Names like
Farrugia, Hassan, Ferreira, Delgado, Erskine, Camilleri and
Mohammed are a legacy of Cardiff's heyday as a port from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century.
Seafarers would arrive from as far and wide as west Africa, the Caribbean, Somalia, Yemen and China, together with people from other parts of Wales, Britain and Europe.
They included Scandinavians, some of whom built the Norwegian Church where the family of writer Roald Dahl used to worship.
But Monique points out that in contrast to the distinct ethnic neighbourhoods of New York, the docklands community of Tiger Bay became a melting pot as residents of many races and backgrounds mixed together and intermarried.
One typical story is of a Mrs Salaman who came to Cardiff from the Rhymney Valley to work in service and got lost while looking for a cinema in Queen Street.
She asked a young Arab man for directions who said she'd gone the wrong way and was in Butetown. The woman was so struck by his kindness she fell in love and married him, running a cafe with him in Bute Street.
Other well-known Tiger Bay residents include the Deniz brothers Joe, Frank and Laurie - famed musicians whose father came from the Portugese Cape Verde Islands off the west African coast.
Despite being painted by outsiders as a no-go area, Monique says Tiger Bay was a model of racial harmony.
Its people would also give a warm welcome to visiting black musicians in the 1960s such as Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson, who'd be invited into people's homes down the docks after performing in town.
With many Butetown families having moved out of the area following redevelopment in the 1960s, Monique says it's important for former and present day residents to share their memories about this uniquely diverse part of Wales.
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have your say
Do you have any tales of old Tiger Bay? Share your memories and we'll publish them here or with our Cardiff Stories.
John Akers in Panama used to work in Mount Stuart Square in the mid 1950s:
"Not having car transportation in those days, I walked to Roath Docks to look after shipping business, and then back to the office. Having to walk the length of Bute Street late at night was not the best of things, but it was good fun. Hope Cardiff stays the same."
