“Blassingame and Berry estimate that between 5 and 10 percent of the given names of free blacks were African derivatives: Quashy Baham, Wilson Africa, Edward Affricaine, Kedar Africa, Elikaim Bardor, Byer Affrica, Gadock Coffe. Pryor Biba, Alford Bim, Cuff Cawon and Ally Africa. Ally or ‘Ali’ means the ‘Exalted’ or ‘The Most High in Arabic. Paul Cuffe, the famed navigator and emigrationist of African and Wampanoag Native American parentage, changed his surname of Slocum to honor his African born father Kofi, which was spelled ‘Cuffe’.

This review of naming practices reveals additional examples of African linguistic ties. For example, Juba, one of the day names given to a male child along the Guinea coast was also a nickname given to a girl born on Monday in slave communities or used to describe a ‘tomboy’ (1620-1800). The name Juba, which was fairly common among African men in the 17th and 18th centuries, is also the name of a region in modern Kenya/Somalia and Sudan.”

-Katherine J. Harris, Pan-African Language System: Ebonics & African Oral Heritage