Entry · catalog no. 3009
say her name
/ /ˈseɪ hər ˈneɪm/ /SAY hur NAYM
verb phrase · nationwide · 2010s
✓ Verified
1.
Both a campaign and a standing command, insisting that Black women, girls and Black trans women killed by police be counted in the same breath as Black men — because chants, coverage and policy debate kept leaving them out. In use the phrase is said before a name, as an act of refusal.
“Before we march, say her name: Rekia Boyd.”
Origin & Attribution
Launched in December 2014 by the African American Policy Forum with the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies at Columbia Law, led by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw. Its documented spark was the Eric Garner grand-jury protests, where marchers called only men's names. Correct two standing errors: it is routinely dated to Sandra Bland's death in July 2015 — the campaign predates that by seven months, and her case amplified rather than created it; and it is not the same as Black Lives Matter, which has different founders and a different origin.
2014
AAPF and CISPS launch the campaign in December
2015
The foundational report is published in May; Sandra Bland''s death in July drives the phrase to global scale
2021
Janelle Monáe and the #SayHerName Mothers Network release a recording naming sixty-one Black women and girls
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide / diaspora
nationwide · 2010s
Spoken by
Black women organizers and the families of the named
$SAYHERThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady1 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
84/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
2014
in the culture
Mainstream crossover
2015
search interest spikes
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
@deltasoul
Memphis, TN
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women, Crenshaw, Ritchie, Anspach, Gilmer & Harris — African American Policy Forum report · May 2015
archive-desk
■
+ Cite a source#SayHerName: Black Women''s Stories of Police Violence and Public Silence, Kimberlé Crenshaw & AAPF — Haymarket Books · 2023
archive-desk
See also