Name discussion

[pandora89]

My name is similar to an Irish last name, but is also a relatively common name in my culture (not Irish) but my parents spelt it differently than it is usually spelt.

I didn't like it growing up, I don't dislike it as much. I dislike how no one knows how to pronounce it nor do people know how to spell it.

No children.

[rootbeerfloat]

I'm like Brooke Marigold Ilimanalani (Hamilton) Webb. Very white!

I don't love my name, but I have grown into it. I would've preferred something more accessible, either English or Hawaiian. My sister's name has a similar pattern, but she has more common first and middle names. Mine are straight out of English lit and off the genealogy lol.

My kids have white first names (DD's is a surname from my dad's family) and Hawaiian middle names. We've called DS by his Hawaiian middle name (or a nickname derived from it) since birth, but he chooses to go by his first name at school.

[sfy]

Sept 12, 2016 14:25:39 GMT -5 @246baje said:

sfy mentioned that she gave her son an ethnic name and didn't give a fuck about it and it got me thinking.

Do you have a distinctively non-white name?

Do you like it?


Did you name your children distinctively non-white names?


Any regrets?

My name is not white, i.e., European/American, but it's not a name that people typically identify as black either.  Most people call me by one of two nicknames anyway, but school and work people generally call me by my first name. 

I love my name, it's beautiful lol.

Yes, I did.

I don't have regrets that the name isn't "white," but there is another name similar to his name and Biblical that I prefer and wish I had given him instead because I prefer it to his.  But I think that has more to do with the fact that I gave him a name 20 years ago and I'm different now than I was then.  Anyway, he likes his name and it suits him, so that's all that matters, honestly.
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[itsme]

I can't really say what other people think my name is. It's spelled the non-traditional way so I'm sure people aren't sure what to think.  Only my last name gives away my ethnicity but people probably think it's H's which it is not. 

I like it. I prefer my nickname although most people butcher it.

DD1 has a name that is of middle eastern origin but I have seen it in Hispanic circles as well. I chose the name and the way I spelled it because I think it's beautiful and the spelling can be pronounced in English and Spanish. DD1's middle name is Hispanic all the way. DD2's name is not Hispanic at all. Her name and MN cannot even be pronounced in Spanish and if you do it pretty much sounds the exact same in English.

I never really liked DD1 or DD2's MN names but I didn't chose DD1s and we chose to name DD2 after her grandmother that passed away while I was pg. I don't regret the names but I would choose differently.

[raangoli]

Do you have a distinctively non-white name?

Yes, my name is traditionally Indian. But it is close to a few white names and so it gets butchered often.

Do you like it?

Yes, I like it. It's a beautiful name and meaning. Although with my maiden name, it was an odd combination and the people who would notice that sometimes and raise an eyebrow - but it's only happened a handful of times. One of those times was in India and I was going through customs so that was fun. 


Did you name your children distinctively non-white names?

Yes and no. It's an Indian first name (she was named after my maternal grandmother, but a shortened form) but it doesn't come across as difficult to pronounce. Except it is similar to a name used in a popular song by Eric Clapton so it is often confused and that irks me. Since I essentially chose her first name, I let MH choose her middle, so she has a white middle name. 

Any regrets?

Nope, I love the name we chose for her. I like that she has both a first and middle name with meaning that is special to us.

[lovelyshoes]

I was not born in the US, so I have a foreign name that everyone pronounces wrong, even people that I've worked with for years and have heard me say it over and over (same for my last name). People also try adding letters to it for some unknown reason.
Over the years I've been asked many times why I don't just change it to an easily pronounced English name - hmm. I hated it growing up because I never knew anyone with the same name, hated it in middle school, love it now. It's my name and I love that it's different.

My son has a family name that actually is the same in English, so it worked I guess. I love it, so no regrets there. People butcher his last name and he'll be "ethnic" based on that always.

[thejackpot]

My name gets the black girl stamp as my bestie and I describe it. My husband's name is ethnic too. Go us! For our kids we just picked ones we liked but they aren't getting the stamp 😜
I did consider how names matter on resumes but I don't think that was a primary factor in our name choices. I just didn't want to associate the name with a former student.

[sunshine608]

Nope my husband and I both have very generic sounding names- I've met my fair share of both white girls and black girls with my name.

DS has a very generic new "millennium" name. I have a theme for if we decide to have more children.

[05heel]

My name is so uncommon (Hebrew biblical name), that I've never actually met another one of any race. My daughter's name is also in the bible, but it does seem to be more commonly used among POC. This could just be my perception though, because I know a lot more black people than white people. I don't think most people would see her name and think of a particular race/ethnicity.

My name annoyed me growing up, because the pronunciation is tricky, but I love it now. I LOVE my DD's name. No regrets.

[Nightlight]

Do you have a distinctively non-white name?
...

Do you like it?
...

Did you name your children distinctively non-white names?
I don't have kids, but if I do, I'd probably not give them ... names.  ... .  Plus my parents and most of my family have English names.  The switch only happened because ... .

[bimbi284]

I have a distinctively non-white name that is pretty rare, even in PR (though there is an olympic indoor volleyball player that has my first name!). Though pretty much every white person thinks its hilarious that my name sounds like Bill Murray. So I've just gone ahead and taken that up to tweak my FB name, haha.

I like my name a lot now, but as I mentioned in another thread, when I was little, I wished I had a "normal" name like Jessica, Jennifer, or Stacy. Now I'm glad I don't haha.

I don't have children, and am not sure if we will, but when we've discussed it, H and I talked about using family names, which of course would include the Puerto Rican names.

I regret ever thinking my name wasn't awesome. Sometimes, I sorta regret taking H's last name, because it only serves to support the idea that I must be of some sort of Eastern European descent. I did keep my maiden name as my middle name, because I did not have a middle name before (also pretty rare in PR to not have a middle name), but part of me wishes I would have done the more traditional thing of keeping my maiden name and having two (well technically three as my mother's maiden name is also on my birth certificate), last names.

[Wines Not Whines]

My name is "ethnic." My son has a traditional white American first name, but his middle name reflects my ethnicity.

I didn't like my name when I was a kid, because it was "different." I never met anyone else with my name until I was an adult. I love it now though.

ETA: I don't have a middle name. I also didn't change my last name when I got married.

[dr.girlfriend]

Okay, let's see how close I can skate to the truth without giving out identifying info, lol.

My parents gave us Indian first names that would still work in the U.S., so they ended up Spanish. A lot of Indian names are like Sunita, Meena, Anisha, etc. My sister is Anita and I have a name similar to that. My maiden last name was very Indian, but I married into a very bland last name (like Jones or Richards). Which is kind of funny because my DH's father was Ethiopian, but since he and DH's mother never married the guy whose last name we have was that of his mother's first husband...we never even met him until her funeral.

For our son, based on my cousin's kids (she also married a black man) I was convinced that my husband's genes would prevail and our son would look black, so I wanted to give him an Indian name so both aspects of his heritage would be reflected. His first name is a traditional Indian name, but is a homophone of an American name (like an Italian/Turkish guy I know named Can but it's pronounced "John"). I'm sure some people just think it's a "unique" spelling of that name but they can suck it. DS seems to like it so far, and he's 7. :-) And then, the irony is that he kind of looks more Indian than black, although most of the time honestly he looks Hispanic probably?

[EnchantedSoul]

Well now I want to know everyone's names!

My first name could go either way. I know more white women that have it, than black. I have grown to like it. I wanted to change it to Denise (from the Cosby Show) when I was younger :-p

My oldest has a very traditionally white name but is spelled differently. The younger two also have traditionally white names with typical spelling. My husband's father is Nigerian so my husband has a Nigerian first name and the boys have Nigerian middle names. We don't really use their middle names but I would have named them something different if it weren't important to my husband.

My husband also has no middle name.

[DesertMoon]

My husband has an ethnic name (Samer) everyone calls him Sam. It's my sons MN. And my daughters MN is an ethnic name (Suaad) sue-odd pronounced. My grandmas name. My name is Amanda but my family call me different things. I have a very long neck so I've been called Nefertiti forever, or Tete. They call me Kamunja, which means violin, because I was such a cry baby lol. If they say Amanda they say it "Amunda" My mom is really the only one who calls me Amanda.

I wanted to give my daughter ther name Nisrine, or Lamiece, I even love MIL name Samira.. but DH refused he said no because he hated having an Arabic name and didn't want to do that to our kids.

[kicks]

My name is very generic, but I've only met a handful of people with my name. Thankfully if you passed 2nd grade you can spell it easily My boyfriends name is also very generic.

I'm not sure what I'll do when/if I have kids. Probably something in the middle of the road.

[oliviapope]

Do you have a distinctively non-white name?

I have a very white common name. (Think 90s movie with Julia Roberts and Sally Field)

Do you like it?
I don't hate it? But I definitely had a list of 10 others names I would have preferred.


Did you name your children distinctively non-white names?
My son's name is pretty ambiguous, (at least in my experience, all the people I know with his name are black or hispanic)


Any regrets?
I put way too much thought into ways his name could be used against him. But I wouldn't say I regret it. I don't know if I'd pick the same name if I were to choose today.

[Faevantastic]

I love love love Indian names.

For me (I'm Chinese), I've never met a white person with my name (think pooh bear) but obviously it's not foreign. I think Jimmy Fallon recently named his daughter this name. I've known lots of fellow Asians with the name though. I guess it's a popular amongst Asians.

Both of my kids name are white names. At the beginning when my daughter was born, a few people have told me her name sounds Asian. I know of one Asian with this name and have met multiple white people with her name. Go figure.

[AJL]

Do you have a distinctively non-white name?
My first name is pretty much a white name but it hasn't been popular in the U.S. since 1925/1926. It's much, much more common in Spanish speaking countries. My non-married last name is a very common Spanish last name. It's second only to Rodriguez in how common it is.


Do you like it?
I do now. I didn't growing up. I wanted to change my name to Sidney when I was a girl. I felt too conspicuous with an old name. I felt it was old fashioned and I hated that since Van Morrison had a very popular song by the same name, everyone thought they were really clever to serenade me when they met me.  Now I like it a lot. It's unique but I always get excited when I meet a woman with the same name. She's usually the same age as my grandma.


Did you name your children distinctively non-white names?

My kids have old-fashioned white names.  We were more focused Jewish naming tradition. My sister's children have one white name and one Spanish name each. 

Any regrets?

Nope, no regrets.

[wesleycrusher4ever]

I have a pretty common name that's not common for my age group. Most of the women I know with it are a generation or two older and Black (Renee)

@natariru in German class my professor would always say Renata was the German version of my name. I side eyed him because I don't think that's true lol

I've always liked my name. My daughter will have a very southern name.

[dreamcrisp1]

My name is so random. It's white but not traditional or common. I hate how mispronounced and hard to spell it is. I get Diane a lot. I hated it growing up in a sea of Jessica's, Jennifer's, and Melissa's. Not that I ever wanted one of those names but I would have preferred an easier name. I don't mind it as much now but I can't stand people's inability to spell or pronounce it.

[DesertMoon]

Sept 12, 2016 15:57:16 GMT -5 05heel said:

My name is so uncommon (Hebrew biblical name), that I've never actually met another one of any race. My daughter's name is also in the bible, but it does seem to be more commonly used among POC. This could just be my perception though, because I know a lot more black people than white people. I don't think most people would see her name and think of a particular race/ethnicity.

My name annoyed me growing up, because the pronunciation is tricky, but I love it now. I LOVE my DD's name. No regrets.

Is it Tirzah? That was on my list but I never saw anyone else with the name.

[starlily]

Do you have a distinctively non-white name? No. My family is from a state in India which is predominantly Christian, so biblical/saint names are the most common ones. Think tons of Marys, Pauls, Teresas, Josephs, and variations thereon for both first and last names. My name follows this pattern. I was once asked "But what's your real Indian name?" by someone in my office. :/


Do you like it? Yes. I was named for both of my grandmas, who shared the same first name.


Did you name your children distinctively non-white names? No, but I had some non-white names on my list of possibilities.


Any regrets? Nope!

[dreamcrisp1]

@starlily, I get asked that too sometimes. Um. What?

[alleinesein]

Sept 12, 2016 20:16:34 GMT -5 starlily said:

Do you have a distinctively non-white name? No. My family is from a state in India which is predominantly Christian, so biblical/saint names are the most common ones. Think tons of Marys, Pauls, Teresas, Josephs, and variations thereon for both first and last names. My name follows this pattern. I was once asked "But what's your real Indian name?" by someone in my office. :/

Not cool!  I worked with a few people who had names that were very Spanish/Portuguese in origin but they were 100% Indian.  I have on friend named Meghna and people always ask her if she misspelled her name and if her name is actually Meghan.   

[alleinesein]

Sept 12, 2016 19:07:23 GMT -5 wesleycrusher4ever said:

I have a pretty common name that's not common for my age group. Most of the women I know with it are a generation or two older and Black (Renee)

@natariru in German class my professor would always say Renata was the German version of my name. I side eyed him because I don't think that's true lol

I've always liked my name. My daughter will have a very southern name.

My middle name is Renee and I know a bunch of people with that as their middle name.  We had a few Renees in my graduating class (94) so it must have been popular back in the 70s.

My first name is Latin and I have met people with my name but the Irish spelling.  People always assume I was named after a popular book and movie.

My last name is Spanish in origin but most people think it is Cuban (for obvious reasons).  

[Black Lavender]

Sept 12, 2016 14:25:39 GMT -5 @246baje said:

Do you have a distinctively non-white name? Yes I do, but I honestly don't know the origin. It's a pretty simple name

Do you like it? Yup!


Did you name your children distinctively non-white names? The oldest, yes...the youngest two, no.


Any regrets?

I don't have any, but my oldest does sometimes wish she had an easier name to pronounce


Sent from my XT1096 using proboards

[05heel]

Sept 12, 2016 20:01:50 GMT -5 DesertMoon said:

Sept 12, 2016 15:57:16 GMT -5 05heel said:

My name is so uncommon (Hebrew biblical name), that I've never actually met another one of any race. My daughter's name is also in the bible, but it does seem to be more commonly used among POC. This could just be my perception though, because I know a lot more black people than white people. I don't think most people would see her name and think of a particular race/ethnicity.

My name annoyed me growing up, because the pronunciation is tricky, but I love it now. I LOVE my DD's name. No regrets.

Is it Tirzah? That was on my list but I never saw anyone else with the name.

no, but it's pretty! I love biblical names.

And by it, I mean Tirzah. lol. Not just my name. It sounded pretty conceited without that clarification.

[DesertMoon]

Sept 12, 2016 20:58:05 GMT -5 05heel said:

Sept 12, 2016 20:01:50 GMT -5 DesertMoon said:

Is it Tirzah? That was on my list but I never saw anyone else with the name.

no, but it's pretty! I love biblical names.

And by it, I mean Tirzah. lol. Not just my name. It sounded pretty conceited without that clarification.

I heard about a woman who named her daughter Tirzah Joy pronounced like tears of joy I thought it was so clever.

I'm sure it's beautiful, I love interesting names.

[skwcm80]

sfy mentioned that she gave her son an ethnic name and didn't give a fuck about it and it got me thinking.

Do you have a distinctively non-white name?
Yes, my name is Yoruba.

Do you like it?
No, I much prefer my middle name. As a kid I hated it. I was so sick of being called an African booty scratcher, and thought if I had a more common name the teasing would stop.

Did you name your children distinctively non-white names?
DD's name is also Yoruba but we call her by a nickname, and her nickname is the same as a Russian name . DS's name is Alexander, could go either way imo. Future resumes were definitely a consideration when we were choosing names.


Any regrets?
not really