American names = bad?

[thecaroline]

Hello, everyone,

I'm not a mom or pregnant, just very interested in names. I've been reading here for a while and am a regular on another name website, and I've noticed that lots of posters here seem to feel a certain disdain for "American" sounding names. I'm curious about this, partly because I'm American, and partly because I don't understand the categorization.

So, what are these American names you speak of? And I'm wondering if all "American-sounding names" are inherently tacky to the British/Irish ear, or... what do you think? Where do "Australian sounding names" fit into this equation?

I have a feeling that this category of names is what a good number of Americans would label "tacky" or "trendy"... or at least I hope so.

Thanks, y'all (I might as well play up my Americanness, right?)

:)

Sorry, dim..

I have seen some resistance to the idea of using Irish spellings, fadas and all, here on MN though, so 'travelling well between cultures' is a quality of some names that isn't universally accepted.

It's a bit stupid to assume a family is British (because what? Their accents and colour?) and therefore they've 'borrowed' someone else's culture with their name choices - Britain is a hugely multicultural country! Of course there will be plenty of families that seem more British than they are.

The fact that a lot of US/SA/Oz/NZ naming traditions come from Europe originally anyway just makes it even more daft to judge people from using them in Europe too.

And a few years ago you would not have found non-Irish Aoifes and Niamhs anywhere - they really would have been very unusual outside of Ireland. Siobhan and Sinead were greeted with incredulity when they first started appearing in Britain. They don't sound strange now. Authentic Irish names are similarly unusual in the US.

TeWi - the thing about naming habits in the US is that most people are unaware of the naming traditions of whatever ethnic groups they come from, and their choice of names has nothing to do with tradition but rather with fashion.

MsCoconut - I don't know, I don't have hard-and-fast rules about this; what I said was a general impression as to why she might see criticism of US names on these boards.

Irish names like Niamh have been used for years in mainland Britain because of Irish immigration. That would be true of America too, in areas with historically high Irish immigration.

MN tends to have the same English posters saying that Angliscised spellings should be used for the ease of erm...English people. However, particularly with names I find MN very non-representative of the general population. Persephone is much loved on here, but one doesn't see many of them in rl.

I lurvrrre 30s style american names. We so nearly called our twins Hank and Annie! Wish we had, really.

You people know the vast majority of Americans have typical English names, right?

BTW, Trip is a nickname, short for Triple. So a James Edward Smith III might be nicknamed Trip.

Niamh and other names that have been popular in post war Ireland are almost completely unknown in America. Authentic Irish names with authentic spellings don't go down well there partly because of pronunciation difficulties and partly because of the desire to blend in. Americans who want to use an 'Irish' name tend to go for Mary Kate or Meghan (not an Irish name) or something like Eileen or Kathleen or the very popular Katelyn. Erin and Shannon and Tara are also classics in Irish America and among Irish America wannabes. The likes of Roisin, Grainne, Eimear, Mairead, Fionnuala, Sinead, etc., tend to be avoided, if they are known at all.

For boys' names, only those whose spelling would cause no difficulty tend to go down well. The exception is Sean, but Sean Penn boosted that particular name. Declan, Kevin, Conor, Aidan, Liam and Brendan are names that are reasonably popular (Liam is in the top ten afaik). They are all easy to spell and end with N (or M) which is trendy. You don't find names like Diarmuid or Ailbhe or Daragh, partly because they are hard to pronounce and partly because of the A ending that is seen as feminine. Kevin was huge in Britain too.

Niamh is a relatively recent newcomer to the British name scene. Many Irish people even up to those who emigrated to Britain in the 70s would not have used identifiably Irish names for their children, especially names in Irish, for fear they would be associated with Irish Republican sympathies. Many older generation British people have difficulties accepting Irish spellings. Outside of large centres of Irish population, people who just wanted to get on with their lives tended to try to blend in and not have to explain themselves. Even in places like Kilburn where cousins of mine grew up with standard 70s names that had a French -ie ending, not everyone was brave enough to go for something Irish.

Yes op, or Hispanic names.

Though, Megan in all it's variant spellings is very popular and Welsh in origin.

Ashton/Ashtyn is an American name I've always liked very much. Perhaps because of my close association with an American of that name who is now tragically deceased.

That's interesting math.

Enjoying this thread.

That doesn't make it better though math.

I came to the UK from NZ, surname names very popular there. DH and I love them, almost every single person we mentioned this to in the UK sneered and said it was 'American'.

Which is really rude both to me and my taste, and to Americans who have every right to be offended that so many people think their taste in names are crap! It doesn't really matter to me that, say, Irish American name choices aren't authentically Irish anymore, that's because the people aren't purely Irish anymore either. They are allowed to pick and choose which things they want to pass down and in what context, just like ALL of us do, and I don't think they should be judged for that.

If people are saying names come from particular countries and they don't I can see that that is annoying, but most of the names mentioned here aren't guilty of that.

I don't know if I phrased that right. I appreciate that it is very, very annoying when people get things about your culture wrong, and sometimes personally upsetting.

At the same time when you emigrate many miles away, or you grow up 2nd/3rd generation in a proud family. It's never going to be quite the same as either having stayed or being purely from the place you live. The interpretation you have of your past and your culture is not the same as it would be otherwise.

It's a weird one. For all of us.

Going back to the very american name Randy for a moment, there was an ep of Have I Got News For You that featured a segment on the very unfortunately named Randy Bumgardner! Apparently his parents never saw an issue with the name!

Randy does not have the same definition in the US as is does in the UK. It's an ugly, outdated name, but aside from that, Americans wouldn't associate it with amorousness.

TeWiSavesTheDay, I sometimes feel the same way. It's hard not to take a general dislike of your country personally, even if you do dislike your country yourself. Because, it seems, most of the dislike of the US in this context at least has to do with good old British elitism.

Yes Math. It's funny, I saw that Alyson Hannigan had named her daughter Keeva and I thought "ooh, Caoimhe!" Which of course would never fly here.

I love Roisin, and Saorise. That "shhh" sound. Also (not Irish) Rhys, which I'm not sure a lot of people would say correctly the first time either.

Meh, I think a lot of people know what Randy means. Because on Dawson's Creek Andi got drunk and did a poem which went "My name is Andi/My boyfriend makes me randy" :o

Haha. I did learn a lot of vocab from Dawson's Creek. But yeah, you're right. Relatively educated people prob do know how the UK (and Ireland and Australia?) define Randy.

MsCoconut we are English and expecting a baby in the US. We like quite classic names so hopefully whatever we chose should work in both countries. I think we'll have more of an eye on the UK charts though as we plan on moving back there in the next couple of years. Part of me does want to go for a really American sounding middle name but DH isn't so keen. I only know a few children over here. Colbee, Aubrey, Avery (all girls) and Hudson probably have the most 'American' names

Incidentally we named our cat Hattie over here and this caused quite a lot of confusion at the vets as it isn't a nickname that they come across often. She was regularly called Haiti.

Hattie is more common now because of Parenthood (though she is Haddie) and Tori Spelling's little Hattie.

I know an American named Roisin. It's a lovely name.

British ex-pat deep in the trenches of SAHM US land, and I would say that I've come across many traditional names. Henry is really popular, Sophie is everywhere, Noah, Samuel, Jack.

There is an abundance of that surname as first name thing, though, plus naming your kids after towns. Against my better judgment I've warmed to a couple of very "American" names, such as Trey, but went very traditional with my two.

The Queen's first great-grandchild is named for an American town, one that is right up the road from me.

'They are allowed to pick and choose which things they want to pass down and in what context, just like ALL of us do, and I don't think they should be judged for that.'

Thing is they are not picking and choosing from their real heritage what they pass down and what they don't. They are passing down a Hollywood (for want of a better word) notion of what their heritage is. Names like Tara, Erin or Shannon for instance were never used as names -- in Ireland in the 19th century names would have either a Christian (Margaret, Bridget, Catherine, Mary) or in the 20th century a literary/political (Niamh, Aislinn, Eimear) origin. If anything, the use of names like Tara by Irish Americans is a sad phenomenon, because that was all they were left with after several generations of fitting in and deliberately in many cases forgetting their heritage. Or you see someone with a name like Madison Wojciechowski, which is imo sad too.