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.

😂

So no black person questions him, but white middle class males tell him off for how his parents named him.

It depends on the name and its origin.

My niece has a Spanish name which I found strange in the beginning as her parents are snow white her father has red hair however it is beautiful on her now.

I wouldn't pay much attention to a name it grows on a person who has been named.

I think the only ones that would stand out to me as an odd choice if the family have no connection is a name that has really obvious, strong religious/cultural connotations - such as Mohammed or Ibrahim for example.
But then again, in certain parts of the world, names that once had strong religious/cultural connections have become very commonplace - Sarah, Rebecca, Matthew, David for example. All biblical, Hebrew names, but all very common in English-speaking countries.

Stanley any good?

Posted too soon - my DC2 has a quite obviously Irish name, but we have no Irish ancestry on either side 🤷🏻‍♀️ I come from a Polish family and my ex-H hails from Southeast Asia.

The thing i genuinely don’t get about cultural appreciation/appropriation is, I live in a country that has a different culture to the one I grew up in. But I chose to live here and so I do the cultural things that this country has, and also do some of the cultural stuff from my own country. Surely this is what we’re meant to do? Like, mix and mingle?
I also have friends here from a variety of different cultures and again, they do some Aussie stuff, some stuff from their own culture. I’m kind of dying to be asked to a Diwali celebration because it looks brilliant, but I don’t know if asking is the done thing, or if it would be weird for them (I would be totally cool and happy with someone Hindu asking to come to a Carol concert or an Easter event for example) so I just drop hints which so far have not been picked up on (or they don’t want me to come which is fine too)
So this is cultural appreciation right? And the whole point of a multi cultural society?
And would it be cultural appropriation if I (for example) made a cookery book full of Aboriginal recipes (I’m Australian but not Aboriginal) and didn’t credit the resources that I got them from?
But my kids will make Aboriginal inspired paintings at school because that’s a celebration of culture and it’s not like they profit off it?

Also.. my name is the German form of a Greek name (parents both English with no roots of either). A lot of names were formed in these ways. Is that so bad!?

Of course it's okay, the wider debate on CA is getting silly. The only thing I'd hesitate about are obviously religious ones like Mohammed.

I'm Irish. I love it when people outside of Ireland choose Irish names, because there are lots of beautiful ones, it's lovely to see them grow in popularity outside Ireland.

I have a Noor and Adham. Both Arabic names both hold a British passport. I am off to the police station now to hand myself in.

I just said the phrase all the tea in China on another thread. Then I realised that would probably send shooting pains up the arse of some of these people 😀

Why? Tea comes from China.

Would you accuse William Shakespeare of cultural appropriation? After all he named two of his children Judith and Hamnet. His children were named after two very good friends of he and his wife. Surely this is how names travel around the world.

I know a young girl whose mother is Lebanese though neither the girl’s first or last name would suggest that. If she later chooses to give her child a Lebanese name would that be cultural appropriation?Someone’s name alone may not tell you what their cultural heritage is.

Nationality as shown by a passport, skin colour and cultural heritage aren't the same thing. Sometimes there is an obvious link but often there isn't.

Your children will have more in common with the children they go to school with and share their culture daily- as shown by the change in London language articles in the papers this week - than someone who lives in a different part of the UK.

Agreed.

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.

Billy Connolly did a routine about this sort of thing. Posh people in Scotland will give their kids first names that are surnames to working class people.

"Campbell! Have you seen Finlay? – Oh, he was with Wallace and Cameron earlier"

It's a little weird to use a name that seems to be quite clearly from a different culture but I don't think of it as cultural appropriation? Essentially its odd but wouldnt go as far to say 'wrong'. I guess it's one of those things that if someone of that culture is offended then it shouldn't be done. I think using a name from the country you are living in even if not matching your ethnicity is completely fine

@RedWingBoots - yes exactly - in fact DCs black friends (and their parents!) think his name is cool!

Or should that be sick - or is that me appropriating the language of youth?

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.

I wouldn't be so sure people don't realise. That's a trend that's strongly established in the States for all kinds of surnames. It's also popular in Scotland and has long been traditional in unionist communities in NI (taking the mother's maiden name as a sons first name). Nothing new under the sun and all that.

you wouldn’t know to look at us but between myself and ExDH we are a mixture of French, North African, welsh, scots, Irish and english
DD ended up with an Irish name
DS common name which works across France and UK I wanted French names for both of them but ExDH didn’t

I can't say that it bothers me in the slightest.
A lot of people in my home country have English names, some of my former Nigerian colleagues have English names, and my children apart from one who is named after a Hebrew prophet, have Scottish names.
If you like the name, then it's irrelevant what it's origin is as far as I'm concerned.

Yes but what you’re describing is someone giving a family name to their kid.

that is completely different from a random English person with no Irish connections choosing to call their child Kennedy or Reilly. That’s the whole point.

Sorry - the above was in response to @TheKeatingFive

Yes but what you’re describing is someone giving a family name to their kid.

Only in the NI example. Random surnames as first names have been widespread in the US for ages.

I feel the same about Welsh names. As long as they’re pronounced properly and not mangled to suit non Welsh tongues.