To use a 'foreign' name for DC?

[TrueBlu]

There has been some debate in recent months about names you can/can't use on baby names.

So my question is, is it ur to use a name when you have no connection to its country of origin. Would you be appropriating the culture it came from?

Also, when is it 'okay' to Anglicise names?

E.g. I could use Connor instead of Conchobhar, or Neve instead of Niamh, but not Zanthe instead of Xanthe or Eefa instead of Aoife.

The enthusiasm for foreign names is felt across cultures. I remember revisting some friends in Bosnia around the year 2000 and was quite startled to find the young couple next door had called their two year old pfb Ronnie. They said they met a tourist and really liked his name.

I agree with calling them what you like, but please spell/say them properly. I'm welsh and I wince at the garbling of names, Seren for instance is not pronounced Seh-run, Rhiannon is not Ri-ah-nun.

As someone with a Greek name which is common in my mother's country but not in the UK, I would say give your child a name that she doesn't have to constantly tell others how to spell as it's a pain! I also have an unusual English surname so tell people how to spell that as well.

It's very strange and nice to go to my mother's country and have my first name roll off people's tongues so easily without being asked to repeat it EVER - or having people tell me I have such a lovely name to cover up for the fact that they had to ask me to repeat it 3 times and think it's weird.

My first name is often mispronounced as well. Often immediately after I have told people how to say it and leaving out one letter in particular which I think makes it sound horrible. Or it gets pronounced in the way they think it should be pronounced rather than how I and my family have always said it in English.

Can you tell I have a bee in my bonnet about this .

How is Seren pronounced properly great?

great / anyone else - how to pronounce Rhiannon, please?

TrueBlue

As Ninja says, the name is spelt Saoirse. If even the mum can't spell it...

Carabos

I think you can use any name you like, from wherever - even make one up BUT my SiL gave both her DSs foreign names from cultures to which she has absolutely no connection and they do sound very very odd with her surname. They're not even nice names iyswim. They're both hmm confused and one of them is laugh out loud ridiculous. So give it a bit of thought.

You're contradicting yourself, saying you can use any name you like but suggesting that foreign names that don't have a connection to your culture sound odd. What was so laugh out loud ridiculous about your SILs child's name?

What about when two people from different cultures marry and the child has first and last names from differing cultures? Would you say they sound ridiculous?

In this multicultural age, I can't think why any name combinations would be strange. Yes, there are funny names in all cultures (Dick, Fanny, Supaporn, Fukuyama, Dickshit e.g.) but I don't think having a name from a different culture is strange anymore.

EssentialHummous - I would pronounce it as Ree-a-non (as opposed to Ri-annun). I had a friend who answered to either.

Thanks leelu - I had a friend called Rhiannon (this was in South Africa, didn't occur to me that it was a Welsh name moron), and always pronounced it Rhee-anen. Was wondering if I had gotten it completely wrong.

I think a good rule is don't anglicise a name from a country that your country occupied or invaded.
So a big NO to taking a lovely Irish name like Niamh and making it Neve (which doesn't even make the same sound). It's not on, when the Irish language was literally beaten out of the people and almost eradicated. It's taking and changing something and making it worse. I wouldn't be anglicising Indian names, or Welsh ones, or any number of other places. Connor, for example, is fine, because that is widely used in Ireland, its a name in its own right and has been for a long time.

Probably not a popular notion, but it's mine.

By that notion, every anglicized name of Hebrew origin should be banned!

Ri-AH-non.
The first syllable of Seren is a flat a vowel. Which is hard to write but kind of like 'say' without the y sound. Sa(y)-Ren. It's a very welsh vowel sound. The inclination in English is to use the 'uh' sound in any unstressed syllable, but in welsh vowels are as they are written.

Similarly Rhian is not Ri-un. Its Rhi-an. Rh as a letter is almost pronounced with the H first.

DD4 is called Saoirse (Irish) and dd5 is called Mako (pronounced may - co)(Japanese) I love unusual names. Dh and I have no connections to ether.

I like names like Saoirse and Aoife, and would never Anglicise them - Shorsha and Eefa just look awful. I also rather like French names like Garance, and Laurence pronounced in the French way as a girl's name.

By that notion, every anglicized name of Hebrew origin should be banned

No-one mentioned banning, but if you read it again you'll note that its not names of an origin but current names. So if a name has been anglicised a long time ago and is a normal, everyday name, like Rebecca (hebrew origin) or Connor (Irish origin), thats fine. But taking an Israeli name or Irish name and anglicising it, like Eefa for Aoife or whatever ugly anglo thing for Mayaahn...thats a different thing.

You don't have to agree, but don't misrepresent the position. And btw, if you do call a kid Eefa or Neev, Irish people will both laugh at you and dislike you for it.

I'm Welsh and disagree seren is pronounced say ren

Everyone I know pronounce it ser-en

In my country of origin you also have to choose from the state approved list and you can only use that spelling. Given that the list contains just about all names people would conceivably want to call their children, people don't experience it as a restriction; and it solves all issues of mis-spelling names. No one's name is ever spelled incorrectly and no one has to repeat their name: you say it once and everyone knows what your name is and how it is spelled.

Btw if you want names that travel well, choose Biblical ones: they will at least have an equivalent in most countries.

This 'appropriating culture' stuff is nonsense, people have always been influenced by, and borrowed from, other cultures and societies. It's all very precious flower, 'safe space' type gesture politics.

"I'm Welsh my Dc haven't got Welsh names."

Presumably you're English speaking and have given your children English names?
OP is talking about a name in a language she doesn't speak at all.

I have a friend who had a daughter Niamh. I can't get my head around that one as it doesn't even look like neev which is how they pronounce the name.

Can't be doing with them forrin names, meself. Especially not them French ones.