slave name

English

Noun

slave name (plural slave names)

1. A name or surname given to a person held in slavery, or passed down to their descendants.
   • 1995, Jewell P. Rhodes, Voodoo Dreams: A Novel of Marie Laveau, page 164:

     They might not know which name to call—my slave name, Marie Laveau, or the unknown African name that should've been mine.

   • 2019, Patricia San José Rico, Creating Memory and Cultural Identity in African American Trauma Fiction, page 164:

     His point is to let white people know you don't accept your slave name.

   • 2021, Marcellas Reynolds, Supreme Actresses: Iconic Black Women Who Revolutionized Hollywood, page 171:

     Shipp is my slave name. It's the name of the people who owned my family.

2. (by extension, derogatory) Any name imposed on one by others rather than chosen by them for themselves (but generally excluding names bestowed by one's parents).
   • 1989, Ann Snitow, “Pages from a Gender Diary”, in Dissent, page 205:

     'Woman' is my slave name; feminism will give me freedom to seek some other identity altogether.

   • 1993, George Alec Effinger, Michael D. Resnick, Maureen Birnbaum, Barbarian Swordsperson, page 23:

     Muffy was my slave name. It's what all those Columbia math majors called me.

   • 2012, Susan W. Gray, Marilyn R. Zide, Brooks/Cole Empowerment Series: Psychopathology, page 47:

     Call me Namron. You see Norman is my slave name.

See also

• government name