Cultural appropriation and respect

All About Nameberry
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I just had a look at some of the Irish Gaelic names you have on your website and I’m pretty disgusted by some of the suggestions the correct spelling is problematic and should be Anglicised - that is something I would have expected to see 50 years ago when [name_f]English[/name_f] speakers just gave nicknames to people with ‘foreign’ looking or sounding names because they couldn’t bother learning to say them.
There are particular cultural sensitivities to promoting Anglicisations of Irish Gaelic names, not dissimilar to the re-naming of Africans imported to the USA as slaves. These Anglicisations are not widely used in [name_f]Ireland[/name_f] and become less common with each passing year as people have become more culturally aware. Surely we are past the times when [name_f]English[/name_f] speakers felt it was OK to appropriate from other cultures quite so clumsily and disrespectfully?

I found many comments along the lines of this one:
“Gaelic spellings can complicate even potentially attractive names.”
and,
“This lovely Gaelic name, very popular in the [name_f]Emerald[/name_f] [name_f]Isle[/name_f], would pose obvious pronunciation problems in [name_f]Pomona[/name_f] or Pawtucket. Simplify to [name_f]Finola[/name_f] or [name_f]Fenella[/name_f].”

I don’t mind non Irish people choosing Irish names because they like them, but if they choose a form of the name that came about through the forced Anglicisation of the country under British rule, they should at least be clear where the version they choose has come from, and that it is not Irish Gaelic.
So, the name [name_f]Sile[/name_f] is not (as it says here on the website):
“a version of the name [name_f]Sheila[/name_f]”.
Rather, [name_f]Sheila[/name_f] is a phonetic recording by the British of how the Irish name ‘[name_f]Síle[/name_f]’ is pronounced. This made-up phonetic spelling subsequently became popular in [name_f]England[/name_f].
The name [name_f]Síle[/name_f] is the older original version as it is the Irish Gaelic form of the Latin/Roman clan name Caelius which spread across Europe in the Middle Ages. Other versions of this name developed independently in [name_f]English[/name_f], Finnish, [name_m]German[/name_m], Italian, Scandinavian, and Spanish ([name_f]Cecelia[/name_f], Silla, [name_f]Silja[/name_f], [name_f]Cilka[/name_f], Cacilla, Ceci, [name_f]Sissy[/name_f], [name_f]Cecily[/name_f], [name_f]Sìleas[/name_f] and others) but the name [name_f]Síle[/name_f] (SHE-leh) is the Irish Gaelic version.

Also, Irish Gaelic does not contain the letters J, K, V, W, X and Y, so names such as “[name_f]Eeve[/name_f]” “[name_m]Eyvan[/name_m]” “[name_m]Eyvind[/name_m]” have no place in a list of Irish Gaelic names.

Hope that helps!

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big agree!!!

not as much, but the same with Scottish Gaelic names!!
Please don’t suggest changes like Ailie instead of [name_f]Eilidh[/name_f] (apparently a ‘non-intuitive spelling’) , [name_f]Catrina[/name_f] instead of [name_f]Caitriona[/name_f] and the likes
[name_f]Remember[/name_f] that [name_f]Isla[/name_f] (although it’s actually [name_f]Islay[/name_f] for the island.), [name_u]Skye[/name_u] and [name_f]Iona[/name_f] are all names of Islands here.

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So true. [name_f]My[/name_f] Dad is Welsh and both my parents went against giving us Welsh names because when they showed people the ones they liked they were told ‘Oh that’s fine. I’ll call him/her X instead.’ [name_f]My[/name_f] Dad was so angry and so adamant that wouldn’t happen that he gave us unofficial Welsh names for use at home/around Welsh family. [name_f]My[/name_f] legal name is [name_f]Phoebe[/name_f], and if people can work out that Pho sounds like ‘[name_f]Fe[/name_f]’ they can work out how to say other people’s names.

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I agree. I think the Nameberry database is much more focused on how Americans perceive names, rather than on how those names are perceived in their home countries. I wonder how many, if any, Irish citizens were consulted when the Irish name section of the database was created. E.g. [name_f]Colleen[/name_f] is listed as Irish, but that’s an Irish-American name, it’s not a name that most people who were born and raised in [name_f]Ireland[/name_f] would use. And I have never met an Irish person who has [name_u]Delaney[/name_u] or Quinn or Rafferty (or many other Irish surnames) as a first name. IMO Irish and Irish-American names should be two separate categories.

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Thanks for highlighting this @Emmaroo, you’re completely right. A lot of these entries no doubt date from the original name books from the 80s and 90s, so they’re well overdue an update. I will make it a personal priority to go through and remedy these.

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Thanks [name_f]Katinka[/name_f]!
The Wikipedia page ‘List of Irish-language given names’ has pretty accurate information about whether the [name_f]English[/name_f] name is an [name_f]English[/name_f] language equivalent name that developed independently from the same source or if it is an Anglicisation (phonetic spelling) of the Irish Gaelic name.

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Brilliant, thanks for the tip. Please do send me or link below any particularly egregious entries you’ve come across and I’ll focus on those first.