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Title: The Long-Term Consequences of Distinctively Black Names

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2012

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Abstract: Numerous studies in social science exploit the fact that contemporary fi rst names can often signify the race of an individual. We extend this analysis in two important ways. First, we show that distinctively racialized names existed long before the Civil Rights Era. Using census returns, we document the existence of historical naming patterns for African American males in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century that are similar to naming distinctions today but which use di fferent fi rst names in the naming conventions. Furthermore, the names we identify as being distinctively African American are found to be distinctively African American names in an independent data source. Second, we estimate the long-term consequences ofdistinctively racialized names. Using over two million death certifi cates from North Carolina from 1910 to 1975, we fi nd signifi cant intraracial di fferences in mortality for those who had distinctively African American names. Having an African American name is correlated withincreased longevity| an African American name added nearly one year of life relative to other African American males, on average. In elasticity terms, a distinctive African American name increased the lifespan by more than 12 percent. When we include naming conventions that extend to middle names the mortality diff erential increases. The result is robust to controlling for the general pattern of mortality over time, racial diff erences in the mortality pattern, and for both county of death and birth. We describe future research to be conducted with this data,including the eff ects of racialized names on marriage, occupation and migration.

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Authors: Logan, Trevon D.; Parman, John M.; Cook, Lisa D.

Publisher: Harvard University

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Other, Race and Ethnicity

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