Mixing nationalities?

jyoung01 · December 2013

If you have a last name that is very obviously Irish, Russian, Hispanic, French, etc...

Will the first name you choose have a similar feel?
Are "neutral" names okay (I would think names like Mary and Anna could easily be paired with any type of last name)?
Would you be okay with choosing another name that very much belongs to another nationality (i.e. Francesca O'Brien, Aoibhe Martinez)?

Just feeling like I'm limited in name choices due to my first name. But maybe it doesn't matter?

Helenahhandbasket · December 2013

My LN is Spanish.

We have decided to go with either traditional English names or names that have Latin roots.

I do think it does sound a tiny bit odd to pick a name that is so closely tied to one ethnicity if your LN belongs to another. I have a baby cousin named something along the lines of Liam Galganni. (not his actual name, but you get the idea.)

ClaireHuxtable · December 2013

I wouldn't limit myself. Personally, I don't think it matters. All that matters is that you and your husband like it.

aprilbaby2014 · December 2013

LOs last name is spanish, but we were all over the board with names . None of it mattered . The final two names we chose were Anthony & Elizaveta ... Obviously two opposite sides of the spectrum . Lol

catahoulatte · December 2013

Our last name is a very popular, very common English name. We still went with Gabriel because we feel it still works-it's common enough that most people have heard of it, and it's a name with multiple origins. I love the name Matteo, though, and since it's definitely less common in the US we don't think that would work with our name. Even though MH's mother and 3 of his 4 grandparents are Italian and they look it, we wouldn't use it. I love French girl names, but I'd limit ones on my list to ones that don't sound very "out there" with our last name.

So yeah TL;DR is that maybe find a name common enough that people wouldn't think it was strange to hear. Anna being a great example.

emmy236 · December 2013

I'm Dutch/German and DH is Irish. Our girl's name choice is super Dutch because it's my grandmothers name. It doesn't bother me that she'll have the Irish last name. I think it sounds cute together and I like how it's a nice fuse of the two of us. That being said, I wouldn't name a child something extremely Italian or Spanish because i think that is too much of a stretch.

Ceridwen21 · December 2013

DH has a very Italian LN. We have not limited our FN choices to Italian. We do like some Italian names, but the fact that they're Italian is actually a check in the negative column for those names (sounds too Italian in combo with his LN).

We will probably end up with kids with Anglo FN, Welsh MN, Italian LN. This will reflect our combined heritages.

Nechie122 · December 2013

My mom actually changed my name at the last minute because she didn't think the Irish first choice she wanted paired well with our Jewish last name.

I think mixing nationalities is okay within reason but I think you need to be aware of certain cultural sensitivities, and really research the name. Cultural appropriation can be quite offensive to some and I wouldn't want my child to bear that burden. Now if it's just "John" in another language? That's completely different.

sunflowermama42212 · December 2013

my little sister has a very english name with a portuguese last name and you would never guess that she was 50% puerto rican and it kinda bothers me. I am full puerto rican and have an english name but had a very spanish last name and now that I married a man with an english LN I really want a spanish FN so my heritage doesn't get completely lost. But I don't think it matters thats just my personal choice.

Paradisemoon · December 2013

We have a very Spanish Ln and our
DD1 has a very Spanish first and middle.
DD2 her FN could pass as Spanish but her MN is Irish (My BFF's MN)
DS Does not have a Spanish FN but his MN is DH's FN and he gets to keep the last name so we thought that was enough.
As for our twins one girl has an American FN Spanish MN and the other is the opposite.
All the names balance each other out really well and I think that is what makes it work.

strawberrytree · December 2013

I am not a fan of mixing a first name/last name of very clearly different heritages unless the child will actually share both of those heritages. In your example, I do think Aoibhe Martinez sounds odd, but Francesca O'Brien doesn't bother me. I've seen Francesca used by many different nationalities, but outside of Ireland you're going to get a whole lot of blank looks when people see Aoibhe. Something more mainstream and a bit Anglicised, like Keira Martinez, I wouldn't blink twice at.

We have an Irish McLastname, and most of the names we're considering do have their origins in the British Isles. There are some names I really like- Didier, Gustav, Dmitri, etc- that I would not consider because I don't have any cultural connection to them and they would sound odd with our last name. A more mainstream choice- Remy instead of Didier, maybe- I would be fine with.

klgallup · December 2013

Our last name is very German (starts with a K and rhymes with spider). We did find it limited us to some extent. Names with strong associations didn't seem to work (ex Liam). In addition, we thought the name looked really strange when it had a C in it because Cs are used differently in German. We changed them to Ks for that reason (Kaleb and Luka)

JayJay1212 · December 2013

We have a very German last name. Neither of us is very German, though. I didn't even think about it until recently, but I don't think we will limit ourselves. In fact, I feel like it would be a little fake and awkward to pick a German FN simply because of our very German last name. I grew up with a (I think) fairly common German surname, as well (though, my family doesn't pronounce it "correctly") and none of my siblings, cousins or other relatives have German names. Most commonly we have biblical names.

capulet · December 2013

I don't think a FN has to "match" the nationality of the LN, but I think it is weird if it's obviously a name that is not part of the child's heritage. I think biblical names and other common names in the west go just fine with any last name, but, for example, I think it would be odd if we used a super-Irish FN when neither of us is the least bit Irish.

Irishcurls · December 2013

We have a German last name, but it's also a homograph (like Polish and polish) so I think we can get away with more FNs. We like some German names, some Irish and I'm considering giving my maiden McLastname as a MN anyway. I think it matters sometimes, not others. Per usual, case by case basis!

KristaU831 · December 2013

our LN is super russian, and our daughter is karina which has a pretty russian feel to it. i don't think we will be doing that for this baby. we just happened to like karina.

but i don't think the names have to match, my maiden name is greek and my FN is swedish (no one in my fam is swedish, they just liked the name). always worked for me.

i think if you have a distinctly ethnic last name you probably don't want a super ethnic first name from a completely different place. like vladimir stephanopoulos… you know?

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