New Post
Search
HelpRe: Naming your kids something that is not your culture
in reply to a message by Anya Mel’nik or Mel’nyk
I think it is fine. Always. Nobody names a kid something they don't think is cool. To use a name is to give it high praise and if it represents another culture, that's like praising that culture, showing that one thinks its artifacts are worthy - whether one means to praise it, or not. There's no appropriation involved. Appropriation means profiting at someone else's expense. I don't think naming a child ever does that. Maybe if it were a celebrity pseudonym.
At worst the parents might be ignorant about what the name signifies to people who are familiar with its original context. I still don't think it's unethical or disrespectful. Even if they never take an interest in the source culture otherwise.
I think for each individual, there are different comfort zones about cross-cultural naming, depending on the specific name and our experiences. There are a lot of usages I personally would not do. People should follow their own feelings, when naming their own children. And probably not project their comfort zones onto others as moral or ethical rules.
I think it's pretty normal, and appropriate, for people to feel pleased when encountering a foreign person with an unusual name from their own culture. I think if they feel like it's diluting their own culture, that's probably because they are aware of their own culture being diluted in other ways already. The naming of children isn't a cause of that, though, imo.
- mirfak
At worst the parents might be ignorant about what the name signifies to people who are familiar with its original context. I still don't think it's unethical or disrespectful. Even if they never take an interest in the source culture otherwise.
I think for each individual, there are different comfort zones about cross-cultural naming, depending on the specific name and our experiences. There are a lot of usages I personally would not do. People should follow their own feelings, when naming their own children. And probably not project their comfort zones onto others as moral or ethical rules.
I think it's pretty normal, and appropriate, for people to feel pleased when encountering a foreign person with an unusual name from their own culture. I think if they feel like it's diluting their own culture, that's probably because they are aware of their own culture being diluted in other ways already. The naming of children isn't a cause of that, though, imo.
- mirfak
This message was edited yesterday, 2:27 AM
