Esmé is a boy’s name. The girl’s version is Esmée. [name]Both[/name] names mean the same thing, beloved, but they are pronounced differently in French. [name]Don[/name]'t ask me how to pronounce them, though, I don’t know. I though [name]Esme[/name] was cute for a little girl, which completely horrified my husband. He insisted on Esmée with the appropriate accent marks and all and that just seems like too much to deal w. in [name]America[/name], so I dropped it.
I think that [name]Elena[/name] is a name in many different countries, so there are many different legitimate pronunciations. Using [name]Cohen[/name] as a first name at all seems ill-advised to me, but especially as the first name of a non Jewish kid. I am not Jewish, but I have heard from many Jewish people that it is offensive. I don’t know about [name]Bodhi[/name]. I don’t like it as a first name, so I never thought about it, and I am not a Buddhist, so I can’t tell you if it is offensive.
I do not know any men named [name]Dmitri[/name] at all, but I did go to school w. a black guy named [name]Demetrius[/name]. That is a Greek name, but I don’t think that means that his mother should have named him something more “culturally appropriate.” I would totally use [name]Demetrius[/name] if we have another son. I guess I agree with avoiding names that would be offensive to the culture of origin, though the only other names that I have heard are actually offensive to people were Native American names, like [name]Dakota[/name], etc. But I don’t see anything wrong with using names from another culture, for the most part.