Would you choose your baby’s name based on their religious or cultural background (if you could only choose one)?

[Namingtraditions]

Please share your thoughts! Thought this might be an interesting discussion.

For example if you are ethnically Iranian, but are Buddhist - do you choose a Pali name or a Persian name for your baby? This is not related to me, just a random example!

I think these days fewer people are religious but still have a strong connection to their home country so for most people it would be a name that reflects where they're from rather than who they pray to.

For example, in decades past Irish people would give their children obviously Catholic names like Patrick and Mary, whereas these days names from Irish mythology like are far more popular.

Depends what maters more to you, surely.

And which names you actually like more.

well, depends.

We are Christians. if my background was eg arab, I would not choose an arabic name that went against my faith (eg Mohammed) but there are dozens of names I could choose that would fit both faith and culture.

yes, we did.
we are Christians and all of our kids have Biblical names, on purpose.

I'm Hungarian and DH is English. we live in England and the kids were all born here so we chose English names.

@steppemum

well, depends.

We are Christians. if my background was eg arab, I would not choose an arabic name that went against my faith (eg Mohammed) but there are dozens of names I could choose that would fit both faith and culture.

In what way would the name Mohammed ‘go against’ your faith, though, other than other people being likely to assume that most Mohammeds are Muslim?

DS has an apostle’s name, and we’re atheists.

It depends on the name and the surname.

I wouldn't use a name that was closely linked with a religion or culture that was not part of the child's heritage.

I'd just pick a name I like that wouldn't cause the child too much bother.

I'm catholic from a catholic family and dh is catholic from a mixture of Irish and English decent.
Out of 9 kids names 8 are saints names, 6 are italian, 1 Mary and 1 John.
So yes I suppose we did.

In what way would the name Mohammed ‘go against’ your faith, though, other than other people being likely to assume that most Mohammeds are Muslim?

because as a Christian I would not name my child after a Muslim prophet that I don't believe in.
In the same way if my background was Indian I would not use the name Shiva as it is the name of a god I don't beleive in. But there are plenty of other Indian names that are not names of gods.

These opinions are really helpful! Keep them coming! :)
@steppemum Fair point! I agree. For example, I wouldn’t use a Muslim name if I was an Iranian believing in Buddhism because according to Islam many Buddhist & Hindu beliefs are blasphemous. The name shouldn’t contradict the religion or culture you follow I think.

I wonder out of interest how Arab Christians deal with people assuming that they are Muslim even if they have a secular Arab name? I have heard this happens a lot.

I know a couple of egyptians who are christians. I think I initially thought they were greek, but they explained that they were egyptian. They both look mediterranean and have chrisuan first names.

Christian not chrisuan.

I am agnostic but my children will be growing up in a very orthodox community.

I didn't like the idea that saints days would be celebrated but they might miss out so I ended up giving them slightly religious names.

Names with nice meanings used across all cultures represented in our roots and our current community.

I wouldn't have used a name relating to the religion itself but decided a biblical character is fine. So No to Theodore yes to Gregory. No to Elizabeth but yes to Eve.

We went for a name linked to our ethnicity/country (of origin) and then two religious middle names. We have a reasonably difficult surname (it's very common where we are from, but not in the UK) so went with a short first name

Knowing people who ended up converting or coming out of any religious beliefs and having children with names reflecting previous devoted beliefs, I'd lean towards cultural, though as an immigrant, I tried to balance that with the culture my children are being raised in.

I am English and DH is Irish. Our DC both have one English name and one Irish one, to reflect their heritage.

@steppemum

In what way would the name Mohammed ‘go against’ your faith, though, other than other people being likely to assume that most Mohammeds are Muslim?

because as a Christian I would not name my child after a Muslim prophet that I don't believe in.
In the same way if my background was Indian I would not use the name Shiva as it is the name of a god I don't beleive in. But there are plenty of other Indian names that are not names of gods.

How silly. Do you suppose that everyone who calls their child Jesus or Mary/Maria etc— or for that matter gives them a Christian saint’s or prophet’s name is a believing Christian?

@Fountaining, steppemum in entitled to choose how she would name her children witthout be called "silly".

My family who are religious (religious before theocracy took control) and the names are all ‘classic’ non religious names. DS name reflects both sides of the family.

Interesting. I suppose as someone who actively rejected the main cultural construct of my childhood during my childhood (that was sure fun), it’s always been important to me to chart my own path. I’ve never felt the need to choose names of cultural significance, only personal.

[quote KirstenBlest]**@Fountaining, steppemum in entitled to choose how she would name her children witthout be called "silly".[/quote]
She’s certainly entitled to call her children whatever she likes, but it’s a bit mad to say Mohammed is ‘a prophet I don’t believe in’,when there’s arguably more evidence for the historicity of Mohammed than there is for Jesus, plus Mohammed believed in Jesus.

It's one of many considerations and rarely either/or religion v culture ime. We need DC names that work in two religions and three countries with diverse cultures. We manage to find overlaps even with my fusspot DH .

I don't think it's controversial that on meeting a child named Mohammed you'd assume the parents were at least moderately religious Muslims, so it'd be an odd choice for anyone non-Muslim, even, say, an agnostic family living in a Muslim country.

@EssentialHummus This is something I totally agree with. I would also assume the same!

Fountaining

I find your posts to me really quite strange.
You sound as if you have a chip on your shoulder about religion.
This is not a discussion about the historical accuracy of Mohamed etc (I did not say he didn't live, I don't believe in the religion he founded)

It is a discussion about names

many names have become cultural. Jesus is a common name in Spanish speaking countries, not necessarily associated with faith, but in the UK it would be unusual for a family to call their child Jesus. And it would be unheard of in the 3 different Muslim countries I have lived in for a family to use Jesus for their child.

Loads of 'Christian' names are now just names (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John as examples!) and I am sure most people here in UK don't connect them with faith, as they have a much wider cultural association.

But when you do have a strong faith, it would be unusual to choose a name from another faith for your child, especially when there are many cultural names that don't have that religious association.

really not a complicated thing to understand, and really not strange that a practising Christian would not choose Mohamed or Shiva.

We're Christians, I'm English and my husband is Ukrainian. I think that, because we come from different cultures, but share the same faith, we would rather use Biblical names which we can translate into both languages, than a peculiarly English or Ukrainian one, as our child will share both cultures and we don't want to say through their name that they belong to one more than another. For example, I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable calling my child William or Igor. It would feel disrespectful to one culture or the other to ignore that heritage, and II can't imagining making their Ukrainian grandparents pronounce "William". But a name like Paul (Pavlo/Павло) would work because we both equally love the writings of Paul and admire his passion for the gospel. So that's my take :)

**many names have become cultural. Jesus is a common name in Spanish speaking countries, not necessarily associated with faith, but in the UK it would be unusual for a family to call their child Jesus. And it would be unheard of in the 3 different Muslim countries I have lived in for a family to use Jesus for their child.

The name Eesa - which is the Arabic version of Jesus - is really quite a common name in Muslim countries