Our little girl (and any future children) will have a somewhat varied heritage and I was thinking how lovely it might be to utilise her heritage in her name.
On my side she will inherit Scottish roots from my paternal side and Norwegian roots from my mother’s; my dad can trace his Scots roots back centuries and my mother was born and raised in Norway by Norwegian parents. I really love being a part of two wonderful cultures and was raised with heavy Scots and Nordic influences.
On my husband’s side she will inherit mostly English and a little Welsh roots on his paternal side and his mother is Italian by blood but was born and raised in [name_f]England[/name_f] (i.e both my [name_f]MIL[/name_f]'s parents are from [name_f]Italy[/name_f]) ; his father’s family have been farmers and landowners in the same part of [name_f]England[/name_f] for generations. I don’t think my husband really considers himself Welsh, his grandmother was Welsh and that’s about as far as it goes, but he does have strong ties to [name_f]Italy[/name_f] and it is where we got married, his mother’s family is orginally from [name_f]Sicily[/name_f].
So this wee one will have Scottish, Norwegian, English, Welsh and Italian/Sicilian roots.
Now to the matter at hand, do you think it is a nice way of honouring family and heritage to name your child a name related to their heritage? I don’t think it’s a necessity but I think it is a nice nod to family without having to name your child after somebody (sorry granny, I love you but I will not call my child Donella).
What are everybody’s thoughts?
(I really wanted to discuss this an get people’s thoughts but I haven’t a clue where to post it - if this is wrong please tell me )
I absolutely want to honor my heritage. My father is 100% [name_m]German[/name_m]. He has three older sisters and a younger brother. The sisters were born in Germany and he was conceived in Germany but born in [name_f]Canada[/name_f] before they came to the US. I have a very strong connection to that heritage because that side is 100%. However, I’m not in love with any of their names. I might use [name_m]Otto[/name_m] someday {my father’s MN and my great-grandfather’s FN but I’m not in love with it ATM so I’ve tried to think of other [name_m]German[/name_m] names I like.
My mother is 50% Italian. Her father was 100% and immigrated from [name_f]Sicily[/name_f], [name_f]Italy[/name_f] when he was a child. She was raised with Italian traditions & looks 100%. My S/O’s mother is also 100% Italian. We both have strong connections to that heritage and would like to honor that heritage as well.
My maternal grandmother was from the southern US and her side of the family has been here for a [name_m]LONG[/name_m] time but I believe she was English & Irish. My S/O’s father is from the south also and has a similar story of family that has been here a long time. I believe he is Scottish and Irish. We don’t have strong ties to those heritages because the families have been in the US for a very long time.
Overall, I think it’s a great way to honor family & where your family came from if you feel that strong connection to that heritage!
I managed to honor my Lebanese heritage (which is the one that made a greater impact on my life) with my kids’ names. My daughters either have middle names or first names that derive from the Arabic language. At first I did it without thinking much, it’s just something I unconsciously gravitated to with [name_f]Noor[/name_f]'s name (can you believe I wanted to name her [name_f]Norah[/name_f]?) and with [name_f]Viola[/name_f]'s middle name of Mahal ([name_u]Taj[/name_u] Mahal in [name_f]India[/name_f]), which was actually suggested by my ex.
When I joined the name discussions and Nameberry in general I began to put more thought on the names I liked, their meanings and what made me like them or grow a connection to them and that’s when naming my daughter [name_f]Ziva[/name_f] and later baby [name_f]Eleni[/name_f] that I realized that it was important for me to honor the place I came from, that my mother and grandmother who raised me came from and was so special to them, otherwise, how else could the new generation connect to that past?
So I 100% support you wanting to name your children with your heritage and family history in mind. Now, I don’t know if it’s possible to honor that much heritage in just one name combination, but maybe from there it can help you define your style and what you want represented there. I would personally try to work mostly with the heritages and cultures that are more present in your day-to-day life and that are closer to you. Like if you and/or grandma is Italian and speaks, cooks, listens to music and partakes in some Italian traditions it would totally make sense to honor that heritage, as well as any other.
I tried to focus my naming on Lebanese and therefor Arabic and [name_m]French[/name_m] in my girls’ names because those are the cultural and linguistic influences that I grew up with more significantly than a minor English or even Spanish distant heritage.
That is quite a lot of places to honor!
To me having 3 middle names seems a little too much, so maybe you could look for Scottish and Norwegian names and pick the one you like best, and then English and Italian names and pick the one you like best for a middle?
I am 100% Greek, but I will not honor my heritage because A) I strongly dislike the country for personal reasons and B) the only Greek names I like are [name_f]Athena[/name_f], [name_u]Artemis[/name_u] and [name_f]Maja[/name_f] (mah-ya, the y as in yellow)
Still I think that if you do like your heritage then it’s a lovely idea that can make a really interesting and different name
I think it’s cool if you want to honour those heritage. Personally my main rule in naming (at least for the first name) is that it must work cross culturally, and I don’t care too much (at all?) about honouring my heritage. My heritage has just neutral association to me. It’s something I, well, inherit. Not something I get to choose. I don’t dislike it, I just don’t feel like I need to honour it through my kids names. I’d rather just use the names I love.
I am Turkish with some Albanian from my father side and I would love to give my children Turkish and Albanian names because my father is proud of the fact his family was from Albania. That’s why I have Liri on my signature because it is my favorite Albanian name.
Is there any names that honors multiple heritages at the same time, in your situation?
If your family is still actively involved in more than one culture or language then I think it’s vital to take into consideration. Ideally all of the child’s close family should feel at home with the name.
If it’s just a great grandparents were originally from X country thing, then I feel neutral about it. Nothing wrong with it, of course, but giving your kid a [name_m]French[/name_m] name (for example) wouldn’t make them any more [name_m]French[/name_m], if you see what I mean. I also find it a little pretentious in some cases where real knowledge of and contact with another culture has been lost.
I think the most important thing is that the name works in the culture(s) that the child will actually be growing up in.
I suppose we kind of went the other way as our child is growing up in an explicitly bicultural and bilingual setting, yet her name leans heavily towards one side of her heritage (the side of the country she actually lives in). I made sure the first name worked in my culture/language and of course [name_f]Elizabeth[/name_f] is a name with a long history of use in [name_f]England[/name_f] if not [name_f]El[/name_f]ísabet, but still you wouldn’t be able to tell from her name that she’s not 100% Icelandic. I want her to be aware of her English heritage, but I also never want her to feel like a foreigner in her own country. This is probably not applicable to countries where names are not such distinctive markers of identity, though. Here you can tell instantly that a name is either Icelandic or not, there is very little grey area.
I am not particularly proud of being English, it’s just where I was born. I love some things about the country, I love the language and I love my family, and I will always be English born and bred, but I don’t think I’d care if I ever have grandchildren whether their names were English or not. Your family may value it more - I don’t know, you could try asking them if it would be meaningful to them?
Finding a name to honor your child’s English, Welsh, Scottish, and Norwegian roots should be fairly easy. The British Isles - particularly in the [name_u]North[/name_u] - have strong Scandinavian roots because of the Vikings. Off the top of my head, something like [name_m]Ivor[/name_m], [name_f]Eira[/name_f], or [name_m]Lachlan[/name_m] would be perfect for you. I don’t think it’s necessary to honor each part of your child’s heritage in a long string of names. Look for ways to combine them or decide which aspects of your heritage you feel most connected to.
[name_m]Just[/name_m] to say that I am in no way trying to honour every single heritage at once! Goodness, that would be difficult! Because we do want more children we can name (for example) this little one an Italian name with a Scottish middle name and the next baby a Norwegian name with a more English middle.
Really, because we live in [name_f]England[/name_f] we would prefer to name our children the more Nordic, Scots and Italian names. But like I said, what is more important to us is to name our children names we love.
I personally don’t feel attached to any country from my heritage. I am from the US, and the only side of the family that WASN’T here for many generations already was my maternal grandmother’s. She was born here, but her parents were born in Germany. My other great great grandparents were all born in the US, but their families were from [name_f]England[/name_f]/Poland/Lithuania. If a name I like happens to be from one of those countries, that’s cool. I am more concerned that a name is able to be pronounced in English and Spanish because my husband is Mexican. Most of his family still lives in Mexico so we will be going back and forth a lot. With my daughter’s name, we wanted to honor his Aztec heritage with the middle name [name_f]Xochitl[/name_f], meaning flower. If we have a boy next, his name will be [name_m]Zenon[/name_m] [name_m]Joseph[/name_m] (husband’s grandpa and my grandpa).
If you like names that honor those countries, go ahead and use them. Maybe choose a first name from your heritage and a middle name from his or vice versa. And if you like a name from none of the cultures, that’s okay too.
I agree with you about it not being necesary but nice. My “heritage” is that I am Jewish, so I make sure to have at least a couple Hebrew names in my signature at all time (avital, raya, sadie, liora, noe, james, elliot/elias, ethan, ezra, itai, and noah). I like your idea of splitting the heritages among different kids, 3/4 names is way too long!
I think it’s a lovely idea, particularly if you still have a relatively strong connection to that heritage e.g. through language, location, family etc. I’ve not thought about it that much, although many names I like can be linked back to my own heritage ([name_m]French[/name_m], British Isles).
Wow, that’s a lot of countries to honor! I think it’s a lovely idea to do so, though. Much like @jenni_lynn91, I personally don’t have many ties to my own heritage, but my SO is Latino and we have decided to give our children Spanish names as we want them to be connected to and proud of their culture in that part of their family.
The good news is that there are plenty of names that cross between Scottish, English, and Welsh and are still popular/well-known enough to be pronounceable and unique! And I think there are a lot of Italian names that play well with English ones - they tend to be a little more melodic and can add some unique flavor to a name that perhaps might sound a little bland on its own. I’m not as familiar with Norwegian names, unfortunately, but I’m sure there’s at least some crossover to be found there, or at least Scottish/English/Welsh names that are familiar in Norway as well.
Are you planning to use double middles? That could be a good way to work in some ties to the various countries of your heritage. Some of the more popular Italian names nowadays ([name_f]Ariana[/name_f], [name_m]Antonio[/name_m], [name_f]Elena[/name_f], [name_m]Giovanni[/name_m], [name_f]Isabella[/name_f] etc.) work quite well with Scottish/English/Welsh names and might be a nice way to honor that part of your family. [name_f]Gwendolyn[/name_f] [name_f]Ariana[/name_f], [name_u]Morgan[/name_u] [name_f]Elena[/name_f], & [name_f]Arwen[/name_f] [name_f]Isabella[/name_f] are a few simple Welsh/Italian combos that flow well together and might give you some ideas to get you started! In any case, good luck and congratulations!
I love the idea of honouring your heritage! With your comment about splitting the locations between children, though, it may make their names seem a little disjointed?? Idk.
I personally struggle with this quite a lot, as my family is 100% English, with ancestors pretty far back in [name_f]Ireland[/name_f]. But I love names that are strongly associated/derived from other places and languages, specifically Scottish, [name_m]French[/name_m] and Arabic names. So I’m just like ??? What do I do? Is it weird for me to want to use those names?
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Personally my main rule in naming (at least for the first name) is that it must work cross culturally, and I don’t care too much (at all?) about honouring my heritage. My heritage has just neutral association to me. It’s something I, well, inherit. Not something I get to choose. I don’t dislike it, I just don’t feel like I need to honour it through my kids names. I’d rather just use the names I love.