Is it unusual to choose a name outside your heritage?

[Zarry]

Do you think it's common to use a name that's not of your (or your spouse's) heritage? I'm currently eyeing a very beautiful Italian name for DC. We don't have any connection to Italy, but that hasn't stopped me loving the name. Our surname is Irish, but we live in England. I have worried if extremely Italian first name + extremely Irish surname (think something similar to Giovanni O'Brien or Alessandra McCarthy) would sound like something out of an odd comedy to others. Then there will surely be the inevitable questions about why we've gone with this name.

Maybe I'm overthinking (which I tend to do with decisions). Just looking to see what the general consensus is.

I think it’s fine as long as it’s a name from a European language/country. There’s often shared history and similarities amongst European languages/countries, and many of these names are familiar enough to us. Even without Italian or French heritage, Giovanni O’Brien and Alouette O’Brien aren’t strange to me. On the other hand, Oluwatoyin O’Brien or Bich O’Brien would be strange to me if you have no Nigerian or Vietnamese heritage.

Alessandra rather than Alexandra… it’s one letter different. Hardly that bad.

I know a little boy with an Italian name and an Irish surname (his Mum is Italian but his Dad is Irish) and never given it a second thought!

But you know their heritage.
If you met a child called Giulietta Smith would you think she had some Italian heritage?

I say do what you like; it's your choice ateotd. If you love it, go for it. If they assume Italian heritage then so what?
It's like people assuming that all people who choose to get married in church must be Christian; the majority probably aren't.

@Cheeseandolivesplease , that's not a valid comparison.
Not many people know where someone got married but someone tends to have the same first name for life.

Call your children whatever you like.

Didn’t the Irish claim Barack Obama as one of their own (jokingly) when he and Michelle visited? Barack O’Bama? I thought that was so affectionate!

If people don’t like it - fuck ‘em. Who are they to you? Nobodies.

Or if you feel you need to have a link, well it’s because of ‘the family tragedy’, said with a sorrowful shake of the head.

Maybe it would be in the back of my head somewhere, but I wouldn’t ask. None of my business.

It’s your baby so your choice of name!

Nothing wrong with it

Kevin (sometimes Kévin) was incredibly popular in France in the 1990s and it is now widely mocked and considered very downmarket.

Please make sure you're pronouncing it correctly, OP. If it is a Gio- name like Giovanna or Giovanni, the vowel sound in the first syllable is 'o' like in 'no', not 'eo' like in 'geo'. If it's a Giu- name like Giuseppe or Giulia, it will be permanently misspelled as Gui-.

Mine and my husbands first names are Hebrew in origin. We are irish and english. As long as you spell / pronounce the correctly then knock yourself out as far as im concerned

That does sound nice!!
I know a boy named Nicholas but his nickname is Nico. His parents are English.

Most names used in the UK originally came from other languages anyway! Look at the name Clara / Claire / Chiara. Clara is the Germanic form of the English Claire and Chiara is the original Latin / Italian name. In the UK people use all of them. Most people wouldn’t know that Isabella comes from Elizabeth for example and would just accept that Isabella is the original and not the Italian version of Elizabeth.

I like the name Kevin which is Irish saint’s name commonly used here in the recent past in Ireland where it doesn’t have the same connotations as in the UK.
At least it didn’t have but perhaps it does now as I never hear of it being used nowadays.

I don’t think the 2 Os after each other work well in Nico O’ Reilly @Excellentsausages whereas Nico Murphy is fine.

Frank Zappa had a daughter named Moon Unit and a son named Dweezil.

That's what the Sixties and Music Industry did to people.

Call your children what you want..
They are your children after all.

Happy Days.

Agree completely with :

Kevin (sometimes Kévin) was incredibly popular in France in the 1990s and it is now widely mocked and considered very downmarket.

Please make sure you're pronouncing it correctly, OP. If it is a Gio- name like Giovanna or Giovanni, the vowel sound in the first syllable is 'o' like in 'no', not 'eo' like in 'geo'. If it's a Giu- name like Giuseppe or Giulia, it will be permanently misspelled as Gui-.

Will add that if you use a name from another culture, chances are it will not be a current baby name in that culture.

The "Lots of common names are used in the UK that aren’t British or Irish - Juliette, Amelia, Jacqueline, Alexander, Leo, Eli, etc. and nobody bats an eyelid. If it’s a name you love then go for it" or "Mine and my husbands first names are Hebrew in origin. "
argument doesn't really hold water because they're mainstream names in the UK or they're from the Bible, or they've been widely used in the past.

Alexander is not from another culture, it originates from another culture. Alexandros is from another culture.

My DD has a French name with a British surname. No one has ever questioned her heritage.

It probably depends on the name. I wouldn't think Elodie Smith was French but I might think Capucine Smith had a French parent.

I married a man with a foreign surname and I’m always being asked if I’m that nationality. So it’s a no from me because it’s very tedious.

But Zowie Bowie Bowie goes by Duncan Jones these days, and I don’t blame him.

His name is Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones. His father was David Robert Jones. I don't believe that Zowie Bowie was ever his real name.

As a child he was publicly known as Zowie Bowie, until he changed to Duncan as a teenager.

Yes bit as a kid he'd probably been with Angie Bowie or David Bowie, who probably called him Zowie.