racism, judgement on 'ethnic' names?

Do you know that never occured to me? DH asked that our children have his surname and islamic first names which I agreed to - his reasoning was that as they would be brought up here in the UK they would be more english than his nationality so giving them a fully arabic name would cement their identity. I'm glad we did tbh, if DS had an english first name nobody would ever believe he wasn't purely english caucasian from his looks and I like him being unusual.

However I agree in that you should choose a name that is easily read and pronounced. Nothing that people will worry about sayiong out loud in an interview!

Oh and don't pander to the prejudice. I will do my best to raise my children to be proud of their identities and to be confident in their abilities so that preducice won't affect them!

I would say ignore the comments and choose the name you like. To be honest, I would go the other way and make sure they had at least one name - even if it is middle name - that reflects their heritage.

Why pander to the discrimination? @LadyBlahBlah. I think that's a horrific idea.

I would agree with an earlier poster - whatever name you give your child, please make sure it sounds as it's pronounced! We are the only people in Scotland with our surname, so spend our entire time correcting pronounciation and spelling. We decided to go easy on the DCs by giving them first names which didn't require the same level of explanation. I also like the idea of reflecting both nationalities by giving your DD a european first name.

But how are we going to combat those attitudes if everybody just gives in? Surely we don't want our children growing up in a world like that?

"the research is pretty conclusive that there is discrimination based on people's names. And it is significant discrimination too."

really? That's quite alarming!

Quite, ToccataAndFudge. Not that that makes a blind bit of sense really, since many of our so-called English names are actually from the Hebrew, Latin or Greek! (I doubt that many people would use REALLY old English names like Ethelred etc though.)

Honestly? I would go for the European name. The research is pretty conclusive that there is discrimination based on people's names. And it is significant discrimination too. Sad. But true.

oh I don't know HeQet - I taught plenty of "john Mudarikwa" type - and a large number with European surnames and Shona/Ndbele first names.

I am Irish, DH is English and all our children have "unpronouncable" Irish names. It is important to me that as they will grow up in England that they have something to connect them to my half of their heritage. We chose to give them traditional English middle names though so that they could use them instead if they got tired of spelling their names all the time. I would choose the names you like and not bother second-guessing other peoples' reactions.

If I was in your position, I'd probably go for a first name that is european (as that is your descent) and the surname is african (your husband's descent). Not for reasons of discrimination or anything like that, just that the child is a product of both of you so 1st name and surname reflect that.

Having said that, if you went for an african first name, I would go for one that is:

-spelt as it sounds
-not going to prompt the response of "pardon?" every time child tells someone their name

really just for simplicity (I like simple names that are easy to spell regardless of origin)

Kweli means truth in kiswahili, doesn't it?

I'm british, my husband is Kenyan. Our surname is odd by british 'standards' (standards not right word I suppose, but you know what I mean )

We've gone with unusual names because with our surname, I think a plain old name would sound odd

John Haki would sound really strange, imo.

oh - sod 'em

I have the most unprnouncable surname imaginable from Zimbabwe.

My DS's all have Shona first names.

Yes, Afia is a lovely name, and Kweli is hardly difficult to pronounce and spell!

I believe that some research was done on this quite recently, with researchers sending out identical CVs and monitoring the responses. It was v depressing- with CVs with one part of the name being European doing better than ones where both names were of non-western or non-uk tradition. I remember reading that one half of the name 'reassured' the employer that the candidate was 'integrated' or 'assimilated'. I can't remember where I read about this, but it was either in the Guardian or Observer, and within the last year.

Deeply depressing.

But then there is a regular stream of threads on Mn sniggering at children's names which are common in other cultures or countries.

Personally I would go with what you like best...the best lesson for the baby-name threads is that whatever you choose, someone will not like it!

Congratulations on your approaching birth

I don't think there is any MUST about it. Go with whichever name you like. If other folk have a problem with that then that is their problem. Why should you kowtow to the possible racism of others?

Afia is more unusual and I like it very much (she could have the rather sweet nn of Affie). If you did have concerns, you could give her a more European middle name (acknowledging your ancestry) and that would give her the choice.