Do you think you have to have a connection to a country in order to choose a name from it?

[branflake81]

I am half Welsh half English. DP is half English half Indian so in theory we have a lot of possible cultural connections for names.

However one of the names I really like is Turkish - somewhere neither of us has any connection to.

Do you think that it matters?

I don't think so. My DDs have traditionally French names and neither DH nor me has any French ancestry/connection to France. We just like the names.

so long as you don't mind people saying eg 'how unusual, are you turkish?'

will you tell us the name so we can judge?

I don't think it matters really - dd has a Welsh name but when we named her I didn't think we had any Welsh connections.

(found out a few months later that my paternal grandmother was Welsh, ooo!)

branflake - What is the Turkish name you like?

As long as it's not "Delight" you should be ok

I don't think it matters either. We chose quite a biblical name and are thinking about keeping the theme with future children and we aren't religious.
Think it's quite nice for them to have a name that's a bit different. As you say with the culture, your lo will have opportunity to learn so much about different cultures within extended family, the turkish thing might be something s/he will feel connected with later on in life when they wanna find out what name means etc

All Turkish names mean something, and most are words currently used in everyday speech - not only various flower names and sea, water, free, etc but also war, peace, etc

Some are the names of rulers that have conquered various parts of Europe, so might not go down well among Europeans. Others are about one kind of blood significance or another (serkan, hurkan, erkan, etc) or have military significance (tamer, soner, etc) that OP might not be aware of.

Which is why it's important to know which name it is that they like.

The name is Cari.

Sorry but that is not a Turkish name.

Who told you it was?

And how are you to pronounce it?

Branflake it IS a Welsh name too! Not a very common one at all, in fact I've never heard it, but thought it sounded welsh, bec. Cariad is Welsh for Love/darling, so checked by welsh babyname book & it is in there - it is another version of the names Cariad & Ceridwen. Problem solved!

I think it is better to have some kind of cultural connection to a name.

So, if you are English and Christian, you can use all the Biblical names, all the names from classical civilisation, Medieval names, names from English literature etc etc

Personally, I would only chose a name from a culture I am connected to, in our case, Scottish, Irish or English.
For others, I don't really care, tbh! Also, 'foreign' names become part of our culture anyway. Names like Chloe or even Nicola were French a couple of generations ago.

we do 'adopt' names a lot

or we would all be called Hengist and Horsa and Ethelwold and Aelfrec

it said it was Turkish here www.themathlab.com/alltreasure/mysterygirls/girlnames.html and have seen it on other sites as being Turkish too.

Culture evolves constantly, and so therefore does the pool of names that we recognise as being part of our culture.

A lot of names we consider to be 'normal' names in the UK have overseas origins so in this respect most people probably use names from other countries.

I tend to like Scottish and Irish names - dd was due to have a v. Irish name but changed at last minute as it didn't go with our surname (probably should have realised that earlier !). I think I may have a v. tentative claim to Irishness about 4 generations back, and certainly no Scottishness but that wouldn't stop me.

I think Cari is lovely (is it pronounced like you would say Carrie ?) - nice to know it has Welsh connections, I am half welsh. Will add it to hypothetical shortlist .

I don't think it matters at all and don't think you need connections with that country. Lots of names aren't specific to one country anywway, or have their origins in an entirely different country anyway. It dowsn't matter.

I know someone called Pierre who has no French connections at all. He thinks it's an incredibly poncey name to give in that case & has never quite forgiven his mother!

wot Anna said

branflake - I'm sorry to say that website has made that up.

Cari: (Turkish) "flows like water"

For starters, 'c' is always pronounced 'j' in Turkish. So the word is pronounced 'jar-ee'.

It is not a name. It doesn't mean anything like 'flows like water' . It's a financial word - 'cari acik' = 'current deficit'. But it doesn't even mean 'current' in any other context, like 'my current boyfriend'.

I think names crossover easier between cultures/languages/nations that are closer, like French/English/Italian etc.

If you are going to take a name from a language so far removed from English like Turkish/Japanese/Zimbabwean it's better to really know what that name means, how it's written/pronounced, and really to have a connection - i.e. have a reason to bestow that name on your little baby that is a bit stronger than "saw it on a website".

Imho, of course.

"Names like Chloe or even Nicola were French a couple of generations ago"

I am assuming you think Nicola is a girl's name?

'Nicola' is how you pronounce 'Nicholas' in France. It's a boy's name. ex: Nicholas Sarkozy, le President de la Republique.

'Nicola' is also a boy's name in Italy.

My children have an ethnic mix of English, Swedish, Danish, Indian and Bangladeshi.

They've both got Jewish names. And my sister's boys both have Jewish names too.

You can always blame British Imperialism, for this as for so much else.

Yes, Cari is a Welsh girls name (though I suppose it could be a name in other countries and cultures too!). I know a couple of babies/children called Cari. I think it's a v nice name, pretty and not too popular/common.

Well, I'm glad I've found out it's a made up name in Turkey but even gladder/more glad (whatever) that it's a real name in Wales, so I have more reason to use it now.

That's a good point Cote D'Azur about not knowing anything about the country/language from which a name is taken. Could lead to a number of faux pas.