The rare name Karamo re-emerged in the U.S. baby name data in 2018:
- 2020: unlisted
- 2019: unlisted
- 2018: 6 baby boys named Karamo
- 2017: unlisted
- 2016: unlisted
Why?
Because of Karamo (pronounced kah-RAH-moh) Brown, the culture expert on Netflix’s reboot of the TV series Queer Eye, which began airing in February of 2018.
Brown, a trained social worker, was born in Texas in 1980. He began appearing on reality TV in the early 2000s. (One of his first appearances was on The Real World in 2004.)
In his memoir, Brown described how his parents (both originally from Jamaica) fought over his name. His father wanted him to have an African name, while his mother wanted him to have a more conventional name. They eventually settled on “Karamo Karega.”
The name Karamo Karega is Swahili in origin. Karamo means “educated,” and Karega means “rebel.” My father thought there needed to be a complementing contrast to the meaning of my name.
I was able to confirm the definitions of the names, but neither one seems to be Swahili in origin. Karamo means “teacher” or “scholar” in Mandinka, while Karega means “rebel” in Gikuyu.
What are your thoughts on the name Karamo?
P.S. Brown also noted in his memoir that he’d encouraged fellow Queer Eye co-host Tanveer “Tan” France — who goes by a nickname “[b]ecause when you google ‘Tanveer,’ only terrorists come up” — to use his full first name, in order to help change the public’s perception of the name via the TV show.
Sources:
- Karamo Brown – Wikipedia
- Brown, Karamo. My Story of Embracing Purpose, Healing, and Hope. New York, NY: Gallery Books, 2019.
- “Karamo Brown On ‘Queer Eye’ & ‘Embracing Purpose’” [Interview]. NPR 2 Apr. 2019.
- Diouf, Sylvanie A. Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas. New York, NY: New York University Press, 1998.
- Gikandi, Simon. Ngugi wa Thiong’o. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
- SSA
Image: Screenshot of Queer Eye