AIBU or is baby name cultural appropriation a thing?

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I'm ready to be told I'm being silly BUT am I right in thinking there's a level of.. appropriateness? Inappropriateness? In using names from other cultures.
For example.. would it be strange for an English couple with no discernible links to any other countries or heritage to name their child Priya, Otto, Etienne or Niamh, among many other names.
To be honest I flip backwards and forwards between thinking there are so many lovely names in the world, why shouldn't they be used by whoever likes them, and then that it's just a bit strange if no link!
Happy to discuss, I have no strong feeling either way just intrigued to see what opinions there are.

This .
What were they thinking

My DD is called Niamh.

We are not Irish.

However, we're in Scotland where Irish names are common because we share the Gaelic heritage.

If I called my DD "dances with wolves' or something like that, then you may have a point

@sashh I think you’ll find that much of French language was forced on the English after the Norman conquest.

Ozgirl75 · Today 04:57
I live in Australia in an area with loads of Chinese families. Some of the children have Chinese names (Lanxin, Wenxi and En Che to name three I know well), but the majority have “English” names - including some super old fashioned ones like Jeff, Bob, Roy, Ron and Alan, which I find awesome on 8 year olds. No one calls them out for “cultural appropriation” - presumably they’re just names they like.

I agree. DD’s school friend is called Fiona and she’s Chinese.

If you look at the roots of most names, they have come from other cultures at some point in time. People migrate (or invade) and this has historically driven the evolution of language. The same thing happens with names. We have a very large population of Muslims in the UK, so why shouldn’t some names traditionally associated with that religion and their cultures be assimilated into British culture? I would see it as a welcome sign of integration and diversity rather than tar it with the cultural appropriation brush. It’s a process as old as humanity - if we didn’t do it, we’d all still be communicating with grunts.

live and let live.

It's too difficult to police. Rachel and Sarah are Jewish names which are very popular with non-Jewish people. They seem acceptable but naming your son Muhammed if you're not a Muslim isn't acceptable?

I like what a previous poster said. There is lots of bias when it comes to names due to racism...people not shortlisted for jobs etc. Perhaps it would be a good thing if people chose names they like instead of names related to their culture as it would eventually eradicate name bias as it would be impossible to know the ethnicity of someone based on their name.

It's common for immigrants to have an English name in addition to their birth name, from certain cultures.

My father came here in the 1960s and was known to family and close friends by his real name but had an English name he used for business and more formal relationships

Otto was in my top 3 and we are white British! I think a name is just a name- it belongs to whoever has it regardless of their cultural context. X

People are so deliberately obtuse with their "well what names CAN I use as a marginalised, white ("as pure as the driven snow" white, like proper, perfect white white) middle class, British person? <wrings hands>

Of course names and their usage evolves. But the difference between appreciation and appropriation comes in the power dynamic. I can't imagine it makes a difference to anyone in France if there's a whole generation of Etiennes over here. But if you've deliberately chosen a name with a strong cultural meaning, and then suddenly there's a whole bunch of white British kids using that name, I can see how that could feel like having your identity stolen from under you.

Do you think people from other cultures aren't allowed to use 'our' names? Ie. a Chinese or Muslim person called Anna or Catherine would be wrong?

Of course names like Rachel and Sarah are Jewish, but it's pretty obvious that that means they're in the Bible, in the Old Testament, and therefore have been within Christian culture for hundreds of years, despite their indubitably Jewish origins and significance?
I have reservations about non Muslim people using the name Mohammed as a first name as it does seem like it could cause some offence. It's a really meaningful name for a Muslim to give their child and just rather strange for a non Muslim to use.

Totally agree OP, why don't English people name their children beautiful traditional English names like Gary and Tracy. 😤

This

cultural appropriation to me is about dominant cultures adopting minority cultures’ sacred, spiritual, religious or culturally important practices for entertainment or gain: so white girls wearing Native American war bonnets at festivals, Gwen Stefani wearing a bindi, white fashion designers sending kimonos down the catwalk, white chefs becoming famous and profiting from a country’s food: “Rick Stein’s India” is a book title that always makes me do a horrified laugh, it ain’t yours mate! And it’s full of recipes that “improve” India’s originals, and glossy photos of poor brown people to bring authenticity to Rick’s profits.

Naming your child a name from a different culture isn’t quite the same thing, though there will be specific name exceptions to that, and I think it would also depend on the behaviour around the name and if the couple were also doing weird blackfishing or appropriating other things. But there’s no profit or exploitation around a name, generally.

When you're living as a minority, particularly a minority that has a history of oppression, and a current, ongoing experience of racism, then names take on more meaning.

It makes no odds to me whatsoever if a Black/Muslim/Chinese/Indian family choose to call their child Anna. But if white people start stamping into other people's cultures with their muddy boots on, grabbing whatever they feel like simply because they can, it's just yet another example of narrow sighted, self-centred, entitled behaviour.

I don't understand the furore about cultural appropriation.
.I was bought up to accept others. We love in a multicultural society. We see and learn from other cultures. When I was growing up kids got corn rows put in their hair on the beach on holiday. Now they can go to a local hair dresser as well. We eat and cook food from all cultures. Fashion is influenced by all sorts. I thought it was just living together and merging communities. I couldn't care less what others call their kids. If a non ethnically British person (not sure exactlynthe definition of this) picks a traditional British name or someone British uses a Mexican name. So what.

We all live together and get along together. It's lovely when we appreciate other people's culture. (Especially if we like it enough to use the names for kids).

Or should we all have our own lists we can use. What about my mixed race kids....which lost would they be allowed to pick from?

The voice of sense! Thank you

Oh for goodness sake!
Should an Indian mother be prevented from naming her baby son Dave in your judgement?

@WalkerWalking As it happens, I am third-generation, from a minority culture with a history of oppression.
This hypersensitivity and outrage still makes no sense to me.
I think it distracts from fixing issues that actually need to be addressed.
I really don't think it helps to have this image of 'white people stomping on us with muddy boots' or whatever. But obviously that's just my opinion.

why? Lots of 'traditionally English' names have biblical roots, yet are bot considered appropriated from Jewish
Far better to have a name recognised by a country/culture than one that reflects where you were concieved such as 'brooklyn' or 'round the back of a pub', orcafter an alcoholic drink

@georgarina exactly! All this middle class hand ringing by people who are doing precisely nothing to really change injustice in the real world is nauseating. Imo.

My neighbours son who is Muslim named their two kids Jacob and Adam .

I think it's inevitable and a good thing. It shows society is melding. If we keep drawing strict lines aroundour cultures our frames of reference get smaller and smaller. Few people come from one culture these days. Most of us are blended and have been for centuries.

It might seem weird to me that a non Muslim white family call their son Mohammed. But it fifty years time maybe it will be an English name, part of melded culture. That isn;t the same as appropriation. We have to recognise cross pollination of ideas and taste as a natural and (imo) healthy part of cultural merging and acceptance.

Ignore them. Such people think they know everything and are the arbiters of good taste. They don't

Sadly my feeling is that you are being utterly ridiculous.
Looking at the history of most names, shows they derive from many other countries and are fashionable in trends or through customs.
People choose names that like, for any number of reasons, don’t throw discrimination at an area for the sake of sanctimonious moral outrage,
it’s just not worth it.