I think common sense needs to take precedence in these situations. I didn’t realize how offensive naming could be until I discovered a lot of my OWN history and culture and realizing how I felt when people take things that they don’t understand and use them to their own devices. I guess “offense” isn’t the right word, I don’t get “offended” very easily, it takes quite a lot - uncomfortable and sad is more like it, cheated, almost.
There is a fine line here, though - yes, [name]India[/name] is offensive to see on a white person, period. What happened over there with British colonialism basically equates to the Holocaust in Germany. I have seen people try and defend this by saying that “well, we don’t learn about that in the schools in our area, so it doesn’t apply to us, we wouldn’t have an issue”, I’m sorry, but I call BS on that. [name]Just[/name] because it didn’t happen in your tiny little bubble of the world does not mean that it did not effect millions of people. Then we come to the fact that we are in the day and age of globalization - it is becoming increasingly likely that you will go to school with, work with or interact with people from all corners of the globe throughout your life, to not acknowledge that is just ignorant.
That being said - I do not think that making snap judgments on someones name based on what they look like is ok, either. I come from a VERY mixed family, I happen to identify as Caucasian, but I have close family members from all corners of the world - just because I LOOK white does not mean that using a name from a different culture does not hold huge significance or family importance to me. Then there is the fact that adoption from all over the world is becoming increasingly common - you just never know who is related to who or who has connections with what.