Matching ethnic origin?

shanwalk2

The post below got me thinking...

My "new" last name is very obviously from Latin decent.  My first name does not match at all with my married last name. 

Are you planning on "matching" your child's first name with the ethnic origin of your last name?  Example:  Patrick O'Brian, Enrique Gonzalez, etc?

Or would you just pick a name that you like and sounded okay with your last name, regardless of origin?

[Poll]

kegallagh

My maiden name was very Irish -- Kelly Gallagher. My married name, like yours, is very obviously Latin. We aren't even considering any Latin names at all. We tend to like Irish/Welsh names. It will be a very interesting mix I'm sure!

Aligator28

We have a very Irish last name, and I actually love a lot of the tradition Irish names, so we will probably go with an Irish name. I voted for option 1.

newportbride715

I voted other b/c I go back and forth on this. Our ln is very Swedish. DH is from Sweden w/ Polish ancestry, so most of the girl names on our list are one of those. DS is Lukas, the Swedish form of Luke. However, other than Lukas, Swedish and Polish names for boys are SO tough. I tend to want more traditional ( in the US) names for boys. I am Irish and French so I like a lot of those as well. Some sound OK w/ our ln, some do not, imo.

Overall, I definitely tend to like names for our DC's that are connected to one of our ancestries b/c we are both identify very heavily with them and I want our kids to as well.

spicycrab

I said other....reason is, I wouldn't pick a name that was of a different origin than my last name...like Liam Gonzalez. But I wouldn't try to match the first name to my last name, so if I like Robert, I'd name a son Robert Gonzalez. I wouldn't look for a Hispanic first name just to match the last name. Does that make sense?

I love the name Liam btw, and it would fit fine with our very generic last name...but neither DH or myself have Irish in our family history and I don't think it makes sense to use an ethnic first name if you have no ties to that ethnicity.

tct1219

i actually had a post related to this the other day. i like francesca but our last name is saunders, so i wasn't sure if it sounded odd to anyone else. nobody said that, so maybe it's just in my head that francesca is the female italian name.

shanwalk2

I think we'll have to match somewhat with our last name.  There will be no denying our children's ancestory based on their last name (and hopefully the beautiful skin that my DH has).

I know there are lots of pretty hispanic names out there... some of them just seem to be pretty popular...

I just hate how DH's name matches so well with his last,and I'm obviously a "by marriage".  Hopefully our kids can blend well.

LMS05

Dh and my (new) last name is Dutch and I have no idea which names are of that origin. My first name sounds fine with it. I'm Irish and Swedish and my first name is Latin. We won't be matching our childrens' names to our last name.

amyfelice

I said other. I think if  the mom is one ethnicity and the dad is another, even though it may not match the last name, then it makes sense to use either one. I do have a bit of a problem going to use a completely different ethnicity name than either parent. But I don't think it has to match the name. eg. My friend is latina and her partner is not but she would name her boy Diego anyway even though it doesn't match his last name.

d.squared

We're going to *try* to match the ethnic last name - Polish.  As my husband is from Poland and I'm a pretty solid mix of Dutch, German, Irish, etc, etc, ancestry, so I kind of like them having a link to more of a cultrual tradition.  There are a lot of Polish boys names that I like because they feel very masculine to me - Marek, for example.  Polish girls names are hard, though.  Most of the are just Russian names with a Polish spelling - Anastasja - for example. 

I've always been fond of names like Gwendolyn, Annaliese, etc. that are obviously NOT Polish.  We'll see what will happen.  

d.squared

newportbride - I'd love to know what Polish girls names you have because I've been having a hard time with those! 

hero

We're going with what we like. Dh's first name and last name don't ethnically match. He is from Sri Lanka and his first name is Sinhalese. His last name is Portuguese because Portugal controlled Sri Lanka at one point in history.

jessawakawaii

My DH is pacific islander, so I now have a Hawaiian last name. It presents problems for naming children. Kalani. So no names that end in k or ca sounds, so names like Eric and Annika are out because they sound like stammering, and no ie endings either, like Katie or Riley, because it's too rhymey.

EastCoastBride

Last name is very Jewish, ds's name is very irish.

bunnybean

DH's last name is Italian and ends in an A, so he says all names ending in A or sounding too ethnic are out.  I still like Eva (even though it of course sounds a bit like "evil"), but he thinks people will think she's like actually Italian.  In reality, she'll only be 1/8 Italian!

Temp950106187509203

spicycrab:

I said other....reason is, I wouldn't pick a name that was of a different origin than my last name...like Liam Gonzalez. But I wouldn't try to match the first name to my last name, so if I like Robert, I'd name a son Robert Gonzalez. I wouldn't look for a Hispanic first name just to match the last name. Does that make sense?

I love the name Liam btw, and it would fit fine with our very generic last name...but neither DH or myself have Irish in our family history and I don't think it makes sense to use an ethnic first name if you have no ties to that ethnicity.

I think spicycrab nailed it.  We have a very Danish last name, so if we "matched" our name choices to it, we'd basically be limited to things like Olaf or Knute.  At the same time, we don't want the name to clash.  My heritage is Irish, and I gravitate toward traditional Irish names, but Paidraig Knudsen (not our name, but similar) is just weird.  If it sounds good, we'll go with it, though, even though a name doesn't "match."  Basically, we stay away from overly ethnic-sounding (to the typical American ear) names.

Erin Mary Ackerman

This subject is near and dear to my heart, having two beautiful kids with my husband from Southern India.  Our children have hypenated last names, mine-his, and his-mine, so we did not feel the need to match my German last name nor his Indian one. 

 

DD has an Indian First name, but a short one! Short was my requirement!  And DS has a name that is like #1 on the SSN list for our area...

 

 

austenreader85

I don't think if your last name is O'Brien or Gonzales you should/have to match it.  But I think if someone went with Enrique O'Brien but didn't have any Spanish descent or live in the area, that would be strange.  So it sort of has to match?  I don't think of Patrick as an ethnically Irish name, I think its reached mainstream.  I also don't know of any ethnic variations of it, whereas Enrique is the Spanish form of Henry.

idacota

DH is from Nigeria, so we want to try to honor his heritage with our child's name.  That said, though, we want to incorporate my heritage as well, so we're thinking 1 american name and 1 nigerian name.  However, I refuse to name my child something that I have difficulty pronouncing, which is the case for about 90% of nigerian names.  The child is already going to be teased about a hard last name -- I don't want them to be totally ridiculed with a hard first name too.  So we're kind of middle-of-the-roaders.

njkitty

i'm chinese (born here), dh is jewish, his last name is not very jewish.

we're just picking names we like... i was trying to come up with "asian-american" names but didn't really find anything we could agree on (i was vetoed on lily and ruby) so my maiden name is going to be the middle name... but on the other hand we're not picking anything too ethnic either.