Names out of your ethnicity

[Trinaluce]

Just a question of curiosity here: are there any names you love but would never use as they're out of your ethnicity? I know a little boy called Suraj and my colleague is called Mojisola - both of which I think are gorgeous but would never use as I feel they're perhaps too grounded in each person's background.

Anyone else got any names they like in this vein?

[marriednotdead]

I know exactly what you mean. I wanted DS to be called Tico but xp thought it sounded daft Spanish and we're not.

Suraj seemed lovely when I first saw it written in school, but when said quickly in a London playground, it sounds very like 'sewage'!

[Trinaluce]

Heh heh! No, this is very definitely Su-rahhhhj, and I just think it sounds lovely

[helendigestives]

Anjula, Naveen, Amrit, Parvati, Dinesh, Lakshmi, Rani... Amaya... Solomon.

I am so damn white. :P

[HarderToKidnap]

Shrada. I love it.

[Annunciata]

I love Scottish and Irish names but they just do not go with Italian surnames/ appearances.

[Chaotica]

Zandile

[Mandy2003]

When I was a teenager I knew a Traveller boy called, the way he said it, Jewan. It's only when he wrote it that I realised his name was actually Juan!

[Greenwing]

Clelia - Italian
Seamus - Irish for James
Fabienne, Marie-Thérese - French

I am none of the above!

[Beasknees]

I love the name Zvipozvashe but i have no Zimbabwean heritage so it just never seemed right for my children.

[Trinaluce]

Beasknees I wouldn't even know where to BEGIN pronouncing that

[Hedwig3]

Have always loved Laurent for a boy.

It really sounds best when French people say it anyway.

[tigermummy35]

There was a white girl in my school called Darinda, which I think sounds Indian. Given I was at school quite some years ago, that was pretty progressive for the time.

[Beasknees]

The zv is almost a shhv sound - i think i like it almost as much for it's impossible spelling

[HappyWifeandMum]

Anjali and Soraya... Love them both!!

[saltyseadog]

Love the name Angharad, but sadly not Welsh.

[EvilTwins]

Mandy - I teach a boy whose name is Juwan. Sounds too much like "Joanne" in the accent they have, poor kid.

I also teach a Tenicia and a Tamika (same class) who are both white, though Tamika told her head of year that she is "supposed to be black". Not at all sure what she means.

[Rhubarbgarden]

Ludmila is my favourite girls name ever. And Darius for a boy.

[Underachieving]

Llewellyn and Cerrys are fantastic but they seem so out of place unless you're Welsh and I'm not.

[Underachieving]

Oh and Aveni for a boy. It was the first name of a Fijian soldier my husband served with. Gorgeous name.

[BornAgainDomesticGoddess]

I have always loved the names Fatima and Soraya. I couldn't use them, because we are not Muslim. I like them though, always have done.

[ninedragons]

I love Noor and Jael, but we are neither Arabs nor Jews and both would sound bizarre with our surname.

[CheerfulYank]

Alejandro and Matteo (nn Teo) . Sigh...

Another "so damn white" one here, helen.

[Bucharest]

Yes, lots.

Trouble is, when I mention them (most of them are Italian) Italian friends fall on the floor laughing and tell me that the youngest person left with that sort of name is a 106 yr old nun in closed orders......

I suppose like someone not from an anglo-saxon naming culture telling us how pretty Doris and Mildred sound to them.

[MamaLazarou]

Omar is the most beautiful-sounding name in the world, and I sometimes wish I wasn't white so I could have named my son Omar!

I also adore Sikh names such as Kulwinder, Gurinder, Simran, Inderjit and Amarjit. They roll off the tongue beautifully. I also love that Sikh names are unisex.

[DramaInPyjamas]

Gianni, Giovani and Giuseppe were on my boys list and Gianelle and Gigi were on the girls list.