Until recently, scholarly consensus was that early African American names did not differ significantly from those of white Americans. Distinctively Black names were thought to have risen from the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, which promoted the use of names with connections to Africa.
 
However, research by <a href=" https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0014498314000059"> Lisa D. Cook and colleagues</a> has revealed evidence of racialized names from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They identified 21 distinctly Black male names, among them biblical classics such as Abraham and Moses, and word names including Freeman and Prince.
 
Along with Abraham and Prince, other early African American names currently in the US Top 1000 include Alonzo, Athena, Daphne, Elijah, Isaiah, Israel, King, Phoebe, and Titus. Place names that were disproportionately popular among Black Americans in history include Boston, Jamaica, York, and Africa.
 
Also included here are common names among slaves, many of which were classical and had ties to the Bible or mythology, such as Keziah and Venus. Here, our list of notable early African American names.

Early African American Names

Abel

Abraham

Africa

Alonzo

Ambrose

Apollo

Athena

Beach

Booker

Boston

Caesar

Caspar

Cassandra

Cato

Cela

Charity

Christmas

Comfort

Cupid

Daphne

Desdemona

Dido

Dinah

Dolly

Dorinda

Easter

Elijah

Flavia

Flora

Freeman

Hagar

Hector

Isaac

Isaiah

Ishmael

Israel

Jamaica

Jemima

Jonah

Juba

Jupiter

Keziah

King

Leodis

London

Lucinda

Lysander

March

Minerva

Moses

Nero

Pascal

Pearlie

Percy

Perlie

Phillis

Phoebe

Pompey

Presley

Presly

Prince

Purlie

Sabina

Sable

Scipio

Spencer

Sukey

Tamar

Temperance

Titus

Tyra

Venus

Wesley

York

Early African-American Names, including names used by African Americans from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, such asMoses, Alonzo, Phoebe, and Titus (All Names)

Early African-American Names - All Names