This might sound stupid but I was reading the Shazam part of Justice league #9 and it started me thinking why they called him Black Adam, I understand his real name is Teth-Adam but they didn't call Captain Marvel red billy so why did they call him Black Adam?

@AmazingFantasy15:

He went on a power trip and did the whole "worship me as a god or die" thing, so they called him Black Adam... I would argue, however that as his subjects were not English speaking, he would have been called something like Adam the Black or a rough translation meaning "evil" or something that was then simplified to Black Adam.

Yeah but in Ancient Egypt black was seen as the colour of good because of its association with fertile soil after Nile floods, though if he originally good then black would make sense though why he stuck with it when he went evil makes less sense unless he was just lazy.

The Shazam power corrupted him and Shazam gave him the name Black Adam.

Because he's almost a black minority character but still isn't!
BB

Yeah but in Ancient Egypt black was seen as the colour of good because of its association with fertile soil after Nile floods, though if he originally good then black would make sense though why he stuck with it when he went evil makes less sense unless he was just lazy.

Color of his costume?

I think it was because he turned evil.

Mwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

well they called him Khem Adam .Khem is a pre-"egyptian" word for black. actually its kemetic with kemet(km.t) being the original name for egypt .it meant black land...not just for the race of people but the rich black soil from the nile river

@aztek_the_lost said:

Because black is the color of evil! I guess they technically should've named him Adam Marvel but I'm sure it had to do with his fall from grace or whatever...it was the 40's, all names were lame in the 40's.

So is it impossible to change BA's name to something else?

Because he is Black......and his name is Adam,I suppose......