Foreign names - what is the MN view on their use?

[sleepsforwimps]

I have just read on another thread, someones view that Luca should only be used if you are Italian. Is this a common view on foreign names? Or are some names just 'too' foreign sounding to get away with if you are British?

My dd has a Turkish name, it's not a particuarly foreign sounding name and nobody has ever guessed it's origin. I'm now thinking I possibly 'get away with it' because even though I am English my colouring often means I get mistaken for being foreign. So when I say her name is Turkish people immediately assume I'm Turkish. I'm now intrigued what people are thinking when I say I'm not!

I dont think it matters i posted my own foreign name on here a while bk just to see what reaction i got frm it(didnt say it was my own) Got the reaction i expected not a good 1.Both my parents are english my siblings all have fairly normal names & i have a dutch name 1 that is hard to pronounce & all that. I do get complemented on my name even though i hate it but who does really like there own name lol.I do get the oh are your parents dutch ect the one good thing about it is when someone calls me i dont have 20 people all turning around to answer.

I gave DD an Irish name, and we're not Irish, never even been to Ireland.
It's Niamh though, so one of the more well known ones. I wouldn't have gone for an obscure one. She has to spell it out as it.

Mugglewump - snap! When I had her everyone asked if we were Irish, or if we had Irish connections. It was the same when I named DS Fraser - My scottish boss at the time took real exception to me 'stealing' a Scottish name

I personally feel I'd like to have some sort of connection with another country to choose a name from there.

I think it's nice to have a name that has some sort of meaning or resonance for you or your family, rather than picking a name just because you like the way it sounds.

We deliberately chose a "European" name for DD, one which is used in several countries rather than a specifically "English" name. We are Catholics, and have some French and Italian ancestry and we felt DD's name reflected that part of our cultural heritage.

Marioandluigi, my Irish Doctor thinks DD has a great name, and has never mentioned us not being Irish. He does get annoyed at people spelling it Neeve though, and comments every time I see him that DD has a lovely name, spelt correctly!

I'm so going to enjoy this when it comes to babynaming as a French/English family who will probably spend time in various European countries. My name is mispronounced by everyone and I am SO keen to avoid this for my children but it means they'll never have typically 'English' names, but I don't like most French ones...So we'll probably go for a name from a culture than neither of us are actually connected to!

I think if you're an 'international' sort of person then it's fine - you would have good reason for it - but when it's done by English through and through, never leave the country, no discernible connnection however remote to that culture it's rather strange.

If you like the foreign name, I think you should just use it.
Having lived both in Australia and the UK and with lots of friends and family with babies in Australia/America/England, it is only now that I live in England that I have ever come across the attitude of 'don't use a foreign name if you are not linked to the name's place of origin'.
Thus, it strikes me as very odd that sometimes people on mumsnet say 'don't name your daughter Saskia if you are not Dutch/Freya if you are not Norwegian/Anastasia if you are not Russian/Luca if you are not Italian' etc. But I guess the reason why it strikes me as odd is because I never came across this attitude amongst mothers I know in other english speaking countries, so TBH it seems a bit narrow minded.
Isabella, for example, is the Spanish Elizabeth. I guess it's only because it's become so hugely popular that people who have named their dd Isabella here don't get criticized for choosing a 'foreign' name and told they should have called their dd Elizabeth!

Lori73- a thumbs up to u huni

I don't know what you really mean by foreign names. Practically every name in use in Britain for centuries originated somewhere else, except for Alfred and other Olde English type names.

When I was flying to Norway some years ago[?10]I sat beside a mother with a baby named Kevin.She was Norwegian and told me it was becoming very popular there.

sleepsforwimps - What is your DD's name? I'm curious to hear which Turkish name isn't a "particularly foreign sounding name".

My dd1's name is Persian, we picked it because we liked it. It can also be spelt a different way which is Irish and that spelling is very popular, due to there being an actress with the same name, which means that lots of people spell dd's name wrong. We named our dd1 before this actress became famous.

Dd2's name is greek, again we picked it because we liked it and funnily enough there is an actress with the same name, but we didn't name dd2 after her as people seem to think. It was on the list of baby names from when I was expecting dd1 many years before, again before that actress became famous.

I don't see what's wrong with using foreign names, if you like the name use it. My name is actually French, I'm scottish with a Scottish surname. I have Scottish, Irish and Swedish ancestry. DH's name is Scottish and his ancestry is mainly Scottish.