Lakeisha is an American invented name from the 1960s-70s — combining the French-derived prefix *La-* with Keisha (possibly from the Arabic-Swahili *Aisha*, "alive, living, joyful," or a phonetic blend). **A top-500 US baby name from 1972 to 1991, one of the most-popular distinctively African American girls' names of its era — emblematic of the post-Civil-Rights-era movement among Black American families to choose names that asserted cultural identity and individuality**. **The name and its variants (Lakisha, Lakesha, Latisha) became a notable subject of sociolinguistic and economic research — most famously the 2004 Bertrand-Mullainathan study "Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal?" published in the *American Economic Review*, which used the name to document hiring discrimination and became one of the most-cited papers in labor economics**. **LaKisha Jones (born 1980)** — *American Idol* season 6 finalist (2007); Broadway performer in *The Color Purple* and *Motown: The Musical*. **Lakeisha** remains a culturally significant name studied in courses on naming, identity, and the sociology of the African American experience. **The name exemplifies the creative-naming tradition that also produced Shaniqua, Tamika, and Latoya.**
Featured throughout late-20th-century African American naming tradition.
Lakeisha reduces to five — the number of cultural identity.