r m t Vega La V • Nv-An org n­ izational m ting of the Las Veg bran h of th Bl k Panthe w caJl d to di us changing the i mag of th 1960s organization. Organizer Uly es Palrose reminded the 25 attendan of the purpose of the organiza­ tion, founded in 1966 by Huey ewton. The Panthers, Pal­ ro e aid, w a group that re­ jected government abuse of Blacks and started inde­ pendent so . al program . Palro e also aid the media painted the violent picture of the Panthers, running pictures of Panthers clad in leather j eke , bere ,. hotguns and ammunition belt. "Black Panthers were destroyed by the media" Palro e aid. Th qu t for origina ty and individuali ty be an in the politically turbulent 1 and'7. For Bl parents, the earch has meant going outsid th WASP mainstream to invent narn or d t off n tral on ,A hley aid. y , id Bl P n frequently her to h lp th m cho e an African name. "I try to educate people how to give a nam ," sh aid. "People make up names. There' a lot of' sha' narn that are not really African nam ." Som don't care wh ther a name i African, long it h a nice ri to it and isn't Anglo-S on. The r ult is a tr we trove of appellations pieced togeth r from various urces- Sw hili. Yoruba, Spani h, French- �d a lot of im ination. BY 'CINDY ROBERTS ATlANTA - Long before YaMaya Cimone Pu h was born, her mother already had picked her name. "I had kn vn a young lady sev rat years ago named YaMaya, and J alway aid if I had a daughter I would name herYaMaya.1 just named her that because it w different," aid LaRhonda Gilstrap, a 22-year-old computer cien tu- dent. She' not alone. Among tho sharing the nursery with YaMaya recently at Crawford Long pital in Atlanta: Tria Imnania Holloway, Jam cia Thermutus Hawkins and Ja-Min O'Haad Newson. The explo ion of originality in naming children has touch d nearly every cl ,race and region, but experts ay it i most pronounced among Black Americans. "B Y, TH m [ority of African-Am ri are now naming ou id tbe tradition," d J rrilyn McGre ory, a professor of African-Am rican tudies and Engli h t the University of Georgia. "It' a tatement of cultural id ntity," she aid. "Som people predicted it to b a fad, but it m to be going beyond one generation. tI No on has had more influ n ethan th late AI Haley, whose book "Roots" inspired many BI k Americans to trace their African origins. Kinte, th umame of th boo ' hero Kunta, b an pop­ ping up across the country,' did Kizzie, the character's daughter, Ms. McGregory aid. Atlanta boo tore owner Nia Oamali was Pat before she changed her name to reflect her African roots in 1986 when she published her book "Golden Nam for an African Peo­ ple." "BlAC creating names out of bi ts and pieces of names," Ashley aid. "The main thing they sound i African­ American. They're fake African names, but they are genuine African-American names." "Da," "La," "Sha" and "la" have emerged among the mo t popul ingredients. Hence Lavar, LaKei ba, LaTonya, labar, Sh bandra and Daqui ha. For her ter's thesis, Ms. McGregory analyzed Blac birth records from Gary, Ind., from 1945 to 1980. Over tbe YeaIS, th re were more and more unconventional names. Of 274 girl born in 1980,213 had different names. Some names differed only in pelling; she found 40 versions of Tamika, for example. Th nam symbolize the degree to which Blac Ameri­ cans have felt e cluded from American life, she said. "It' like a gift," Ms. McGregory said. "It's like saying, 'I can't give you much, but I can give you a name no one else will bear.' " "BlACKS ARE refusing to take white people' names," aid Leonard Ashley, author of "What's in a Name?" and an English professor at Brooklyn College in New York. "They are saying, 'We are different. We are going to have our own Christmas holiday, we are going to have our own names.'" At the tum of the century, the 10 most popular names in each gender category sUfficed for half of all boys and girls, Ashley said. Today, the top 10 account for an estimated 25 percent of all American names, he said. The other 75 percent, he said, are largely names rarely seen in thi country until recent Y68I'S, ifatall. HER 6·MONTIl·OLD son, Sekou Ebun Malika, has an African forename. "Peopl aid, 'Where did you get that name? Is his father African?' I said, 'Well he's African-American,' " said OarnalL Funmilayo onye-Jobn, a native of Nigeria who bas been a matcrni ty ward nurse at Crawford Long for the p t five Jury says college violated Black' professor's rights New York, NY-A federal jury ided with the plaintiff, Prof. Leonard Jcffri , ayi ng that the City Unive ity of New York (�UNY) vi