Does anyone feel this way about a name?

[SunRayLoving]

This is just a general question for people with a mixed heritage or background. Do you ever feel like a name has lost its connection to your background/origins due to its popularity and how common it is for people that don't have a connection to that culture/country to use it now?

I feel this way about the name Luna. Maybe 10-15 years ago it would have been a lovely name to represent my background but now I feel it's totally unusable. Of course no one owns a name and we are all free to name our DC whatever name we choose and it's absolutely respectable.

I'm just wondering if anyone feels like that too about any names in particular. Not trying to come off as a stuck up or saying I own any names at all but just a thought really.

Yes. I dislike names from other languages being used and mispronounced.
If the mispronounced version becomes mainstream, the otherwise pleasant name seems tarnished.

The mispronunciation is the most annoying for sure

Luna is definitely the biggest representative of it when it comes to girls names but on the boy's side it's Xavier

Absolutely lovely name but if I hear 'zay-vee-er' or 'ex-avier' one more time I might just cry myself to death.

But Xavier is pronounced Zay-vee-er in English. Inigo might be a similar comparison.

Ex-avier is truly cringeworthy.

Mike how do you pronounce Inigo, I always assumed it was In e go.

MikeUniformMike - Yes. That's how it is pronounced in English but it's not the original pronunciation since the origin of the name is Spanish and not English. It originated from a priest's name who took it as he was from the town of Javier (Xavier)

It's just a matter of time before a name becomes "universal" in a culture. Most names that are common in the West come from the Bible/Torah and therefore from Hebrew.

scrivette- You are not asking me haha but anyway Iñigo (I assume that's what the PP meant) is pronounced like Ee-gnee-goo. The ñ is like a (gn) sound but in all honesty I don't even mind Inigo so much as I know the letter ñ doesn't exist in English. It'd be Ee-nee-goh. It's the more 'modern' version of the original name Eneko which I actually find absolutely stunning

I'm Irish and it gets to me when English people can't spell or pronounce the name Colleen. There are two l's... Its also not pronounced Kileen.... Its Colleen.

I would probably adapt my name pronunciation depending which language I was speaking in. So for example I would refer to "Dah-veed" in Spanish or "Day-vid" in English without even noticing I was doing it.

Luna sounds very similar in Spanish of English. I can't think of any English girls called Luna though. Is there an epidemic of them where you live OP?

Yes, I know that OP, but the name is pronounced Zay-vee-er in english. The saint's name is anglicised as Francis Xavier. The spelling just happens to be the same.

I couldn't remember how to do n with a tilde. I only know one Iñigo, and he's Spanish, but Inigo as used in the UK is Inni-go. The spelling is slightly different.

Both names have been around for centuries.

MikeUniformMike - Yes I know but that's exactly what I mean. How some names are kept with their original pronunciation and some others completely shift like in the case of Xavier, making them sound like absolutely different names and kind of losing their original vibe

A clear example is how Joaquin is pronounced the same way in English than in Spanish even though the J sounds are completely different in both languages and it happens to be a completely unknown name in the English world yet sadly that didn't happen to Xavier and now it's got these weird pronunciations

WildCherryBlossom - Yes, there seems to be quite a few or at least I've met a bunch in the past two years. Hopefully the trend will wear out at some point

Joaquin is a better example. I sort of agree with you about Xavier and Inigo, but I knew them as the names of a saint and an architect first.

Examples I can think of might be Jacqueline, which became Jackelin not Jacqueline and Genevieve - Jenna-veeve not Geneviève. Both are much prettier in French.

I'd say that there are some names I wouldn't use because the standard pronunciation seems to have changed. Alicia at some point has become Aleesha or Alissia, whereas I'm sure it used to be Alisha, and Sophia was Soph-eye-a, and Maria Mar-eye-a.

Luna is popular in the Uk. Something to do with Harry Potter.

Not really thought about it. But imitation is the highest form of flattery isnt it? I dont think it diminishes it.

No this doesn’t bother me, I work for a large corporation and deal with many different countries and cultures and you find the same name across many different countries pronounced differently across many of them.

Names move across countries and cultures and are adapted in many different ways. And I think it’s important to be accepting of that.

Op, here is a list of Xavier across the world. Do you take exception to them all? It is not just used in “England”.

Javier (Spanish)
Saverio (Italian)
Ksavierij (Ксаверий) (Russian, Ukrainian)
Ksawery (Polish)
Xabere, Xabel (Asturian)
Xabier (Basque)
Xavier (Catalan, English, French, Old Spanish, Portuguese, Galician, Swedish)
Xaver (Czech, German, Slovakian)
Xavér (Hungarian)
Xaveriu (Romanian)
Xaverius (Dutch, Latin)
Xaveriοs (Ξαβέριος) or (Σαβεριος) (Greek)
Ksaveras (Lithuanian)

That’s certainly true in the case of some names, @Bluntness100, but many Irish names, for instance, have no equivalent versions in other countries, and are just bastardised by mispronunciation. Would you see Wy-vonny as an equally valid alternative pronunciation of Yvonne, or Goo-ey for Guy?

I think Luca is the best example of a boy's name going very suddenly mainstream and no longer being an option for (Italian/latin in this case) parents to denote the baby's roots.

Luna is a very popular dog name.

Welsh names suffer from it. They don't usually sound very nice in an English accent, and some sound quite different.

Rhys and Dylan seem to be Rees and Dillun. If you are called those names, if you are outside Wales you will have to put up with it.

Bethan is an example. In welsh the last syllable is pronounced en, like the letter N, but anglicised it becomes un.

Rhian is another example. It isn't Ree-un or Ree-Anne.

Popular on here are Nia and Eira. Nia doesn't sound like Near, and Eira isn't Ay-ruh ot Ira.

Arianwen gets suggested in Baby Names quite often, and I'm pretty sure that if used, they won't say it properly, as I don't think a welsh speaker would choose it. It's Ar-YAN-wen, not Arry Anwen. It is 3 syllables not 4.

I think it happens to Irish names- Roisin, Siobhan and Una spring to mind. The one Una I know complains that she gets called Ewe-na, Roisin gets Rosh-een, and Siobhan is now mainstream. Apologies for the missing fadda. They sound so much nicer is an Irish accent.

Names that I would compare to Xavier would be Robert or Richard. Same spelling but pronounced differently in different countries, and neither are originally English.

Better that people use these names and keep them alive rather than being scared to use them in case the accent police get involved. I've been married to a Welsh speaker for fifteen years, have learnt a bit of Welsh and try really hard with the pronunciations. I think I just about pass now but it is hard to make totally unfamiliar sounds which do not exist in your native tongue. Every time I see sneering comments on MN about how English people can't pronounce certain names properly I want to see how those posters would get on with a bit of Xhosa or Mandarin.

People pronounce names in their accent. Katy is Kady in America and Kay-teh in Lancashire. Kathy is Kaffy in London. It doesn't mean that those speakers are wrong.

Better that people use these names and keep them alive rather than being scared to use them in case the accent police get involved.

It's not usually a matter of accent, though. Siobhán is not SY-oh-ban or Chiffon. Tadhg is not Tadge or Tag. Those are mistakes. If you are naming your child one of these names and pronouncing it that way, you are doing the equivalent of calling your child Yvonne and pronouncing it Wy-vonny.

Every time I see sneering comments on MN about how English people can't pronounce certain names properly I want to see how those posters would get on with a bit of Xhosa or Mandarin.

Comparing (some) monoglot English people's apparent inability to get their mouths around standard names from a neighbouring culture, written in the same alphabet with some variant sounds to a tonal or click-consonant-using language from other continents is ridiculous.

The only Xhosa speaker I know well is a South African living in Ireland who speaks pretty good Irish, and whose children have Irish names. Correctly pronounced.