Naming my mixed race child and Irish name?

[ihateyousarahm]

I'm pregnant with a child who will be mixed race. My family are Irish but we've lived in England for a couple of generations.

We want to respect the heritage and name our child a traditional Irish name. Some people have said it will be hard to pronoumce as it's an Irish name and we don't usually see the name and others have said it's a mixed race baby so don't. However when I said what name we should use, they don't know.

A girls name like Charlotte etc is English and although we have both lived in England for a couple of generations I'm torn.

Ideas please?

Who is Sarah m and what did she do to you op

This what I have been wondering! 🤔

Spill the beans on this wicked woman, OP.

I know a mixed-race Siobhan and a mixed-race Niamh. I don't think either of them have any Irish heritage and hadn't really thought about it until now.

They are both English and Chinese. Your child can be seen as English and to be honest they will feel English and whatever heritage they are maybe more so than Irish.

English and British. They are allowed to be both.

Most people use British if they identify as British-[nationality] IME.

I am not sure I understand the issue. I live in Ireland and am white and one of my nieces is called Cara who lives abroad and is mixed race. We have mixed race and black people born and raised in Ireland too with Irish names.

Would you have used British if I had said Scottish or Welsh instead of English which is what was being talked about? Probably not.

I know a family who I think are Nigerian. Their son is a Edwin. Not many of those about!

I would.

It might depend on whether the individual identified strongly with being Scottish, Welsh or Irish, but the ones I know describe themselves as British-[nationality] not English-[nationality] and I think they are English by birth.

If someone was born in England but both their parents and all their grandparents aren’t ethnically English then they’re not English. They’re Chinese, Nigerian, Italian etc but their nationality is British. If someone is English Chinese then one parent is white and one parent is Chinese.

They can call themselves English if they are born here.

One of my parents was born in England but ethnically Chinese (British Chinese). The other is white English. I’m describing myself! But I guess white people know better?

If anything I literally know a mixed race girl called Saorise! BUT the paternal grandmother really struggled to pronounce her name for the first year . If you like a name, use it. I know a full English woman with the Sri Lankan name Jayanthi too

I don't understand what the problem is, name your child whatever you want. Not all Irish names are hard to pronounce either. Just maybe avoid something like caoilfhionn.

This is why you never tell anyone what your name ideas are! Pick whatever you want, this is your child.

I was on about nationality. Your ethnically Chinese parent can call themselves English as well if they wished. English-Chinese as well as British Chinese. Ignoring the last comment from you as it was pointless!

Mixedmix's last sentence was not pointless.
She can call herself English as she was born in England.
She can call herself Chinese-English if she so wishes. (I'd take it to mean one parent English, one parent Chinese-heritage)
I'd describe her as British-Chinese because I'd take that to mean British born to Chinese-heritage parents.

One parent is white so I’m English Chinese. One parent is Chinese but born in England so you’re right that they’re British Chinese because they have a British passport.

Going back to OP she can call her child whatever they want and it doesn’t matter if they’re Irish or not.

How would you pronounce Caoilfhionn? Never seen that one.

https://forvo.com/word/caoilfhionn/

Keelan.

How many people in Ireland actually use Irish Gaelic on a daily basis (outside of schools)? Isn't it only about 1%?

It’s not really relevant as far more than that choose Irish language names for their children.