about now, but Franklin was also popular among Native Americans, when they had autonomy over themselves, so they were considered separate nations to the US and England. People nowadays often forget, that Natives lived along side, if not among the European colonists for a few hundred years, before they were taken over by the Department of Indian Affairs. As part of natural cross cultural exchange which happens when culturally different people live along side one another for so long, many natives adopted European names and vice versa. General Willam Tecumseh Sherman and Chief Franklin from my mother's home town for instance.
Franklin was also highly promiscuous, and likely was highly fond of black women.
opposived
Benjamin Franklin owned slaves mostly as domestics though.
@@blenshanegro3260He did own slaves earlier in his life, but he quit owning slaves and actively worked against slavery well before his "Founding Father" stage.
My brother in law is a Franklin. He's descended from one of Ben's mistresses, who also had the surname Franklin, so there is both a direct connection and a tenuous one to good ol' Ben Franklin.
I never associated Washington as a black name but I also never looked it up. I know my last name, Carter, is from "Master Carter's" Plantation in VA smh.
That sucks
hey master carter
tell me where have you been
Would you ever change it?
Yeah he's trying to soften that. I know my Washington last name is a marker for supremacist trolling of the same reason the name us duke,cesar,etc.
What part of VA?
Me the entire time listening to this: "Washington, Washing ton, 6'8", weighs a fucking ton."
He's coming, he's coming, he's coming.
@ th-cam.com/video/foqOtlrPCN4/w-d-xo.html
I like your content a lot but your sound mix is turned way too low
Makes ads jarring
It's like ASMR levels of low
It's indeed hard to hear. When I play most videos at 30-50% volume, I have trouble hearing these at 100%.
Jefferson too. A lot his descendants are black are still live in the Charlottesville area
@Robert Hunt oohhh I’m afraid he did, old Thomas was doing a lot of screwing, lots of rapes!
@Robert Hunt difference is; Bill never owned a white woman or any white people for that matter. He is a victim of white supremacy
@Robert Hunt Love how you bring up Bill Cosby(not defending him), when we are walking about a white man the owned, sold and raped slaves. Anyways I encourage you to look up Sally Hemmings, and she is only one of the more well known examples.
@@capoislamort100 What Cosby did was wrong, whether racism was a factor or not, there is no excuse for what he did to those women.
@Robert Hunt people that dislike Thomas Jefferson due to him being a rapist (slave owner too) most likely dislike bill cosby as well. Like that’s not really a thing. Also he wasn’t let out because they proved his innocence so obviously you don’t know what happened there.
There is also an island in Japan on which many people are named Washington. Those people immigrated over from the US 200 years ago
Yep, my friend was one of those. I couldn't figure out why his name was Washington. Turns out his dad's family was from one of those small islands outside of Tokyo.
@@naturalthing1 that’s fascinating. I’ve only heard about the place but have never been or met anyone from there.
@@TW-um5hs Yeah, seems like nice Island/Islands to go to, but the only problem is you have to go by a ferry, no airport
what’s it called?
Wow, interesting
George Washington's family came from Washington in County Durham/Sunderland. The family home is a tourist attraction which was visited by President Carter in 1976
My family ancestry in Maine goes back to 1630. We have a diary from the 1770s and had a slave named Pompey. Pompey’s Family lived in the attic of the farm house that still stands today and is occupied by a Maine state house representative. The diary states they ate meals in the kitchen or at the table with everyone. After an incident where in oxen‘s back was broken Pompey’s family was “sent”, I assume sold, back to Jamaica. My ancestor later went on to fight in the revolution as a privateer.
Pompey didn’t go with his family?
You should pay reparations
@@vjs4539 Please, stop this "reparations" thing, man. This was an interesting story and all you could think about was reparations?
@@vjs4539 no
@@innitbruv-lascocomics9910 Haiti had to pay reparations to France for the loss of slavery
Actualy, at least in The Netherlands, pets do officially have last names: the ones of the families who own them. These last names are only used on the documentation of the pet (e.g. the pet's passport), but still.
Yeah thats how it is here in the US. Nobody actually refers to their pets with last names but on documentation they do. I remember when I was little I laughed when I found out my dog had my last name
I read netherlands as neanderthals
@@Spongebrain97 Here in the states, a pet dog's last name may also be found on that pet's American Kennel Club registration. My mother had a male Scottish Terrier whose parents were registered as Jensen's MacDuff and Jensen's Annie. She named him Macintosh (because both my dad and I owned Macs at the time), but told me she would have loved to use the "Jensen's" part of the name if she did ever complete the AKC registration process (she never did).
Yup. Typically, in the US, if you see someone today with the last name of a famous founding father and/or early president, there's a good chance he/she is black (definitely not a guarantee of course). I know there are plenty out there, but I've met very few non-blacks who have the last names Franklin, Madison, or Monroe in addition to Washington or Jefferson.
The Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves in the rebellious areas, those slaves in Union Territory had to wait for a Constitutional Amendment. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
You might want to keep reading on that page to see how slavery is still legal as a form of punishment for a [any] crime
@@NathanDudani I am aware of that, and it is reprehensible.
Also, slaves weren't freed in all the Native American nations until 1866.
Even then, a lot of enslaved people in former Confederate territory weren't technically free to leave just because the president of the Union, which their enslavers didn't even recognize as their leader, said they could. The reality is that many enslaved people in those areas did remain enslaved after Emancipation, at least for a time.
True! In fact, the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery in the whole United States entered into effect on December 6, 1865, almost 4 years after the Emancipation Proclamation banned the practice in rebel-held areas!
Since a lot of slave owners had sexual relations with their female slaves, many of these people's last names are their legitimate surnames.
Dont know if thats better or worse
Which is disturbing when you think about it
@@zainmudassir2964 Unfortunately, THAT is the reality of the United States of America.
No one says it out right but they gain those names via rape, my ancestors last name was gained via rape
Rape. Call it what it was, no sensitive sugarcoating
Slaves were not freed by the emancipation proclamation, they were freed by the 13th ammendment. The emancipation proclamation just said that the United States would recognize all the slaves held in Confederate territory as free, while slaves held in Union territory such as Maryland would continue to be property.
Booker T. took the name "Washington" in honor of an older relative who was named "Washington Ferguson".
Hogan... we commin for you ni**a.
When I worked at West Point (US Army college) students by the family name 'Lee' was either of Chinese background or a southern white - no other representation! Thanks for another interesting video
Lee is alsoa Korean surname
What do you mean we don't give our pets last names? It's our own last name!
I always though *that’s* a very American thing to do
Srsly, they're part of the family, why wouldn't they have the family name?
Precisely!
I gave my cat my last name. I have no idea what other people do.
I look at my pets’ pills and they both have the name Nicolosi on the bottle :)
The surname Washington, was at one time changed from Wessyngton. There is an excellent history on the Wessyngton Plantation located in Tennessee available on TH-cam. "Wessyngton Plantation, A Family's Journey to Freedom". Over 300 African Americans there took the last name of Washington.
I know I’m late to the black name-dropping party, but:
Jackson is Anglo-French in origin, Lucius is Latin, Jerome is Greco-Roman, and Rashad is Arabic.
So?
@@verlyusis9510 What do you mean 'So?', name origins is the content you came for.
I really appreciated this video. Great job!
People start saying that a better title could do. But if the common characteristic of the people with this name are their skin color, how is the title misleading?
@@oyoo3323 what brown?
@@Peeoto Your sobriquet is trolling to the highest level.
@@PHlophe what is sobriquet? Google told me it mean my name 😶. What is wrong with it
@@PHlophe et ton nom a l’aire très francais.
@@Peeoto Jesie Brown
Of course you end the video the Chris Jackson who played George Washington in the Broadway play Hamilton. Oddly enough, Jackson is also a very popular black name.
My family adopted a pure white cat in the mid 1970's, when a particular very popular mini-series was on TV. My mother named the cat Kizzy.
I never realized how irreverent this name was until many years later when I read the book on which the TV movie was based.
do go on...
@@ScaramoucheFandango Kizzy was one of the characters in Roots.
@@erictaylor5462 please continue
George Washington Carver also comes to mind
Booker T Washington, KING BOOKAH!
Kerry Washington
Grover Washington Jr., underrated Jazz artist.
Honestly, Washington relationship with slavery wasn’t that complicated. The hypocrisy of being pro-freedom while maintaining slavery wasn’t uncommon and was even mentioned when establishing the Declaration of Independence. Feeling guilty for forcing people into servitude doesn’t make a complex relationship.
If anything, it shows how much the founding fathers depended on slave work to set the infrastructure of the country they were trying to establish.
Those guys were also cash poor and didn’t have the balls to free their slaves for fear of economic hardship
In feudal Europe, most people didn't have last names. Only the oldest boy in a family could carry on a family name. Most serfs got the last name of their landlord, much like later black slaves in the US got the last name of their masters.
Usually I've read that many medieval and renaissance folks had their hometown as their "last name". Da Vinci for example means "from Vinci" IIRC. Some of these names survive to this day. It wouldn't surprise me if some freed slaves did this as well.
@@thunderbird1921 That may have happened some, but most former slaves in the US had the last name of their masters. That's just a fact. I'm afraid, that the book referenced in the video is misleading at best. Slavery itself is bad enough. To exaggerate it, by making extreme aspects of it seem common, only make it seem surreal. As a result, people will tend to think, that it can't happen again in the United States, so rather than remaining vigilant, they'll put down their guard, and it'll happen again.
@@thunderbird1921 In the case of DaVinci, he did not inherit his biological father’s last name because he was illegitimate, so he was referred to as “from Vinci.”
I never met a white Washington in life!! I always assumed Jenkins or Jackson was the most comon black surname, in America.
Hi I'm a white Washington from the UK, so are all my dad's family xx
@@toniwashington7575you should come and visit your black “relatives” in the United States!
The sound seems very low on this video?
The last handful of NE videos have had very low audio. I'm having to put my laptop volume at 100 and using an extension to increase the volume further in order to hear his narration.
@@DrewSprague1218 im on my tablet and already at max volume and can barely hear him lol. Been having a similar issue with Simon Whistler on some of his channels recently
What makes a name "back" or "white"?
If I said the name Caryn Elaine Johnson, probably the last person you would picture is Whoopi Goldberg, thou that is her given name.
I wouldn't of thought specificly of her but that names does "feel" black based of naming conventions I'm used to seeing and being around, though I couldn't explain why
I would have guessed "back" based on the last name of Johnson.
i mean
if a name statistically is held more by a certain race than another
surely that's merit to call it a 'black' name or a 'white' name
I really dig this channel. I got a name question you may or may not want to touch but it’s something that has been on my mind a lot lately.
That is. When a celebrity or “famous” person has a stage name, and that persona or character “dies” in “real” life, is the actual person deceased as well. A bit conspiratorial some might say, but Prince became a symbol bc he didn’t own the rights to his stage name.(rough explanation) and I just can’t see a 85 year old man calling himself 50cent or Shaggy. Maybe Sting? It’s better than Gordon but I hope my question is clear.
What happens to the person when the character no longer exists? Or are they just one and the same?
JayZ have checks written out to Jigga? Or JayZ for that matter? I seriously doubt it.
If someone or something else owns the rights to your persona, and they decide it’s time to shelf that character…? Apologies in advance if this has already been discussed in a previous video.
Idk why, but the title made me chuckle. It’s clearly an innocent with no malicious intent but I’m sure there will be some who get needlessly offended.
Telling black people how to react, nice micro aggressions
I’m sure there is no bad intent but I mean he is a white male telling black people that their name is the “blackest”
@@muriyyahbeard5137 Huh? Calm down. Did you really infer that from my comment? Stop stretching. If anything, you’re a prime example of the point I was making. Plus, it was pretty obvious my comment was pure MACRO aggression. 🥁
@@baronvg you thought you ate that up huh?
I wonder if "Wassa" is related to the Swedish "Wasa" as in Gustaf Wasa?
The English Wassa means hunting. The Swedish Vasa means sheath. Perhaps they both come from an old German word relating to a weapon.
@@ronmaximilian6953 I really could
The Washington in County Durham, where George's forebears are from, is thought to be derived from the Old English personal name Hwaesa, which means 'wheat sheaf'. Scandinavian names are very thin on the ground in this part of northern England - though of course the Angles, who settled there after the Romans left, originally came from Angeln in modern Schleswig so the names could well have had a common root.
your audio is really quiet
You have enough vocal fry to make funnel cakes with.
Lol
My great granny’s maiden name was “Hamilton.” She passed in the early 1990s.
He father was born in 1865 in Alabama and someone who was a member of the Hamilton family that owned his mother, was his father.
Great granny was born in 1900 when her father was around 35 yo. She had “stories” about how they were related to the white Hamilton family in the town where she was from.
I am not related to any AA folks with the surname “Washington,” but I have met tons of them! Ditto for the surname “Franklin.”
Damn people are getting triggered.
eh, most of the criticism i’ve seen in the comments has been extremely rational and well-explained. maybe it’s just you who’s triggered by seeing people voice opinions that make you uncomfortable…?
@@daniel6678 okay
And now these days the Record companies are the ones with all the slaves
Truth
There are quite a few Japanese named Washington as well
2:20 “A dark part of American history”
I see what you did there
It looks like I have videos to catch up on about American state names and how his videos are made. *Does this mean he hit his Pateron goal?*
There's a lot more about that study about names and hiring practices, such as not taking into account many other studies on names and memory, which puts it in a different light than the conclusions people come to based on the study's data.
Great video again!
“Jackson and Jefferson” Common African-American names!
Your sound is mixed at least 10db quieter than the rest of TH-cam
Ayy, regardless of the title im glad you looking at our names.
ING in place names means followers off or sons off. ING is supposed to be the son of mannaz in Anglo Saxon mythology.
The place name Orpington means the settlement of the followers or the sons of Orpa
I Typed In : What Is The Organ Of The Sir Name Washington Sooooo, Here I Am…💁🏽♀️
My Grandfather & Grandmother’s Last Name’s Were Both Washington (Tho They Weren’t Related)…
I Never Dropped My Families Last Washington So I Decided To Do A Deeper Dig Into Just Where Did The Originate Of The Name Come From…
And Quite Honestly Gorge Washington Was The Only White Person I’ve Ever Known With The Washington Last Name…
My Family Being From The South It’s Over 100 Of Us At Any Given Time At The Family Reunion…
You Did A Great Job 👏 Wonderful Video Thank You…
Kem,
Love your vids. Please up your audio volume, it seems very low.
Oh boy, this is gonna get controversial.
How.
I think he meant on "How and Why Washington became an common english name among the African-Americans"
Maybe this is gonna get controversial.
No, it’s not 🙄
@@madebyshiny to the blacks🙄
5:39 all slaves were freed by the 14th Amendment. The Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves in Confederate territories, allowing them to join the Union army.
Patrick: So don't asking me are for are there any Washingtons alive, because I just answered that one.
His half and full siblings and their descendants: Are we a joke to you?
If he hasn’t already, Dennis Haysbert should play Booker T in a movie. He’s almost a dead ringer for him.
No, not based on looks. He would do a great job.
So basically. It's based off of slaves being named after their planation owners and later history books after they were freed?
That would depend. There are no European slave masters named king.
I came to the comment section , not gonna lie
I don’t think I’ve ever known a white person named Jenkins.
You never heard of the war of Jenkins ear? He was Welsh pirate captain who pirated Spanish ships. His ear was cut off and it caused a war in 1739. So yeah very British name.
@@marceloorellana5726 no. I haven’t heard of that, and I also said I’ve never known. For me to know this Jenkins, I’d have to be older than train smoke.
@@richw.6296 Well he had descendants. And when you say you don't know it doesn't imply knowing someone personally. It just means generally you've never heard, read or know of the existence of the name said. If you study history you'll know more and won't make blank statements like that. Also some grammar classes. Good luck buddy. Have a great day. 👍
@@marceloorellana5726 it’s all semantics, but people usually say “know of” when referring to having knowledge of, but no actual familiarity and relationship to a person or subject. Furthermore, if you never make mistakes, then you are free to go around correcting people. Otherwise, keep it to yourself.
@@richw.6296 I never make mistakes. Ever. So it's my duty to correct you. Get your act together bro. Don't make it a habit. And people don't say that. You say that. Just admit you made a dumb comment because you don't read and are ignorant to history and we'll forgive you. Have an awesome day bro.
That could make a seriously wicked movie … the Washingtons
As always an awesome video.
Washington, Williams, Davis, , Jones, Jefferson, Jackson, Smith.. all black names. Oh, and Brown! Blackest name ever!
British slave owner names
You should do a video on how the former slaves of Latin America got there names
This idea is under rated
Patrick sounds really sick in this video. I'm sorry for a previous comment complimenting weight loss in a live action segment. He really might have something awful.
Jackson: Am I a joke to you?
Williams is also very common
Tookie Williams comes to mind.
1:20 as a non american it really confused me when I was a kid that Washington DC wasn't in the State of Washington. I think this confusion must be as common as thinking of New York City as the capital of the New York State
I don't know how to feel about this title 🧐
Why ?
3:57 oh my... This cow drawing will haunt me in my dreams
Personally, I feel like Jackson is the blackest last name, followed by Robinson
Those are actually Melungeon names.
@@lobsterbalelegesse9919 which are people groups mixed with black, white and Native
Jews didn't typically have last names, until they were allowed to own land in Europe at different times in the 1700's. They were then assigned names, so that they could be identified in order to collect property tax.
Prior to being allowed to own land, if for some reason a government needed a last name for a Jewish person, they would list it as a generic "Israel". Some European Jews prior to being allowed to own land did have the last names of "Cohen" and "Levi", and those had something to do with being a religious official, such as a rabbi, but I can't remember the specifics of that? It's why many Jews have Slavic or German sounding last names nowadays, because they were assigned to their families by Central and Eastern European governments during the mid to late 1700's.
Do a "Name Explain" on that.
Some blacks have those names too.
Green is close aswell in the NBA alone there are about 7 of them with the name Green
I thought Washington had brown eyes.
In St Lucia and other Caribbean islands we have a bunch of Alexander, Augustin and Jean Charles. Might legally change mine cause i hate it....
What's your name?
@@rkeogh3467 Augustin...
@@Ocean-yl4do damn...yeah I'd change it if I was you
@@rkeogh3467 I am not from that area, why is Augustin a bad name?
@@Ocean-yl4do Is the -in of Augustin pronounced nasally, like in French, or like "inn" in English? I'm just curious.
This video's suggestion that GW was considered a "good slave-owner" amongst newly freed slaves and that's why many chose to adopt Washington as their last name is highly questionable and not supported at all by any evidence presented here. It's a lot more likely that they were just eager to assimilate and present themselves as proud and patriotic American citizens and figured that taking the name of a famous founding father like Washington or Jefferson was a good way to do that. But there's no evidence that America's slave-owning founding fathers were ever widely admired by African-Americans for how well they treated their slaves (an inherent contradiction in itself), and the concept of the good slave-owner is a myth invented by Confederate lost-causers and popularized in books and movies like Gone With the Wind.
If you're going to talk about the history of slavery in America, you need to do better than this. I don't think Name Explain is racist or meant any harm, but these myths and misconceptions are harmful whether intentional or not.
I love the way he talks !!!
1:32 Do not forget (little) Washington PA! My mother was born there, after her father’s family all left Alabama en masse.
Good video. Don't listen to the other folk
guys, stop attacking him for his microphone. he actually recorded this a across his flat.
"he owned a huge number of people".... America!
You gone be shook when you realize that the USA actually received a small percentage of enslaved Africans. Most went to Portugal, Spain, France, England, and South America ans the Caribbean
Smith is the most common black last name.
Low sound? A video uploaded by Patrick in 2021? Did Patrick start using a hearing aid that year or something? Seems like it.
There is another explanation for names like Nero, Duke, Queen(ie) (little queen) and so on. For instance often they would have been commonly children of slave masters. Queenie, would have been likely treated like a little queen among there slaves. Yes, there was heirarchy. And this (special treatment) goes also into surnames also...
No Lincoln But Abrams, yes.
Otherwise, some names you would be shocked are common Black names in the US are those such as Jenkins, Williams, Jones etc.
Oh, you mean like that Denzel fellow.
A small error. The Emancipation Proclamation did not free all slaves in the US - it "freed" slaves in the rebelling states. The 13th amendment (along with the 14th and 15th) actually freed slaves in the US and granted (or at least attempted to) give them rights.
Does Morgan Freeman’s name have anything to do with becoming a free man?
It’s quite possible. Same for King.
Taliaferro is pronounced like "Toliver".
Toliver is the anglicanisation of Taliaferro.
It's Italian but a black actor has that last name.
was going to say that as well
A person who was kinda famous in history named Washington was George Washington Johnson.
I mean most slaves took the last name of their owners so last names like Washington, Jefferson, Ferguson make sense to be common among black people. Also, the odd fact that some people can trace their ancestry to people like Thomas Jefferson for obvious reasons.
This phenomenon isn't the result of slaves taking theirs master's surname, though.
@@joeconnor1821 What do you mean it isn't?...
What’s up with that cows kneecaps
Maybe a better title could do mate
Why
Why? It’s exactly what the video is about.
I see those Beast Wars figures, fam. :3c
All slaves were not freed by the Emancipation Proclamation.
So Washington was a name from a place named after a person?
It's not that surprised the slave owners would sometimes give 'unique' names to those whom they owned, these are the same people who (at least by the Georgian Era) often renamed the non family facing servants (e.g. housemaids, footmen etc) in their household
Really weird and stilted to say "blackest name," and not most common last name of Black/African Americans.
but wouldn’t u also say whitest in reference to a white people? not trying to start anything just genuinely saying. i don’t think he had any ill intentions
@@weejoejimmy9395 No you would not. You would say the same thing that already mentioned, "the most common or most prevalent name among..." The phrasing is not natural, and Patrick is a speaker of English.
To say "the most common" is not natural? You're just an idiot.
Washington never had any biological descendants at all. He raised his stepchildren and was only prevented from formally adopting them by archaic laws of inheritance. He did formally adopt two of his step-grandchildren. And as we all know, he adopted Lafayette in spirit.
The answer to this one is pretty easy: After emancipation, it was common for ex-slaves to take the surnames of founding fathers, as they were symbols of liberty. The more readily associated with liberty a founder was, the more ex-slaves took his name. This is how Washington, Jefferson and Franklin are now more common among black Americans than white Americans. What likely helped in Washington's case was that he was the only founding father to actually follow through with freeing any slaves he held, which he did in his will due to Virginia law preventing him from releasing them outright.
The prevalence of these names among black Americans is part of the reason Lin Manuel Miranda cast black actors as Washington and Jefferson in his Broadway smash hit musical, Hamilton. He wanted to reach youth, especially minority youth, with this tale from American history, and make these kids understand that this is their history too. The best way to do that was to help them picture themselves in the founders' place. And that he did by putting men with the skin color the kids encountered with the names Washington and Jefferson in every day life on the stage.