If you were emigrating to another country, would you give your children, that are born in that country, names, that are common in that country?

My Canadian nationalism is so strong that I’d name them something like Pontius, Vishnu, Osiris, Rover, Loki, Cthulhu, Barfita, or Asmodeus.

My son and daughter-in-law have faced that exact issue when they moved to France. Even more complicated was the fact that she is Polish-American and he is of English and Jewish extraction. What they did was choose Biblical names that can be Francofied or Americanized and that would be known in Poland too. So their first son is Jacob – pronounced Zha-COB when he is France, and the second son, just born, is Simon, whom I assume will be See-MON in France. They also gave both boys French second names as well as both parents’ last names.

I was amused when my English BIL said, “They gave him such a British name.”.

What is considered an “American” name? Most names of people I know originated in other languages and countries, and reflect that person’s heritage. My son’s first name is an Anglican name his middle name is German, and his last name is Danish.

I would probably choose names, like Jan’s kids have done, that can be fairly well understood in most languages that use our alphabet. If I moved to an Asian country or somewhere that the language is completely different, choosing names would be a bit trickier.

Hey, I’m as open-minded as the next guy, but would draw the line at whatever country it is which names its kids ‘Dorcas’....

Hmm, probably not. We grew up with a couple of classmates whose parents immigrated from other countries (China, Germany and Australia) and liked the fact that their names were different.

If there was a name common in that country that I liked, I would consider it though. Also, I’d want to know if the name selected would translate or have a meaning that would generate teasing. For example, “Fanny” would not go over well in England.

@Pied_Pfeffer My mother named me after her mother whose name was Fanny but in a rare moment of thoughtfulness, decided that janet sound enough like it. Thank goodness!

I don’t need to go to France to consider this question. Here in Quebec, English parents have to choose names based on how a name sounds when pronounced in both language, what “teasing nicknames” can be formed from it in both languages, and how professional it will sound for an adult in both languages.

But French and English are alike enough that this is not very taxing. I imagine it would be more difficult with, say, English and Chinese.

No, a persons name is a persons name. People can learn to pronounce it or not.

No. I’d give them a name of my own choosing.

if the parent felt the need to call their child a traditional name (or a name associated with that country) then so be it, my name is saffron, that name has nothing to do with the united kingdom, (really) so, i reckon it’s entirely up to the parent. i’d say, choose a name that you most like, not what’s common in that country.:)

My SIL felt strongly her children’s names should “match” their surname. Her husband’s last name was Italian, so she gave both children Italian names even though one was born in America and one born in the Domincan Republic, and my SIL is Mexican.

I like the idea of the names sort of matching, but would not be quite as strict as her. I would care that their names can be pronounced fairly easily by the people in the country they grow up in and by our own family. I also would want to make sure their name doesn’t mean or sound like anything negative or to laugh at in the country’s language. It also would matter if I was in the other country for just a few years, or planned to stay permanently. If the name can easily be shortened or nicknamed that might solve any problems when the children are young. Maybe the short is easy for the country we live in.

My mom wanted to name my sister Shannon Elizabeth, she loves Irish names, and the family was very negative about it. It was so not Jewish. She wound up giving up the idea. This is all in America, we have been here for 2 or 3 generations, and my real name is a very popular American name, my sister’s name is more popular now then when she was little, but still very American and both my parents have very commonly used names in American. But, they are also names Jewish people use quite often, even though non Jews use them often also. So, I guess that is the matching thing, similar to what my SIL wanted. I just remembered a coworker of mine was bothered when her son named their daughter Savannah, which I think is a beautiful name. She said to me, “it’s so unJewish.” Her DIL wasn’t Jewish. I think it sort of felt like a loss to her to go in such a different direction with the name. So, even living in our own country there were cultural norms and considerations going on. Think about it, in the US, does a northerner give a southern name to their child? What about a white person using a traditionally black name?

No, ironic nationalism to even contemplate doing so.
Plenty of kids are named with “foreign” names anyway, or at least spelt in such a way, so this kind of thinking is more or less pointless.

Yeah, I don’t think it is about nationalism or patriotism; I forgot to comment on that; but rather, naming what sounds familiar. In America we often are using names that originated in other countries anyway and just become more common place in America over the years. I guess English names are though of as being just as American and British? Or, we use family names that have been handed down for generations.

I would find names common to both countries.

@Pied_Pfeffer Fanny would not go down well in NZ either, oh no.

No, I’d stick with choosing names that I liked, regardless of our residence.