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I agree that it's confusing, how usage and origin are distinguished on this website. It's not obvious that that is what's up. Like if you go to the Browse Names page, and look at the list of "Usage," there's no "African-American" listed. But there's an African (languages) list. There's not even an "American" listed. The reason is because that list is really origins, like linguistic or etymological - not usages.

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African-American is supposed to refer to usage, not language of origin. That's supposed to be true of all the other usages marked on the individual name pages too, but it's probably a little inconsistent. Like, Mila is not marked as a French usage - but it was the sixth most popular name in France in 2016, so it really should be. But just because a name is listed as one usage, doesn't mean that other usages are excluded (many names listed African-American have been used by both black and non-black Americans).

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The usage category is called "African-American" just because that's currently the term that seems to be preferred. It could as well be Black American.

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- mirfak

This message was edited 6/19/2018, 3:46 PM