Did you choose names from your heritage?

General Name Discussion
1

Or, do you plan on it if you don’t have kids? Are your own names from your cultural background?

My name is Greek derived, and I am a decent percentage Greek (great-grandad came through [name_u]Ellis[/name_u] Island), but I don’t even think my parents knew [name_f]Alexandra[/name_f] was a Greek name when they picked it.

I’m a heavy mix of euro backgrounds (like 8 of them) and I’m like a 14th generation American, so giving my kid a name from my white side is pretty unlikely. The most connection I have is Iroquois, and few of those names have even survived. All my Native Anerican family that I could trace had names borrowed from other native languages. My kids are half Mexican, but their dad was raised by an Irish/[name_m]German[/name_m] family. We have considered giving our kids Spanish names, but didn’t with [name_f]Lillian[/name_f] and probably won’t with the rest.

2

I am White and my husband is Mexican. I don’t have any countries that I relate to besides [name_u]America[/name_u], although I am technically more [name_m]German[/name_m] than anything else, but then only 25 %. My husband is Aztec, so my daughter’s middle name is [name_f]Xochitl[/name_f], which means flower in the native language of Nahuatl. For the first name, we wanted something that could be pronounced in English and Spanish.

I’m not sure if we will give Aztec names to future kids or not. Some of them are hard to pronounce. Thats why I used it as a middle name.

3

I’m basically English, Irish, Welsh, and Swedish, and I have a lot of English names, a few Irish and Welsh, but nothing from [name_u]Sweden[/name_u]. [name_m]Even[/name_m] though my Swedish ancestors came over the most recently (great great grandparents, I think), I don’t really feel a connection to [name_u]Sweden[/name_u]. I do feel very Irish, and I would love to use [name_f]Ciara[/name_f] or [name_f]Niamh[/name_f], but I don’t want a [name_u]Sierra[/name_u] or Nee-um, so…
I do like a lot of Greek and Hebrew names, but they have a lot of history being used in English speaking countries. ([name_m]Peter[/name_m], [name_f]Catherine[/name_f], [name_m]David[/name_m])

4

Like you, most of my European ancestry goes back many generations, so I don’t feel a great connection with it ([name_m]German[/name_m], Swiss, English, Irish, Welsh, a little bit of [name_m]French[/name_m]). I have heard rumors that I’m also a bit [name_u]Cherokee[/name_u], but my grandfather was notoriously unreliable with the “truths” he’s told, so we have no way of proving that. I mean, I have a great affinity for names from European cultures that are not really popular here (like Madelief, [name_f]Mireya[/name_f], [name_f]Eleni[/name_f], [name_f]Odilia[/name_f], etc., etc.), and would use them easily, and some of those have ties to my nationality, but not a ton. I would definitely love to include names from my future hypothetical husband’s culture if he strongly identifies with a certain nationality, though. :slight_smile: I think having strong cultural ties like that is really cool. I wish I identified more strongly with my ancestry.

5

No kids yet, but I’m planning to name my future children something with international feel. Most names I love aren’t even from my own culture, and I honestly don’t care enough to use names just to reflect my heritage. I think honouring heritage is very much optional.

My own name is Greek too, and I’m actually of Chinese descent. My parents don’t include anything Chinese on my birth certificate, but they give me a separate Chinese name. I am glad they did this. I plan to do the same thing if my kids ever want a name to reflect their heritage.

6

I probably won’t. Most [name_m]French[/name_m] names don’t sound that pretty in English to me, so besides [name_f]Colette[/name_f], I doubt I’ll consider many [name_m]French[/name_m] names. I also wouldn’t want to deal with the pronunciation problems of Irish and Scottish names; besides the pronunciation issues, the names aren’t as frilly as I like for girls.

7

I’ve been considering it a lot lately. My background is mostly English and Irish but there’s some Native American as well. My DH’s grandfather was full [name_u]Cherokee[/name_u] and his mom is 1/2 [name_u]Cherokee[/name_u] so I’ve been looking into honoring that part of his heritage as its very important to him and ties into mine as well, although a bit more distantly than his.

8

Nope, there are very few Polish names in my family and zero Macedonian names, and I’d like to keep it that way and just use names I like :slight_smile:

9

I’m culturally English but my dad’s family are Irish and my mum’s are Scottish and I plan on using a very strongly British-heritage name for any future children. I’m actually pretty fussy when it comes to what’s appropriate(?) for my kids. Personally I find it feels impersonal to use a name from a culture you don’t have any connection to, so as beautiful as I think [name_f]Mehitabel[/name_f]/[name_f]Vittoria[/name_f]/[name_f]Aya[/name_f] are, it’s not my place to use them. I want my children’s name to say something about where they’re from. [I know this is hard to apply in [name_u]North[/name_u] [name_u]America[/name_u], and obviously don’t hold everyone to my own standards!!!]

I also like the limitation. There are like a billion name options, and honestly I think I could love any of them, but giving myself rules really helps reign myself in! There are so many beautiful names that I adore which correlate to my own heritage, there’s no reason to look for them elsewhere. This is something I’ve only really applied to my lists the past couple of years and it’s helped me loads with organisation of my favourites.

10

Not really. My mum wanted to give her children welsh names, which she did for me and my brother. But when my parents ttc for a third, they were stuck for names, because they felt they had to stick with the welsh theme but the names they liked weren’t welsh. turns out they weren’t successful a third time anyway so there wasnt a decision to me made! Because of this, I dont think I could reflect it, or if I did, I wouldn’t necessarily use it like a theme. I know SO wants to use Scottish names because of his heritage, so in some ways yes and some ways no.

11

I only have an unofficial hebrew name, and i’m planning to give my children a more official one, maybe even for their first. I’m also italian but live abroad, so I’m not sure where my kids will be born, or what kind of last name they will have. I’m probably going to go for Italian/hebrew/anglo vibes.

12

Nah. I think it’s great if some people want to do that, especially if it’s meaningful to them. But I have no desire to go out of my way to find or restrict myself to names only from the cultures of my genetic heritage. The world is too wide and too fascinating for that. I choose names because they have symbolic value to me, or I love what they mean, or how they sound. Or they come from literary figures with qualities I’d love my children to have. Besides, even if I felt compelled to do so, there are sixteen nationalities on my mother’s side alone (or so she says). So which nationality do I honor? Native American? English? Irish? Polish? [name_m]German[/name_m]? Scottish? [name_f]Do[/name_f] any of them deserve to be honored more than the rest? It would turn into a three-ring circus, for me anyway. :slight_smile: My only qualifications are that the name must move me in some way, and I must love it.

Ironically, my parents chose a French name for me, which is one European nationality we have no family ties with, to my knowledge. They just liked it.

13

I wouldn’t specifically TRY to choose a name that came from my heritage, but I certainly wouldn’t rule it out. We have [name_u]Teagan[/name_u] on our list for this baby (a boy) but it’s just because we like it. I happen to have Irish and Scottish ancestry, but that really was inconsequential when it came down to whether or not we wanted to put that name on the list of ‘maybes’. I actually said originally that I didn’t want an Irish name because it seemed cheesy - my heritage isn’t that special. It’s shared by tons of people. It’s not obvious by looking at me that my family came over from [name_f]Ireland[/name_f]. And regardless of the name I choose, like @lumen said, it’s not a culture or language that is in any way underrepresented or disappearing.

On the other hand, I would rather not choose a name that obviously comes from a culture we have little or no connection to. For example, SO likes the name [name_m]Leonardo[/name_m], which is very Italian [name_f]IMO[/name_f], and we have zero connection to [name_f]Italy[/name_f]. On the other hand, I’m something like 1/128th [name_u]Cherokee[/name_u], but it’s such a diluted connection at this point that I feel like choosing a [name_u]Cherokee[/name_u] name for our (most likely) blonde haired, blue eyed baby boy would be practically cultural appropriation. That’s just a personal thing though.

14

I plan to at least bring it up to my husband when we have kids. I am second generation Italian-American, but my first name doesn’t show it. I’m a ton of other things too. It feels a bit weird to pick a name so obviously tied to a different country, when my grandpa didn’t teach us anything about [name_f]Italy[/name_f] or it’s culture anyway, and my kids would know less than I do, since I know little about it myself. I’d still like to give a bit of a tie to the heritage in their names though, at least for a daughter. The boy combo we have mostly settled on reflects my husband’s family and culture. So maybe a second child could have mine in there. We don’t have middles in place for our favorite girl name ([name_f]Ada[/name_f]) yet :wink:

Seriously though, I do struggle with this because I feel it may come off a bit silly to name my children something like [name_m]Bruno[/name_m], when while I do have [name_m]German[/name_m] blood, it’s far up the family tree.

15

I feel it would just be too difficult for me personally - I’m a quarter Cornish, Welsh, Scottish and (of course) English. The names I love come from those backgrounds and more. I look for personal meaning, whether that come from my family heritage or another association - as much as I value my ancestry, I have other connections that are important to me, too.

16

I wouldn’t know where to begin with a name from my heritage. We’re both a mix of a lot of things, most of which we don’t know.
My great-great grandma was English
And my great-great…grandfather came over from somewhere (probably Germany or [name_f]England[/name_f]) awhile before the Civil War.
DH’s family has also been in [name_u]America[/name_u] for many generations, and is probably of mixed [name_m]German[/name_m] and English heritage.
Most of my names are Biblical or English, with a couple vaguely [name_m]French[/name_m] references. It doesn’t really bother me, though I wouldn’t use anything that sounds super ethnic.

17

I don’t have children yet, but it is definitely something that I’ve thought a lot about. I identify heavily with my German heritage (my grandmother is full German and came to Australia post-World War II.) I’ve also been over there and to me, it felt like home, I didn’t feel like a foreigner. I don’t know how to explain it other than saying I simply “click” with it.

I’m also Irish, Scottish, English and Romanichal on my mother’s side. But on my father’s side, he was adopted and so while we think we believe we know his heritage, nothing is 100%. We believe his side is South African. Which is probably why I cling a little to my known heritage, because I feel like part of me is a mystery. That being said, if I didn’t identify, I wouldn’t force myself to chose names from a particular country.

But if my partner or I want to honour our heritage, I’m sure we’d find a way. Ideally, I’d like my children’s names to work in English and German, because they will be raised bilingual and attend German Saturday school. But my top boys name is Logan, which would be pronounced Lo-gen in German (Like Jen.) As long as they work in both languages, I don’t mind how they’re pronounced. And even though it’s Scottish, it’s a surname on my Irish side, which I love.

Oh and part of the reason for my decision is also attributed to the fact that German is dying out in our family. So naturally, being attached to it, I want to tie my future family with it. Everything about Logan appeals to me in English or German.

A number of the names I like are kind of indicative of my family background. Which is mainly coincidental. I didn’t know Raina was German when I fell in love with it or that Jonas was particularly popular in Germany. I also didn’t know that Everett/Everard is a form of Ebehard, my great grandfather’s name and then I discovered Ebba! And then of course, there is Ronan, Bonnie etc. But then there’s names like Kira that I have no cultural tie to, but my father and I went to Russia, so it’s a memory unto itself. I fall in love mainly by sound anyway.
But yes, I think it’s purely optional, and isn’t for everyone.

18

I would, in a way, like to honour my Welsh and Scottish heritage, by using names like [name_f]Ffion[/name_f], [name_f]Arianwen[/name_f], etc, or a name like [name_f]Elspeth[/name_f] or [name_f]Elsie[/name_f] (both technically Scottish forms of my mother’s name), but I don’t know if I’d make it a necessity. My family is primarily English, so I’m not really certain that an “English” name can 100% be chosen, as many names that are listed as English seem to be derived from Germanic, Hebrew, [name_m]French[/name_m] or Latin elements, from what I’ve seen.

19

For me, it honestly depends. I’m not pregnant, married, not even dating, so no kids in the near future. Maybe in about 15 years. But the Serbian population, like most of Europe’s, is decreasing. But at the same time, most of the Serbian names I love would only work in Serbia and other Eastern European countries, and since I live in [name_u]America[/name_u], and the things I go through with my name, is something I would HATE the burden my child with.
Maybe a middle name, unless you think it would be easy to say.

BUT…
If you do want to give your kids a culture name, but want them to fit in a bit, I was thinking about giving my kids another, more familiar name and a Serbian nickname. Ex: Constance (Stana), Marcelline (Mara) Mila, I might just give my kid because it works in so many other languages.

20

We might, but it’s not our #1 priority. SO and I are from two different parts of the world, so I think we’ll end up using names that work in both our respective languages. Luckily, there’s lots of names that fit into that category.