s/o Names you like but rarely hear

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Basil
Alistair

Alistair is not uncommon,

[Anonymous]

Tabitha

Daphne

Delilah

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Basil
Alistair

Alistair is not uncommon,

It is in the US

[Anonymous]

Ooh I like Mallory too

Also Claudia, Laurel, Tamsin, Autumn

[Anonymous]

Helen

wish I'd have had a girl --

[Anonymous]

I like Yvette and Marco

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bridget is a classic name I dont hear too much. Mildred is my favorite "old person name" that I think should come back. Millie is adorable in my mind. Im done with all versions of Eleanor and Stella. Those old people names are DONE.

haha! The name Bridget is always interesting to me. Bridget is/was the stereotypical working/low class name in Ireland...it was THE name for Irish domestic maids/servants/the "help" so much so that for a really long time, many women would actually change their names to avoid that stereotype. I'm never sure if Irish American "never been to Ireland but my last name is Sullivan or O'Reilly!!!" crowd doesn't know this or doesn't care.

Well, it was my grandmother's name and I loved her dearly regardless of the fact that she grew up on a farm. She also made her way by herself to the US as a teen and succeeded, against many odds, in raising 3 successful children. She may have been the help, but I'm very proud of her and I sport her name as my middle, always wished it was my first, and gave it to my daughter as her first name.

That said, if we'd had a second girl, I really wanted to use Dorothy.

Your grandmother sounds like an amazing person, and I think Bridget is a beautiful name!

[Anonymous]

People - Daisy has been taken over by the dogs. Don't do it.

[Anonymous]

Cecilia. Not super uncommon, but I don't know any in person, and I think it's beautiful. The nickname options are cute too.

[Anonymous]

Jeanine
Stephen
Russell
Ernest
Polly
Karen

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I always liked Bryan. You don't hear it on too many little boys these days (although Ryan is still popular). Also like Steven, Peter, Patrick, and Martin.

Girls - I'm also into the 70s/80s names. I like Jessica and Laura a lot.

Our cousin named their son Brian, which I like better than Bryan

[Anonymous]

I like Victor and Fiona.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, it's cultural appropriation. So, I side-eye people who appropriate culture that is not their own. So, you get defensive about that. So, you post a nonsensical question about "ownership."

That's what.

NP here. Hold the phone, so someone who's 100% Irish, though multiple generations American, is engaging in cultural appropriation if they name their daughter Aelish? Even if they have an Irish last name? And this is because they're now "American", not Irish? Then what names ARE American and acceptable under this reasoning?

If you didn't know how to pronounce the name growing up, it's not your culture. You're trying to put out that you have a connection to Ireland that is not there. There are Irish Americans that are still very closely connected to this culture -- they have living Irish people in their families, or they travel back and forth and keep close with relatives in Ireland. But those names aren't exotic to those people, they're just names. So again, if you didn't hear these names growing up, if you had to be taught how to pronounce them when you were thumbing through baby name books: then you are part of the diaspora, you are Irish American, you are not Irish. And it might hurt your feelings to learn this, but nobody hates Irish Americans who don't understand they're not actually Irish more than the Irish do. It's a pretense. That's why the Irish PP in this thread put an obligatory "Sully from Boston" dig in her response.

Sincerely, a Murphy

PP here - let me be clear, I have no dog in this fight. I'm a drop Irish along with half a dozen other nationalities and gave my kids family names. This is a thread about names, not about migration patterns and sociology. My point is, if "Irish Americans" aren't allowed to use certain names because of cultural appropriation, what names ARE they allowed to use? You're implying that for the vast majority of us generically "American" folks that have no remaining connection to the countries our ancestors came from, that there are names that are off limits and names that are permissible. Which names are which? Which names are permissible to you? Would you extend this rational to Italian Americans? African Americans?

If the name is so unique to a culture that not only do most people not know how to pronounce it upon seeing it spelled, but also the parents didn't know how to pronounce it upon seeing it spelled, then yes. Naming your kid that to stake out a connection to that culture is appropriation, and obnoxious.

Agree, and also to the PP above - as I understand it, you're only "Irish" if you're from Ireland or otherwise have Irish nationality. Otherwise, you're Irish-American - and that is its own culture. I find nothing more obnoxious than meeting people who call themselves Irish when what they mean is that their long dead, never met, great-great-grandparents were from Ireland. You are not Irish! You are American, and if you want to be more specific, you are Irish-American. I am from Ireland, now I live here and have dual citizenship so I consider myself Irish and American.



I have an Irish name and am pretty sure I am not Irish. My daughter has a Greek name and we aren't Greek. The Cultural appropriation talk is stupid.

[Anonymous]

Arthur
Rex
Julio


Agnes
Celeste
Grace

[Anonymous]

This isn't about cultural appropriation people. If I name my kid Saoirse, does it hurt you (or the Irish PP, or anyone anywhere) in anyway? No? Then you don't get to make a fuss about it. Name your kid what you want. And naming is about placing identifiers on your kid. Their last name is their family, the other names can call out their the culture, the meaning, family again, meaningful places or things, etc. Let's not get caught up in the "who is most Irish" game--it's pathetic.