baby daddy

English

Alternative forms

  • baby-daddy

Etymology

African American Vernacular English (General American would be baby's daddy) 1990s, popularized 2000s;[1] compare baby mama.[2] Possibly from or influenced by same term in Jamaican English, from Jamaican Creole baby-father,[1] alternatively due simply to grammatical similarities between AAVE and Jamaican Creole.[2]

Noun

baby daddy (plural baby daddies)

  1. (slang, US) Father of child in common, particularly unmarried.
    • 2004, Michelle Obama, Senate victory speech, November 2, 2004:[3]
      My baby’s daddy, [sic] Barack Obama.
    • 2009, Stacye Branch M Msc, It's All in How You Look at It: Thoughts and Questions About Life‎, page 191:
      The baby daddy many of us at one point or another have or will be in a relationship with someone who has a child or children, and with that child or children comes another parent.
    • 2011, Michael Cornwall, Ticklenotes: More Voices from Cube Village‎, page 44:
      “I'm so glad I only have one baby daddy.” “F'really.” “I feel sorry for those girls with more than one.”
    • 2012, Aaron Peckham, Urban Dictionary: Freshest Street Slang Defined‎, page 16:
      The father of your child, whom you did not marry, and with whom you are not currently involved. That man isn't my boyfriend; he's my baby daddy.

Usage notes

As with baby mama, contentious usage – sometimes used neutrally as a casual term, regardless of marriage status, particularly in the tabloid press,[1] or as a term of endearment, as in Obama quote above.[3] Often considered pejorative, particularly if applied to unmarried black parents – if used by one parent of the other, can imply “child in common but no meaningful relationship”, while if used by outsiders, can imply disapproval of children born out of wedlock; see “baby mama” citations.[4] More formal variants include “baby’s daddy” and “baby’s father”; in formal usage “father of one’s child” is preferred.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Where Do "Baby-Daddies" Come From? The origins of the phrase. by Julia Turner, Slate, posted Sunday, May 7, 2006.
  2. 1 2 "What did Joe Louis have to tell us about Tina Fey?" on Language Log, December 10, 2008
  3. 1 2 “America Votes 2004”, CNN, November 2, 2004
  4. ↑ “Was It a Slur?”, by Tobin Harshaw, New York Times, June 12, 2008
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