Acquanetta: a name only American Culture can Create.

Acquanetta, also known as "Aquanetta" or "Acquenetta": it's not too common of a name but it had become common enough among Black Americans to gain signifigance. It's the name of a California town mayor. The name has also made its way to pre-internet television, appearing in dialogue on Martin, A Different World (at 3:12-3:19), and In Living Color. 

A Different World with Sinbad. One of these girls plays "Aquanetta." I forget which.

 

It's my mother's name.

Other Americans thought it was French or Spanish, but Black Americans saw it differently-- a "ghetto" name, a name with no origin, so to speak. However, "Acquenetta" is a unique "ghetto name". In many cultures, a name stands for a social position or a circumstance under which one was born. In contrast, "Ghetto names", while having the best intentions, have no source. They are “empty” names, yet "Acquanetta" stands apart, because the name suggests a origin that has not been explored. 

Was it adapted from mothers who used too much Aqua Net, perhaps? Believe it or not, the name existed 40 years before the hairspray's creation, not to mention many women bearing the name reached their 20s and 30s by that same time. So where did the name come from? I was dumbfounded until about 15 years ago, when I learned of this B-movie Actress:

Burnu Acquanetta (or Acquanetta Ross) was a former model and b-movie actress whose official studio career Universal Studios lasted from 1949 until she ended her contract in 1951. She played the usual “Jungle princess” roles often reserved for non-white actresses at the time, including the leading lady to the eponymous character in “Tarzan and the Leopard woman. Later she married once (or twice, the records are still not clear) and moved to Mexico and birthed a son who only lived to age four. Upon her return to the US, she retired in Phoenix, Arizona, where she eventually succumbed to Alzheimers in 2004. A B-movie Icon, her legacy continues in the namesake Alt-Punk Band “The Acquanettas” as well as her role in the Cesar Romero film Lost Continent, which found new life on Mystery Science Theater 3000.

This link explains Crow's obscure reference. I love the Bots.

According to Acquanetta's stage bio(s) she was either born in Cheyenne, Wyoming to an Arapaho mother and a father who was a)British Aristocracy B) French-Cherokee-british or C) or she was the “beautiful Negro screen actress Mildred Davenport” who was adopted by a black couple in Norristown, PA. By the time of her death, she maintained her Arapaho identity. Was she really an Arapaho or trying to pass for the sake of her career? Read these links for the rest of that story:

http://vintageblackglamour.tumblr.com/post/3707146792/b-movie-star-acquanetta-although-she-was-promoted
http://burnu-acquanetta.memory-of.com/Tributes.aspx

Her heritage remains unconfirmed in records, to say the least, but it’s not hard to understand why she zig-zagged on the matter in one-drop Jim Crow Hollywood. In a time when society determined your racial identity for you, it didn't matter how much Venezuelan, Arapaho or British blood you had, your African blood would legally override it. If an actor with partial black ancestry were to escape the limitations forced onto Black actors at the time, hiding that side of their bloodline would be an unfortunate but strategic option if they could get away with it. Nonetheless, this ambiguity didn't stop African american communities from embracing the actress as their own.

Where did Acquanetta get “Acquanetta”?

It doesn't take too much research to know “Acquanetta” is an obvious stage name. Basic linguistics knowledge can tell you "BURNu" and "AcQUAnetta" suggests more latin origins than Arapaho. Based on this Northern Arapaho dictionary, her name, in my best guess, would translate to Koohooxee teebi' ("The fire burns, the water is deep" ). Of course, that was a phonetic translation, but then, "Acquanetta" does look better on a movie poster.

How do I know that the B-movie actress serves as the source for this name? Elementary research, pure and simple.

When your first step in research goes right...

I'm not going to pretend that I conducted a statistical analyisis for this blog entry, but simple logic revealed that a lot of the women registered on public listings online had birth dates corresponding to the time period Aquanetta's career was at its peak (including the previously mentioned Fontana, California Mayor Aquanetta Warren).  Although these women were born in the 1950s, attention spans were slower than they are in today's overly saturated society, Films produced in the 1940s would've remained in the public consciousness for a good two to three years after their release. 

It's pretty obvious that she became an option for Black American parents seeking an alternative name for their baby girls. One particular Aquanetta, writer Acquanetta Gordon, Born in 1963, confirms Ms. Burnu as her namesake in her autobiography Echoes of an Angel (on page 3). The namesakes who were too young to correlate (represented by the young girls in the A Different World and In Living Color clips) may have been the result of their mothers receiving the name from a first or second generation namesake. The white woman in the episode of Martin was obviously a joke on ethnic group-associated names.

A generation of namesakes: how's that for a legacy?

So there you go, every woman and girl named Aquanetta/Acquanetta/Acquenetta: Your name has a history. It’s a new, weird, American pulp history worthy of an Ed Wood or John Waters tale, but a history you can tell your children. And if anyone criticizes a stage name namesake, just ask them if they have any friends named Madison, Wendy or (God forbid) Denaerys.

(c) 2015 The Gorgon Transplant/ Karla Holland