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.

But how does that go. Take James, Rebecca, Simon and Sarah. All Hebrew names. Madeleine, Dominic -French. Alexander - Greek. In fact name one “English” name. (Most will be Saxon) But I agree, it does depend on the name. I loved the name Safira, but wouldn’t use it for my Dd.

What about King David, Ruth, Mary etc many are ancient names to become biblical names they had to be name that were used at the time but Noah has been around for donks!

maybe this is a really good thing - that a name is just that - a name that the parents liked. There is no reason a David needs to be Jewish or Christian or Muslim or Hindu that a prejudice and ignorance coming from meeting someone with that name.

to say you can’t name your child Mohammed as you are white is racist - like saying you can’t name your child Margaret as that’s one of the U.K. prime ministers 😱

Too much madness on a Friday morning

I just think that people should stop and think for a moment. Just because names are "just a word" to one person, they might mean a whole lot more to someone else.

I live in a particularly entitled part of the home counties, where a lot of rich, white people just do whatever they feel like (because why on earth wouldn't they) without ever pausing to consider anyone else's point of view. So I'm probably talking quite specifically about these people!

Well me and dp are German and Spanish and dd is called Ming.

That's a bit off, Ming has huge cultural significance to people from Mongo.

You can overthink it though-isn’t it how cultures spread. Eg Isobel-Scottish, Isabel-Spanish, Isabelle-French, Isabella-Italian. All beautiful but are you saying they shouldn’t be used/you need to use the correct spelling for your country?

No, they are just names. Same as food is what you eat. But some people will be offended anyway.

Jacob and Adam are both Muslim prophets...

I think the term “cultural appropriation” gets people’s back up instantly. But yeah it probably is cultural appropriation, but I think there are harmful and non-harmful types of appropriation, and cultures naturally appropriate from each other as people are exposed to other cultures.

My son’s middle name is Logan, and we’re not Scottish- despite the fact I lived in Scotland for several years, my family still live there and I may go back eventually. I think it’s a lovely name and part of me chose it to appreciate the country that was my home for a good period of time, but the larger part of me chose it because I’m an X-men fan. 😂

Sadly, you therefore can only name your children after an alcoholic drink, the place the child was conceived, or what the most popular cbbc ofvthe year
😁

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it, as other posters have said many cultures who live in the U.K. / Australia etc will chose an English name for their child (aswell as names from their own culture) as they live here and know it will make it easier for their child. No-one thinks ‘how dare they use one of our names’.

When I was pregnant with DD I wanted to call her Amelie. I am Welsh, DP has Indian heritage. He pointed out we are not French and as DS had a Welsh name we should pick another name from one of our cultures, not a random one. He had a point, and we chose a name with Asian heritage but also popular in the U.K. too (with a slightly different spelling to the U.K. variation of the name to reflect her heritage). Glad we didn’t go with a French name, do love Amelie though!

I agree wit this. It does make me cringe when British people give their child a very obvious name from another culture and I commented on this the other week when somebody wanted to give their child a very Irish name when they weren't Irish, it's purely on the basis of trying to find an "original" name.

To be fair Dave is a common Gujrarati name

Hmm… a lot of “English” sounding names actually have their origins in the Bible and come from Middle Eastern people.

Think of names like Daniel, Jacob, Joseph, Rebecca, Mary, Elizabeth etc etc.

If we restricted those names to people of Jewish ancestry because to do otherwise is “cultural appropriation”, that’s an awful lot of people who would have to change their names.

In any event, most of us have some
ancestry from another country (whether we know it or not, even if it’s many generations ago), so why don’t we lighten up, stop trying to compartmentalise humanity (it’s dangerous - history shows that when we try to “other”’ people, it ends in genocide) and try to recognise the evils of racism and the history of racial oppression without risking perpetuating it.

No easy answers, but restricting names to those of your own “culture” is like saying “only people of X ethnicity can live in this neighbourhood”.

I don’t mind first names really, but I do find it mildly offensive when people use an Irish surname as a first name for their child, often without even realising that’s what they’re doing. Seems to be a trend for calling kids stuff like Quinn, Sullivan etc. The distinction for me is that first names are usually a free choice but surnames are obviously passed down through generations and have real cultural meaning. The recent trend seems to be imported from America where it probably started with people who had actual Irish heritage but now adopted by the same people who are likely to slag off the “difficult” spellings of Irish names and insist that they are anglicised.

What about Adam and Eve? Been around even longer!

*Most popular cbbc programme of the year

Hope she never lives where I do as ming means an unpleasant smell!

I don’t believe in this whole cultural appropriation full stop

people can choose whatever names, 𝗛𝗔𝗜𝗥, outfits they want it’s ridiculous!!

But Isa is used in the Qu’ran and Jesus is a prophet in Islam.

I think this is extreme overthinking, and looking for more ways to be offended, so many names have roots way back, that if you're going to try to be offended, you have a lot of research to to to make sure you're right that one culture "owns" a name- not a quick Google search.

YABU. I know many non-white people with “white” names. Also, think about popular names in the UK. Noah, Jack and Ezra are Hebrew. George and Theo are Greek. Sophia and Phoebe are Greek and Ava is Hebrew. If you like a name that originates from a different country or culture then go for it.

Surely if you can I dentist as a woman and we can all be what we want…… we can do the same for our children too?

Showing my age but I’m glad my mum didn’t go with Skegness, Babycham or Muffin (the Mule)

She did however give me a Hebrew name, for no other reason other than a famous actress had it - celebrity appropriation

I was born in the U.K. On my mother's side they are from Russia.