Shaniqua
/ʃəˈniːkwə/
Shaniqua proper noun: a female given name originating as a coinage, of African-American usage.
Proper noun
Shaniqua
- A female given name originating as a coinage, of African-American usage.
- Thirty-one Sam Houston Elementary School students Thursday morning were presented good citizens awards during an awards day program helt at the school auditorium. The awards presented to the students according to grades by Albert Sanders, Corsicana Independent School District Board of trustee...1974 June 6, “Sam Houston Awards 31 Good Citizens”, in Corsicana Weekly Light, page 3
- Those people are not Africans. They don’t know a damned thing about Africa— with names like Shaniqua, Shaligua, Mohammed, and all that crap, and all of them are in jail.2008 May 1, Ta-Nehisi Coates, quoting Bill Cosby, “‘This Is How We Lost to the White Man’”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 24 Jan 2013
Noun
Shaniqua (plural Shaniquas)
- A stereotypical African-American woman.
- Maybe he should have started a while ago and upstaged actors for their menacing portrayal of the Shaniquas and the Sha-nay-nays on television.2007, Isis I., Shaded Canvas, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 72
- So vexed was Cosby at this kind of black significance that he went out and spoke against it in town-hall meetings across the country, meetings in which the Shaniquas and Shaliguas actually showed up to hear what he had to say.2011, Erin Aubry Kaplan, Black Talk, Blue Thoughts, and Walking the Color Line: Dispatches from a Black Journalista, UPNE, →ISBN, page 24
- Synonyms:
- Shaquisha
Synonyms of Shaniqua
Forms of Shaniqua
| alternative form | Chanequa |
|---|---|
| alternative form | Chaniqua |
| alternative form | Chenequa |
| alternative form | Cheniqua |
| alternative form | Chinequa |
| alternative form | Chiniqua |
| alternative form | Shanecqua |
| alternative form | Shaneequa |
| alternative form | Shaneiqua |
| alternative form | Shanekqua |
| alternative form | Shanekwa |
| alternative form | Shanequa |
| alternative form | Shanicqua |
| alternative form | Shaniequa |
| alternative form | Shanikqua |
| alternative form | Shanikwa |
| alternative form | Shaniquah |
| alternative form | Shaniqwa |
| alternative form | Shannequa |
| alternative form | Shauniqua |
Origin of Shaniqua
Popularized in the 1970s among African Americans, possibly influenced by Swahili shani (“novelty”) or Welsh Siân (Joanna, "God is gracious"); compare other names starting with Shan- like Shanice, Shanika, Shanita.
Questions about Shaniqua
- What does Shaniqua mean?
- Shaniqua means a female given name originating as a coinage, of African-American usage.
- What part of speech is Shaniqua?
- Shaniqua can be a proper noun or a noun.
- How do you pronounce Shaniqua?
- Shaniqua is pronounced /ʃəˈniːkwə/.
Words near Shaniqua in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Shaniqua (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “Shaniqua.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shaniqua. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.