Is this 'baby names' section a bit racist?

wasnt it Greek but now is widely used by the scots ??

Alexander? I don't see what particular cultures that is associated with.

my mother was "Jones the Post Office" for 20 years

If I'd asked for opinions on names for my part kazakh/part russian British raised DS, I think the name thread may have imploded As it was I picked a name which some might think is boring but owrks in all the relevant cultures which was important to me.

I found it very distressing that some people named their newly adopted children with names the Kazkahs couldn't even pronounce and had no phonetics in their language to deal with it.

I wonder if thats relevant to OP or just the ramblings of a tired woman?

Wanted to add to the third paragraph - how do people think those "ethnic" names that are now mainstream got to be so mainstream in the first place??? Someone obviously thought it was a pretty/handsome name and decided to use it despite it not being a name from "their" culture and it caught on.

i do identify some names as belonging to certain cultures but would never not use a name because of that. i wanted anja for my dd but dh axed it as according to him it is a foriegn name and we are not foriegn. he believes that you should use names that are culturally revelant to you. he says that he has been brought up this way so im not sure where he thinks the niamh comes from as none of his family are irish

Shesells I completely agree with you on this - I'll never understand this. I guess it's a British thing? My DH feels the same as yours. We both like the name Joaquin, and he would agree to it because I have some Spanish heritage - my great-grandfather, who I never even met as he died before I was born - was from Spain, so for some reason that makes it okay

I don't think I'll ever understand why it's perfectly okay to use names like Francesca or Stephanie or Alexander - which are very closely associated with particular cultures but have more or less become mainstream - but not to use names that are obviously not white-British and not used as frequently.

BTW, I'm the very white Farah that people on here took such issue with! Surprised the hell out of me, no one's ever even hinted to me that my name is not acceptable because I'm not Arabic!

I've never noticed any racism on the baby names threads.

But what I have noticed is ignorance - names being criticised for being 'made up' or wierd when really they are simply foreign names.

My taste in names is admittadly rather boring conservative.

bandie, there isn't a limited choice, just some that are very popular...exactly the same as with christian names.
if you looked at a list of islamic names you'd see how many there are. Also, christain names can include names from many different languages for instance from all the romance languages, to say there aren't many arabic names is a bit like saying there aren't many welsh names..you're limiting it to one language.

Conservative - Yes.
Staid and safe - yes.
Boring - yes.
Anti cosmopolitan- yes.
Unimaginative - yes.
Old fashioned - Yes.
Hidebound - yes.
Ignorant - Yes.
Sheltered - Yes.

Racist - No.

I speak as someone who has had their name choices disrespected on here too. Can you tell?

MmeLindt

Yes I am in total agreement, however, those were just examples of welsh surnames. There are a lot more Welsh surnames in regular use.

I like Welsh names though because they are culturally relevant to me. I dont like islamic names because they are not. although, I have come across some really pretty girls names on occassions.

Plus, like I said, if I worked somewhere and everyone was called Dai Jones, It would be very confusing to say the least. I dont think there is such a limited useage of names in Wales though...

names certainly do go in/out of fashion and you find more prevalence of certain names in some areas. My experince of islamic names is that there seem to be a limited choice. I dont know why that is the case. I am sure there are thousands of different names, but in my experience the same ones are used over and over again.

Bandie
You have just posted about the limited Islamic names, and your next post is about Jones,Evans, Williams and David.

That is my point, there are names that are common in a certain culture or area. There are also names that were popular and are not now popular.

Isn't that the same with Islamic names?

Are there any MNetter who can shed light on to Bandie's claim that there are a limited remit of Islamic names? I cannot say that I have noticed. Ok, there were 2 boys in my year at school called Mohammed, but there were also 2 Grahams and 3 Samanthas.

I agree that if you post on here about wanting to call your DD Niahm or Deirdre and then ask how to pronounce it that you are likely to get a negative response. As Cali says, if you have to ask how to pronounce it, then you should walk away from the name.

Not racist, just good sense.

I love the way the welsh do that. In my dads village, everyone has their occupation added to their surname. Evan the bread...

This is good, because you know which Dai Jones, is which.

we have Evan Evans and William Williams, in our family. This practice is a part of welsh culture. When there are too many with the same name though, they start on the nicknames to help out.

If you watch Ivor the engine DvD you see this too good effect.

i like the name dante fwiw and would never have thought of it as black, american maybe, black no.

i dont take much notice of the baby name threads tbh. i occasionaly post on them but light heartedly. if you like a name use it if not dont.

i do identify some names as belonging to certain cultures but would never not use a name because of that. i wanted anja for my dd but dh axed it as according to him it is a foriegn name and we are not foriegn. he believes that you should use names that are culturally revelant to you. he says that he has been brought up this way so im not sure where he thinks the niamh comes from as none of his family are irish

choccypig-
Not really no,

because there are so many interesting Christian names to choose from - just look through posts for inspiration.

My point is that in Islamic culture for example, there are often a very limited remit of names. i dont know why this is the case. Maybe the names have religious significance, I dont know.

An islamic person probably likes it becausse it is culturally relevant. but I dont have too like it and it is not culturally relevant to me. I am grateful for a wider choice thats all.

bicnod - Sarah Cox has now named her ds the same as mine, having named her dd the same as mine - I felt a little miffed before I saw that both were now in the top 100 most popular baby names - so much for giving my dc lovely unusual names

I'm a Ms as well, but was trying to save on the typing.

We had two Olwyns living in our street. One had OCD and was fanatically clean and the other had a house that stank to high heaven.

there were known and Clean Olwyn and Dirty Olwyn

You can't have too many Dai Joneses IMO. It makes for fun nickames. Jones the Bones (undertaker), Jones Semitones (Picky choir master) etc.

that is why I'm called Ms

Oh Bandie, it's so boring all white women being called Miss or Mrs isn't it ?

Quite agree Martianbishop,

I suppose If I worked in the public sector and everyone was called Dai Jones, I would still find it as confusing and hard to remember which Dai Jones was which.

One or two are fine, but too many Dai Jones and it just gets ridiculous.

LOL at Alias

I would not have been able to keep a straight face when I did the register - ever. And I have had years of daft name training.

and lets not forget, even more astonishingly than Bear the poster who was considering Alias

Yes Alias

Otherwise known as

I see some baby name threads as a vital public service to protect the unborn child from the ravages of pregnancy hormone brain syndrome

There have been several cases where people have been disuaded from using celtic origin names, when they have no celtic connection or understanding of how to say the names.

that isn't racism it is common sense

Racist? No.

Flipping hilarious? Yes

To prove my point I give you the last baby name thread I posted on where the OP wanted to call her son ...

Bear.