Alright, folks. This thread has attracted some very terrible answers, including Chappelle references. Please, review our rules. We are adamantly against speculation, so do not speculate in your answers. If you are going to post, it needs to be an informed, comprehensive, and in-depth answer.

That is an awesome question, Can I add a tag a long for yours? What about Jamaal (Sp) which seemed to be popular in the 90's but is, from what I am told, a middle eastern name.

I don't think this fully explains the prevalence of Irish names among African Americans, but here's a start:

According to this article from the New York Times, Irish immigrants and African Americans often lived alongside each other in some of the poorest urban areas of the North. They competed for low-wage, low-skill jobs. Despite tensions that often erupted into violence (like in the Civil War draft riots), the two populations intermingled. Mixed-race children were more likely to be given Irish surnames instead of African-American ones.