Ja, De, Le
As any American sports fan has noticed, the last two decades have shown a new trend emerging in African-American naming culture. In the movement towards fresh and creative names, we are seeing a prefix model become increasingly common. Pre-existing names get a prefix; for instance, Marcus becomes DeMarcus. Similarly there are NFL players named DeJuan, D’Juan, LaJuan, TyJuan, DeSean, LeSean, DeMarcus (besides the one mentioned above), JaMarcus, LaRon, Le’Ron, LarDarius, D’Anthony, and lots, lots more.
Updated: How does this trend relate to Hebrew uses of prefixes (and suffixes) in naming? KRG pointed out that there might be a bias towards French sounding names. Is that why this specific set of pre-fixes has emerged? BZ notes that his time as a public school teacher in NYC, like my time as a public school student in Philadelphia, has not led him to notice many people with this name pattern. He noted that it seems to be most pronounced in the deep south. Why would that be? Do most examples reflect patrilineality? Is this trend an alternative to Jr., III, etc?
Jews, in general, have been very slow to adapt to this cultural trend. I have yet to meet a Da’Shlomomit, JaShmuel, LeEytan, DeSharon, or a JaDavid. Not even a LaIrit. Although, come to think of it, we may have been ahead of the trend. Just ask L’Chayim.
