Cultural appropriation?

[Circeo]

DH is a big cricket fan and wants to use Sachin after one of his heroes (Tendulkar).

I actually like it, thinking maybe as a middle name for something meaningful and a bit different.

Is it OK to use Sachin for an entirely white British boy though?

[wizzywig]

Itd be different i guess. People may think you are hippy yoga types.

[DappledThings]

I know another white boy who has Sachin as a middle name for the same reason. Maybe middle name is the compromise.

Slightly off-topic but I saw a guy this week in a "What Would Tendulkar Do?" tshirt that made me smile

[SuperBeagle]

I'd find it a bit odd, especially if you had no intention of continuing that sort of theme with any subsequent children. But it doesn't really count as "cultural appropriation".

[mammmamia]

It's a great name just use it - I am British Asian and my children have Hebrew names because I liked them. I never felt like I was culturally appropriating them.

[manicinsomniac]

I'm on the fence.

In theory, I think it's fine for anyone to use any name they like, regardless of what culture it comes from. In fact, it should be a good thing for names to cross countries, languages and cultures.

In practice ... idk, I think if I met a white British Oluwatomiwa or Adesuwa I would raise my eyebrows. Whereas I don't give a second thought to a Nigerian Amy or Tom. And I don't really know why I make that distinction or whether or not it's okay to make it.

I don't know what culture Sachin comes from actually but it has a lovely sound to it and is possibly similar enough to more familiar sounding names for you to get away with it.

[Ttbb]

Now I am worried about giving my rather non-white children Celtic names

[IHeartKingThistle]

I thought Sachin was his nickname anyway?

[Circeo]

It’s an Indian name. Ok, thank you everyone.

[bridgetreilly]

In practice ... idk, I think if I met a white British Oluwatomiwa or Adesuwa I would raise my eyebrows. Whereas I don't give a second thought to a Nigerian Amy or Tom. And I don't really know why I make that distinction or whether or not it's okay to make it.

I agree and I think the reason is hundreds of years of colonial oppression. We don't have the right to Nigerian or Indian or whoever's heritage, but we gave them the right to ours.

However, I do think there's something slightly different about naming a child after a specific person, rather than just choosing a name from another culture because you like how it sounds. Middle name seems like a good compromise here.

[kaytee87]

Meh loads of people use Leila in the UK which is a Persian and Arabic name.
I think it’s fine.

[MikeUniformMike]

How about Savin?

[MrsBirdseye]

Cultural appropriation is another millennial snowflake bullshit. If it is an actual name, not some random word, go for it.

Only issue that foreign names get mispronounced and misspelled all the time.