

Contrary to popular belief, Shaniqua is not a common name for black women. Often used as a stereotype to represent unique names used in the African-American community, it barely reached over 1000 names a year twice in the early 1990s before nearly disappearing. For perspective, if you were named Shaniqua, there is a good chance you were the only one in your entire school or town with that name. Shaniqua (and its spelling varieties) don’t even make the cut in the names database beyond 2010. According to comments on behindthename.com, the name rose to popularity from the 1990 hip hop song “Shaniqua” by Oran “Juice” Jones. Sadly, the name doesn’t have a good reputation these days, prompting one commenter on babynamewizard.com to say, “My name is Shenequia and when I tell people my name , they say ‘well you don’t act like a Shenequia'”. So what exactly is someone named Shaniqua supposed to act like anyway?

Baby name totals for Shaniqua, Shanequa, Sheniqua, Chaniqua, Shanikwa:

Year Total 1970 6 1971 33 1972 33 1973 48 1974 52 1975 83 1976 95 1977 113 1978 130 1979 144 1980 166 1981 163 1982 147 1983 159 1984 193 1985 221 1986 194 1987 203 1988 238 1989 292 1990 1098 1991 1285 1992 934 1993 635 1994 394 1995 280 1996 178 1997 142 1998 101 1999 64 2000 31 2001 27 2002 24 2003 19 2004 16 2005 7 2006 10 2007 5 2008 5 2010 8

Source: Social Security Administration (http://www.ssa.gov/open/data/)