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 is the thing though isn't it.

Everyone crying out about cultural appropriation would have no problem with the names Benjamin, Samuel, Isaac, George, Maya, Isla, Charlotte etc but every one of them has been appropriated at one point or another.

Re the name Mohammed... why would it be offensive? It's not offensive to use the name Joshua (the Anglicised version of Jesus' name) or Simon, Paul, Peter, John etc, all of whom were prophets.

I think as long as you recognise a name's heritage and appreciate it then there is no problem using a name. If there was half of the posters on this thread would be stripped of our own names and we would all be called Old English names like Demelza and Beardsley because society would never have progressed to incorporate 'foreign names' of the time.

You can call your child whatever you like, the names you've listed I have no idea what the cultural link is? The only thing I'd find weird would be calling your child Muhammed or Jesus if you weren't part of those religions, anything else though if you like the name why not?

I guess boundaries get pushed on more international names as time goes on. I always liked the name Lakshmi but being blonde with blue eyes and very British through and through that names wouldn't fit, but we actually called our daughter a Jewish name which is the Aramaic word for Gazelle ... again would be considered international but not unusual for her in the UK setting

I'm guessing it's just how names blend over time

‘Is Niamh / Naomi lol’ is not respectful of the Irish language - where Niamh makes perfect linguistic sense. Use whatever names you want but please respect the origin

@70kid Adam is a muslim name. He was our first prophet and first man created by God.
There are lots of muslim boys called this. It's a great name

Jacob is a muslim name also, but we say Yaqob. We believe in Jacob as a prophet too and the father of the prophet Joseph or as we call him, Yussuf.

I’ve just had my DNA done. I’m a mix of about 10 different cultures/ethnicities. I think it’s a non issue really. I would shy away from very religious names such as Mohammed though. Culturally we are all intermingling much more and with the advent of the internet, becoming more of a global culture so what once we’re ‘niche’ names are becoming much more mainstream.

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

@Toughlover2 Be careful she doesn't grow up to be merciless with a desire to rule the universe!

I’m kind of regretting giving my DC Russian names….

I think the worst thing is taking a name from another culture then mis-spelling it an anglicised way. E.g. Neave.

@2muchtimeonline good morning
I definitely do respect the origin I can assure you that. I apologise if it came across that way.

I love the Irish names, I just have difficulty with them. Like pronouncing them. Took me a while to work out Saoirse. It fascinates me the spelling and how unique they all are.

So many nations have historically oppressed/attacked other nations.

Germany for eg. Do the posters here talking about minorities and oppression agree that young German parents mustn't chose names originating from Poland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Yugoslavia or Greece?

Or is it offensive to remind young German people of something which was absolutely not their fault?

If so, why doesn't that apply to the British?

What a depressingly nasty and negative post, putting those people down for no reason. What’s wrong with learning about another culture, and aspiring to leave this country behind and live somewhere better? House prices are much cheaper in France anyway.

I appreciate your response. I guess the point I’m making is that they are not unusual spellings in their original language, where mh and bh is pronounced v. So Sabhbh or Sadhbh is easy to say if you speak the language (and beautiful, pronunciation Sive)

Wow, thanks. You have helped me a lot because I wasnt sure with that and the v sound I hope you have a lovely day.

@LadyCampanulaTottington

I can only assume you are joking about an English person using an Irish name being offensive????

Would you not consider your user name distinctly English? Tottington being an English village or the bane was been taken from Wallace & Gromit, a UK production

No one owns a name? I'm Irish and have zero issue with people using names like Niamh, Orla, etc. What's the down side? I don't particularly like when Siobhan is spelt Shauvonne or some such but it's poor spelling not offensive.

My baby's name makes the 'worst' list then☹️ we just liked the name and that it was a different version of a family member's name.. I made a thread about it recently on 'baby names' as I was having wobbles about his name. Posts like this don't help.

I always find it strange when non-Jewish people choose Cohen as a name. It's a very specific surname related to the priestly class.

I am Welsh (as is DH) and DCs have Welsh names but as we live in London I chose names that reflected their heritage (as they were actually born in Wales) and I thought the English could pronounce easily. One of the names is / was popular in the West Indian community and D.C. has been accused (by a white males I might add) of ‘cultural appropriation’. Highly amusing but go figure! That really is wokedom gone mad imo!

... to a dog with a Chinese name? Sorry but that's insane.

It's strange to pick a name from a different language/culture if you don't pronounce it the way it's meant to be pronounced.

@ChagSameachDoreen I think this is where the problem lies as many names are duplicated in other cultures but are extremely similar. Cohan/Cohen also has Irish roots. It is a variant of Cohane, which itself is an Anglicized form of the Irish Ó Cadhain.

I should add I love the names in question and for anyone who likes them to use them for their children if they want to!

think as long as you recognise a name's heritage and appreciate it then there is no problem using a name.

Who is going to police this exactly? Do you imagine people asking your child for their parents' contact details so that some appointed judge can assess their levels of the cultural and historical meaning of their given name?!

Don't be so bloody ridiculous!

Nigeria was a British colony so it isn't cultural appropriation plus he could simply been named after someone one of his parents met and made an impact on their lives. Boris Johnson's youngest son is a well-known example of the latter.

Lots of kids are named after celebrities e.g Sir Mohamed Farah or people who have had an impact on one/both of their parents lives. My DP's children including my DD are named after deceased neighbours.

What is the point of this comment? Those are figures in islam also

Ha, cross posted. I am also exercised by the fact that in some middle class circles of millennial Indian/Chinese, cultural appropriation is treated as the main social injustice issue and they will still happily vote Tory

But oh man this thread - at least try and understand why people might be put out by this?? Or just admit that you do understand and you don't care.