Is clay a slave name because i want to know my name origin i am part african american and latino but clay?

Question

is from the afro american side

Answer 1

Well, I know a few Clays who aren't African-American, so I don't think it is a slave name.

Answer 2

There really weren't any specific slave names.  The slaves brought from Africa didn't have surnames(afterall most did not have one in Europe until the last melennium).  When they were freed, frequently they took the name of their former owner.

Answer 3

I have fun tweaking ancestry.com... so, in the 1880 census, you have the first census where a person's place of birth, AND of their parents is shown.  It also happens to be 15 yrs after the Civil war ended.  

So, ancestry tells me that 4,641 persons with the name Clay, were Black.  Those from Southern states are very likely to have been former slaves. 10 of those actually say that their father was born in Africa.  

What can I say... I am on a statistic rampage today.  *smile*  That should intrigue you into tracing your actual ancestors.

oh,  7477 of persons with the name were White.

edit-

with all respect.. you would start with yourself, then work backwards, and see where it leads.  There were Clays in many places other than Kentucky.

Answer 4

Clay is probably British or something like that... many British names are nouns like that.  Perhaps the African-American part of your family, way back when, took the name of their masters?  (Or were forced to take it, maybe?)

I'm not very good with slave history, though I try to raise awareness of modern-day slavery.

Aaaaanyway, yeah, Clay sounds more like a colonial name to me.

Answer 5

Muhammad Ali's name before he changed it was Cassius Clay, apparently from an ancestor who was a slave, but Clay is obviously a fairly widespread name without slave connections in most cases, you will have to research your family history to find out for sure, you cannot guess at it.

Edit :

Clay: origins & meanings:

English: from Old English clǣg ‘clay’, applied as a topographic name for someone who lived in an area of clay soil or as a metonymic occupational name for a worker in a clay pit (see Clayman).

Americanized spelling of German Klee.

The relatively common English name Clay had several American forebears in the 18th century. Henry Clay, born in Hanover, VA, in 1777, secretary of state for President John Quincy Adams, was descended from English ancestors who came to VA shortly after the founding of Jamestown. The revolutionary war officer Joseph Clay, also a member of the Continental Congress, was a native of Yorkshire, England, who emigrated to GA in 1760 and was a founder of the University of Georgia.

Correction : Muhammad Ali was born in Louisville, Kentucky. He was named after his father, Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr., who was named for the 19th century abolitionist and politician Cassius Clay.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Al...

Answer 6

Cassius Clay was a plantation owner turned Abolitionist. His plantation was in either Lexington or Richmond Kentucky.  If I were looking for any information on a black ancestor named Clay I would begin there. Some of the Clays in that area probably took the name after the civil war in gratitude. But many of them had been freed by Clay.  The last site under sources is information about John Clay, b. 1824. He's an ancestor of Mohammed Ali. This would be a place to start.  Good luck.