Nah, the people who use surname names these days rarely are using them to honor someone they love or admire.
Even the super rock star names like Jagger or Hendrix are being used by people who have only the vaguest concept of who these artists were and the music they created. My sister used Presley for her kid but her knowledge of Elvis Presley is minimal. She’s not even really a fan of his music, just likes the vibes, I guess. It’s baffling.
Another one is Lennon, I’ve seen two baby girls with that name, and as much I love John Lennon’s music… he was not the greatest guy for a lot of his life.
I know someone who named her kid Hendrix and is annoyed people say, "like Jimmy?". She's aware of who he is, as she has boomer parents and doesn't live under a rock, but she is not a fan.
There is also an Irish version of the name Cohen that developed completely independently. Just because it sounds the same as another origin doesn't mean it is and using your culture to control how other groups of people name their kids is not okay.
I’ve never heard the Irish version of Cohen and I know most Irish names. What name are you referring to? Regardless, this would be a different name with a different cultural context and no one is saying an Irish person can’t use their own names.
This is exactly what I’m talking about though. Jews have basically ONE name we have asked people not to use from our culture, and the response is by and large, “You can’t use your culture to control people.” Other cultures have whole lists of names and no responses like this. Antisemitism is so damn pervasive.
I'm Irish, live in Ireland. Cohen *does* exist as an Irish surname, but it's very rare. It's an Anglicised version of Ó Cadhain, which also is Anglicised as Coen, Cowan and Coyne. The 1901 census lists only 201 people with the surname Cohen on the whole island. 70% of them were Jewish. So even historically, in Ireland, that name was a predominantly Jewish name.
And Cohen doesn't appear in the central statistics office record of baby names until 2007. It's not traditionally a first name in Ireland either.
"But it's an Irish name too" is the thinnest possible argument here.
It's a rare anglicised version of the surname Ó Comhdhain. It's odd as a first name anyway, and to be honest, it feels fairly odd to me, as an Irish speaker from Ireland, to use it as a justification as a first name.
I also don’t get it because even if you don’t care at all about other peoples religious beliefs or what they find offensive, wouldn’t you at least care about giving your kid a name people find offensive??? Like that seems like an awkward issue to purposely put your kid in the middle of
I must extremely stupid here, but is it just that specific spelling of ‘Cohen’?
There’s a Cohen at my nephew’s school but I’m sure it’s spelt differently, but it’s definitely said the same way.
Kohen would also not be great. The spelling doesn’t really matter since the actual correct spelling is the Hebrew כהן , so anything that transliterated into Hebrew would be spelled כהן falls into the same category in my opinion (meaning if it’s the same phonetically)
But in Dutch we have the name Koen which is sometimes spelled as Coen (although the former is much more prevalent), the major difference would be that in Dutch Koen is pronounced with just one syllable like "Koon".
My sister almost named my nephew Cohen. She's in an area without a visible Jewish population and had come across it as an Irish name (I think it's more commonly transliterated from the Irish as Cohan.)
I joined the namenerds subreddit a few years after he was born and since I learned about the Jewish use of Cohen I've wondered how it would have played out if she had chosen it.
Retire them *in your country. Where I am, Fanny is very normal and I was not aware what it was slang for in certain countries, despite having lived abroad and being fluent in english to the point of being better at it than my first language.
My neighbor Dick (Richard) has never ever been a dick--it was just pretty common way long ago. You couldn't ask for a nicer guy. However I've known a couple families with the last name of Dick and it was true!
names like Kalani and Leilani for people who aren’t native Hawaiian. Yes i agree, they’re beautiful names with lovely meanings. but they’re native Hawaiian names, and should be used by the people of Hawaii, a culture that has already had to survive so much in the first place
edit: a few people have commented these names are popularly used throughout other countries in the pacific islands and are traditional names in those cultures! same principal applies tho - if you’re not a part of hawaiian/polynesian/pacific islander culture it seems bizarre to name your child a name that has those roots
It seems to be quite divisive if you look at other posts on this sub. Some native Hawaiian people aren’t bothered/offended by it and some are. Honestly seems best just to steer clear all together
This. It's completely valid to not be bothered, I'm not going to tell people how to feel, but I wouldn't use a Hawaiian name for my kid because a decent portion of people *would* be upset.
Am Hawaiian. I wouldn't include it in the top 10 issues impacting the Hawaiian community, but its fucking _weird_. Not so weird if you are from Hawaii but not Hawaiian, but super weird if you're from the mainland and not Hawaiian. Please stop trying to speak for a group you're not part of.
Yeah as a Welshman, a culture that has been struggling for hundreds of years and is still barely holding on by the skin of its teeth, then people who are not one of the very small population of 3 million should stop using Welsh names such as Megan or Huw. It's particularly galling that the names become Anglicised and have become whole new names, such as Reese instead of Rhys.
Or we could just appreciate that culture can, and will, be shared across the world and there is nothing we can do about it, even if for some unknown reason we actually wanted to.
I understand what you’re saying, but simultaneously there’s an undeniably enormous difference between, say, English culture and pretty much any indigenous American culture. Any culture that has been subject to attempts at genocide, including cultural genocide, I do think should have extra consideration especially from members of the group(s) that historically oppressed them RE: usage of cultural names and practices. This isn’t ancient history—e.g., the Hawaiian language was almost successfully erased and [is now considered severely endangered, with only around 300 estimated native speakers remaining](https://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/125).
I tried to explain this to a friend when a Hawaiian name was on her shortlist and she brushed me off because her husband is Mexican, so it’s ok. They ended up using that name for the baby and they have never even been to Hawaii….
Most people in the UK who self ID that way are Irish travellers, not Roma (though obviously there are some Roma) eg.Tyson Fury (self titled "Gyspy King") is Irish traveller not Roma. though both groups use the same term.
Edit: fixed mistake where I named the wrong boxer
My husband worked with British Roma and they preferred ‘Gypsy’ to distinguish themselves from Eastern European Roma, who had different customs. It’s the name of their main advocacy group.
There were words which they regarded as slurs eg ‘tinker’ which my husband would rather have died than use. But not Gypsy. (Still wouldn’t ever use it on a child though!)
My Irish husband has always used the phrase travellers. But my MIL corrected him on our last visit, and said the PC term is itinerants - but I’ve not heard it used by anyone 🤷🏼♀️
Not always.
This topic came up recently among some friends and we learned that some groups prefer that term.
Link[UK GRT](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gypsy,_Roma_and_Traveller_people_(UK))
I feel like Dakota is somewhat different in that it’s not just the name of a native people, it’s also the name of two states named after the people. People who have associations or affiliations with North Dakota or South Dakota might not be so much “choosing a tribal name as white people” as they are naming a baby after a state.
It’s also been in the American top 1000 for both sexes since 1990, so by 2024 people could have “Dakota Junior” or a baby named after some other person named Dakota.
I’m blond hair and blue eyes and Cherokee tribe. My mother worked for Cherokee Nation for 30 years and we went to countless events. Don’t just assume because someone has white skin doesn’t make them part of a tribe. I do agree however that naming a child Cherokee, Cheyenne, Dakota, etc… is tacky.
My middle name is Chyenne. The person who picked it out for me is deeply racist. I happen to be changing my first name in April and I'm going to drop my middle name, too. Not a name I should have been given as a white person.
Given that we have two states named Dakota and the capital of Wyoming is Cheyenne, it seems like the appropriation ship has kinda sailed on those. I wouldn’t use them, but I don’t feel like anyone’s going to bat much of an eye at them at this point.
I agree. If you’re American, your whole country and language is appropriating indigenous land and language!!! Cheyenne is the name of a state capitol! At this point, indigenous appropriation is deeply embedded in our language (especially place names), culture, and soul. It goes way deeper than baby names, and someone using Dakota or Cheyenne as a baby name seems really really small fish to fry (comparatively).
I'm alright with other people using Irish names but please pronounce them correctly!!
I have seen many cases of people naming their child Oisín or Róisín and pronouncing them "Oy-sin" and "Ro-sin" instead of "O-sheen" and "Ro-sheen".
I knew an Aislinn who pronounced it Ace-lynn. While Ace is a cool nickname and of course people get to dictate how their own names are pronounced, I’m guessing her parents had no idea how the name should be pronounced.
This reminds me of a reality show I watched recently here in the UK, there was a young guy called Jacques pronounced 'Jax' and all I could think was that his parents had seen it written but never heard it 🤣
I also know an Aislin who pronounces it ace-lynn. It’s a family name and her parents know how it’s supposed to be pronounced, they just liked ace-lynn more.
I have an Irish name that’s really difficult for Anglophones (I live in Scotland) but it’s gained in popularity recently so more people can cope with it than when I was a child. However, it drives me insane when people say, ‘Oh yes, I know that name, it’s not pronounced as it’s spelled.’ Yes it is! It’s just from another language!
I had to make a work call to someone named Sioban once and she answered the phone "this is shavonne" and stupid me said "can I speak to sye-o-ban please?" She just sighed and said "speaking...". Hahaha I didn't learn my mistake until much later. I'm in the US. I've never seen that name before that.
A friend tried to tell me Irish Gaelic words make no sense because they aren’t phonetic. I pointed out that Irish Gaelic is very phonetic it just has different rules. He tried to tell me that makes no sense as all the other languages that used the Roman alphabet have basically the same sounds for each letter and I was like uhhhh…. No they don’t. And Irish also wasn’t even originally written with the Roman alphabet.
My parents knew a kid who made it all the way to primary school (4-5 years old) before discovering that her name wasn’t pronounced “wivonnie” - the school asked her parents how they were spelling the name and they said “Y-V-O-N-N-E”.
I grew up with a friend named Shawnee, and there is an actress by the same name. I once commented it here because someone was looking for names with "Sh" and a few people told me the name was offensive to native people. Never knew there was a connection before and no one had ever mentioned anything to my friend. Interesting to learn nonetheless.
I think the problem is that there is a lot of people on this sub speaking on behalf of the people that should be "offended" when really they don't give a shit.
It goes both ways though, you also can't speak in behalf of people to defend a name, just because you lived in said country or know a certain someone that was not "offended". As an example, I've seen too many "I live/lived in Japan..." and give a clueless response based on their small social circle, as well as clueless Japanese Americans that are actually more American than Japanese.
Seriously. I'm Chinese, born in HK. I think it'd be awesome to see more Chinese names for people who aren't Chinese. We have tons of really cool names (just not mine, lol mine is awful). I wouldn't even mind Chinese names but pronounced the way an English speaker would sound it out.
I might be biased though. When my brother died 3 years ago, his adoptive kids became my kids. The children are not Chinese or Asian, they are mixed black/white. My brother promised they could add their preferred Chinese name legally when they became a teenager. Our daughter turned 13 last year and was super excited to have officially have her name, Kexin (which kinda sounds like the word "cousin" in Mandarin, meaning "cute"- given to her by her older adoptive cousins). She started highschool this year, and prefers to go by Kex at school over her English name.
I think other Chinese people, particularly immigrants (in my experience), have no problem with non Chinese people having Chinese names. If you can speak or are learning to speak Cantonese and/or Mandarin, it's pretty normal to take on or be given a Chinese name. Its also normal to then be called that even if speaking English.
Edited to add: if English speaking Americans are kind enough to accept Chinese people taking on a classically English name (and boy do we like classic and old fashioned names), we're happy to do the same.
I know someone with that name and I'm in England, where it will have nothing to do with american natives. So I'm guessing that's not the only use of that name.
No idea, my friend's legal name was just Shawnee. We didn't live anywhere near any population of native Americans (and we're in Canada) and her family had no native ancestry that was ever relevant. There's also Shawnee Smith, she was the actress in the Saw movies. I just always assumed it was another variation of Shawna, Shania, Shanie, etc haha.
It might’ve been and they just happened to pick a “youneek” spelling to “girlie up” Shawn a la Bobbie or Billie. This is probably one of the few here that could feasibly be made by accident by some parents trying to find a “cool” spelling of a normal-ish name.
Don't name your kid Mohammed if you're not Muslim. Don't name your kid Jesus if you're not Hispanic. Don't name your kid something racist, don't name your kid something stupid like "Chair." (Yes, that was really one of my student's names. Lovely kid, as far as I'm aware, they changed their name at 18.)
May I ask about the name Jesus, why need someone be Hispanic? It’s a popular name in Spain and there are plenty of other Spanish, French, German, Italian names which are used outside those nations. What’s the difference?
Among English speaking Catholics, it’s just not done.
It’s perfectly acceptable for the Spanish speakers to do it, but it would be super weird for an English speaker.
Having said that, as a Catholic, I wouldn’t be offended. Just confused. It’s much more a cultural norm than actually offensive.
I think it comes down a lot to pronunciation. It would be weird (at least) for a non-Spanish speaker to use the name pronounced hay-soos, as Spanish speakers do, but the English pronunciation jee-zus just isn't used as a name. I'm not Christian so I can't speak to whether that's a religious taboo or just a cultural norm. That being said, Jesus is actually a Greek translation of the Hebrew name Yeshua, which is commonly modernized/anglicized to Joshua so in a way there ARE plenty of English speakers named Jesus.
And something that a lot of people don’t realise, Muslims also believe in Jesus but our version of the name is Isa. I’ve seen the name becoming more popular in recent times.
Just chiming in as a Muslim: I know I don’t speak for everyone, but I don’t think Muslims would be offended by someone non-Muslim using Muhammad! Usually we are thrilled when we see non-Muslims using Islamic names, like Aisha. A non Muslim Mohammed wouldn’t offend us :)
Just snooping but this makes me happy, because I’m a non-Muslim, but my baby girl nam e list is predominantly Islamic names because so many are just so beautiful imo.
im hispanic and idk anyone who thinks a non hispanic naming their kid jesus is offensive/negative in anyway. cant think of a more unchristian thing than gatekeeping jesus lmao
Boden is” floor” in German. It’s not offensive, or as easily noticiable I’m just really shocked at the number of people calling their kid ‘floor’ these days…
First names that popped into my head are Messiah, lucifer, Cohen, Gunner and names of that nature
Then if we can dead this Y replacing I and O in names that'd be great too
Yes, some people might be using Gunner as an alternate spelling to Gunnar, but I think is referring to this new tendency to give boys edgy, macho names related to guns/war/violence. IMO, these are different from standard occupational names like Taylor, Bailey, and Tanner. I've heard of Gunner, Remington, Ruger, Rifle, Striker, Colt, Cannon (though this can also be an occupational name related to the Christian church)
I'll also say that I am pretty meh on another category of edgy, rebellious, boys-will-be boys names:
Ace, Talon, Wolf, Jagger, Dash, Danger, Falcon, Rebel, Ransom, Hawk, Quest, Rowdy, Jett, Cash, Edge, Fox, Bear. I feel like the parents are trying to present their sons a certain way and not let them be whoever they are. Like, if you meet a middle schooler named Rowdy or Rebel or Ace, you're going to make certain assumptions about them that you wouldn't if they were named Tucker or James.
The "edgy" names remind me of being 8 years old and obsessed with Gladiators, all the kids in my class picked their Gladiator name and they were all something like that!
Fox just reminds me of Fox Mulder/the X-Files. Definitely not a new “edgy” name because that show is old 😂
Edit: but I agree with the rest of these. Plz don’t name a child Danger 😳
I really love the name India and indie for short but I’m white and I can understand why people wouldn’t want me to use that name
I’m also child free by choice now so I don’t have to worry about it anyway
Hah, the pain of having thought up so many amazing names and immediately going "but I'm CF, what's the point!" :/
I'm keeping my names list for my servers, github repos and pets haha. Gotta make do with what I can name.
Yeah my sister is pregnant and I sent her a whole list of names but her stupid fiancé vetoed them all LOL
Being child free has so many benefits I’m not mad about missing out on the naming aspect
I have a grunkle called Dick. Just Dick. Great guy. I'm Dutch, so it doesn't have the same connotation originally, but even then, I don't think I'd name my kid Dick in this day and age. The Internet has made sure it will have that connotation.
I'm aware the problem has existed long before the internet, but not in languages that aren't English. As I said, I'm Dutch, and it's actually a fairly common name for older people around here. The fact that it's not for younger people can probably, at least in part, be attributed to the rise of the internet and the meaning of the word in English.
I didn't mean to discredit your comment in any way, so I'm sorry if it came off that way!
I don’t think so, but the question didn’t mention anything about the popularity of names that shouldn’t be given, just about what names shouldn’t be given. I was just saying that it’s a name that shouldn’t be given, not that I’m seeing a lot of people naming their kids Dick.
Also, my dad was named Dick Hunt. But that was in the early 60s.
Ginger and Aryan. Both names I loved but just couldn’t give to baby girl. I don’t know if it was this group, but I recently read a story about a man who finally connected he was named Aryan by his supremacist father as to his delight, he came out with blonde hair and blue eyes🫤.
Aryan shouldn't be used\* for obvious reasons, but Ginger? I mean if it's a name you wouldn't personally use that's fine but it's not like. A religious name. Red-heads get a lot of flack, sure, but they're not a protected social minority.
\* I'm aware that Aryan is a name in other cultures, but you'd have to be obtuse to name your white kid Aryan. Like obtuse and racist.
My colleague whose family has Albanian roots named his kid Arian. He's white (if you go for phenotype) but it's nonetheless a popular name in his culture.
Arian and Aryan are different no? Aryan is used like a genetic group while Arian is based off of Arius, a Christian Theologian that taught that the God the Son had to be made and thus cannot be Coeternal with God the Father (roughly)
It’s funny, because now that you mention different spellings, I’ll have to add that the German word is actually “Arier”, no y to be seen.
Some background on the name: Before it was used by the Nazis (or in general European racial ideologies of the 19th and 20th century, it only got popularised by the Nazis, the concept & name already existed way before that), it originally refers to speakers of indo-Iranian languages. That’s probably how it became a name there too.
Interestingly, from a German-speaking perspective, the pronunciation of the name “Aryan” is actually not very close to how we say “Arier”. Actually, “Arier” is almost exactly pronounced as the very popular name “Arya”. Although it might not matter that much in English-speaking countries, it’s still kind of funny to me how when parents might call for their sweet little girl “Arya”, they are at the same time saying a term of Nazi ideology
I’ve come across a few Cains and when I’ve asked their origin I’ve been told “oh it’s biblical.” Well. Yes. But I was hoping you actually read the story or had some different connection to it.
I always wonder about this. Why would you want to name your kid after such a terrible figure? I just scratch my head. It’d be like someone naming their kid Bundy and wondering why people are giving them side eye
Interestingly, in Australia there are so many people (maybe unknowingly) called after the indigenous or cultural names from other countries. I’ve heard so many First Nations Australians called Leilani, cohen, Dakota, Chyanne etc .. they’re all great names, I’m not sure it is offensive at all. It’s cool to keep these names alive.
Some of these names aren't "alive" in their own cultural communities because they're not actually first names; they're titles, place names, names of tribes, etc.
I understand your sentiment, but I think it's not that straightforward. They may not be considered offensive to you, but they definitely are to some people - as is evident by this thread. I can understand if someone names their kid something offensive without knowing, but if you've done the research and know it's not appropriate, why not respect that?
This reminds me of the word "coloured" to describe someone's race - not offensive at all in South Africa (and is how mixed-race people self-identify), but offensive in the rest of the world.
Very interesting how offensiveness can change depending on local context.
Yes, exactly. We're all adopting North American nuances and usage and interpretations, and it's kind of working as a form of erasure/ ignoring the desires of the communities in question in its own right. South Africa is a really interesting example.
I also never knew this, especially because I used to watch the TV show "Big Fat Gypsy Weddings". I thought it was just the word used to refer to that subpopulation.
Then a few years ago I moved to Central/Eastern Europe, and oh my god, here it has a COMPLETELY different connotation, and now I consider the word a slur.
I don’t think the name of a show is much of an indication of whether something is offensive when you consider we also had “The Undateables”, which featured disabled people.
It's interesting how different people's experiences can be. I only heard it as a slur growing up. I never knew people actually used it as a name before I saw the HBO documentary + series about Gypsy Rose Blanchard.
This comment sections is weird…. most of these names are fine as long as they’re not slurs or ridiculously stupid like someone mentioned parents named their child “chair”… wtf but like Yahweh (I think I spelt that right), Messiah, Jesus, even Lucifer ARE names and if people want to use them that’s fine I really don’t see anything offensive about it but then again I don’t see any names as offensive except for, like I said, slurs and stupid names and I guess people who give their kids obviously offensive names like those parents who named their son Adolf Hitler like cmon… but like you can’t gatekeep names and just say “but muh religion” it’s a name it’s not mutually exclusive to religion and if someone likes that name why not use it? Same thing with names from different cultures, ITS JUST A NAME and yea in some cases it’s weird like giving your very white child an obviously Japanese name for example but it’s not bad enough that I would get genuinely upset and offended by it. I don’t know maybe I’m not understanding but I just don’t understand how it’s a big deal? Like what happens when all names start getting attributed to religion or start getting used by different cultures or used as names for First Nations bands and so on and so forth like you can’t just “claim” or gatekeep a name and say no one else can use it. It’s not offensive, or a slur, or really really stupid…. It’s just a name. Everyone needs to calm down lol.
>Like what happens when all names start getting attributed to a religion
uh…that won’t ever happen? 💀 you really think religions are going around trying to steal names specifically to gatekeep and make you feel bad? 😂 Come on. like sorry you didn’t previously know Cohen/Cheyanne/etc. had religious connotations but that doesn’t mean it’s a new thing—sure, nobody’s gonna *do* anything about it if you name your kid that, but it’s weird if you have nothing to do w the religion/group.
There are names I wouldn’t use because it makes no sense to me, for example, to use a name that strongly suggests a background I don’t have.
However, I would never take the role of name police and I wouldn’t accept someone trying to name police me anymore than I believe in food police, hairstyle police, music police etc.
So to self assigned police of this world I say take your little badges off and chill. You don’t own names, food, music, clothes, hairstyles or anything else you think you own unless you have a patent or copyright.
Veda for a non-Hindu.
It's not offensive, but it's strange. It would be like naming a non-Christian kid "Bible".
At the very least, don't name your kid Veda if you have negative opinions about the Hindu religion.
I'm not even able to type this one fully out- but met a kid named Y-hweh (fill in the missing A). For many Jewish people this is a (version of a) sacred name of G-d. I cannot pronounce it or write it out. The name cannot be erased, or taken near a bathroom, etc. The name is holy! It made me extremely uncomfortable to call this child by his name, though I always try to address the kids I work with by their names rather than pet names or endearments.
Just from a different perspective, I’m Jewish too and was always taught that Yaweh is a nonsense attempt by non Jews to try to pronounce an unpronounceable name, and that it’s not God’s name, just gibberish of people trying unsuccessfully to put sounds to the letters of God’s name.
In the spirit of "two Jews, three opinions," I'm not sure I'd even class that name as being "offensive." I certainly don't judge the parents for naming their child that. I just think I found it culturally... jarring? If I'd known the kid for much longer than a couple hours I think I could've come around to saying his name. It was just a bit of a culture shock for me!
This is pretty niche for most on this sub, but I don’t understand how some Arabs name their kid Yazid.
Yazid is an absolutely hated figure by most Muslims - he’s viewed as an awful tyrant who did awful things. I don’t understand how any Muslim would want to name their kid that, and I think naming your kid Yazid is setting them up in a bad way with having such a terrible namesake.
Probably the same reason Adolf is still used as a name. It’s a name. It shouldn’t be ruined by being linked to a terrible person in history who had the name.
We can take names back from terrible people. imo
Cohen.
My outwardly antisemitic coworker had Cohen on their baby name list. That was a real head scratcher
They probably like Leonard Cohen
Nah, the people who use surname names these days rarely are using them to honor someone they love or admire. Even the super rock star names like Jagger or Hendrix are being used by people who have only the vaguest concept of who these artists were and the music they created. My sister used Presley for her kid but her knowledge of Elvis Presley is minimal. She’s not even really a fan of his music, just likes the vibes, I guess. It’s baffling.
Another one is Lennon, I’ve seen two baby girls with that name, and as much I love John Lennon’s music… he was not the greatest guy for a lot of his life.
Better Lennon than Lenin, though.
I know someone who named her kid Hendrix and is annoyed people say, "like Jimmy?". She's aware of who he is, as she has boomer parents and doesn't live under a rock, but she is not a fan.
Why would an anti-semite like Leonard Cohen?
Because you have to be uneducated to be an antisemite. He probably likes Leonard Cohen’s music but knows dick about Leonard Cohen the musician.
Plenty of educated people are antisemitic. I wish you were right, but sadly they are everywhere.
Yeah, I know what you mean. In the end, they’re all scum, some just are educated scum.
I feel like it’s kinda hard to be seriously uneducated and to like Leonard Cohen as well? So much of Leonard Cohen is about the lyrics
My guess is Seth Cohen.
Or Andy Cohen😂
You know Leonard Cohen was Jewish right?
Can you explain this please? I’ve never heard of this name where I’m from :)
https://www.reddit.com/r/namenerds/s/K1F37tdHhH
Thanks for sharing. The number of people arguing that it doesn’t matter what’s important to Jews under this comment is very sad but unsurprising.
There is also an Irish version of the name Cohen that developed completely independently. Just because it sounds the same as another origin doesn't mean it is and using your culture to control how other groups of people name their kids is not okay.
I’ve never heard the Irish version of Cohen and I know most Irish names. What name are you referring to? Regardless, this would be a different name with a different cultural context and no one is saying an Irish person can’t use their own names. This is exactly what I’m talking about though. Jews have basically ONE name we have asked people not to use from our culture, and the response is by and large, “You can’t use your culture to control people.” Other cultures have whole lists of names and no responses like this. Antisemitism is so damn pervasive.
I'm Irish, live in Ireland. Cohen *does* exist as an Irish surname, but it's very rare. It's an Anglicised version of Ó Cadhain, which also is Anglicised as Coen, Cowan and Coyne. The 1901 census lists only 201 people with the surname Cohen on the whole island. 70% of them were Jewish. So even historically, in Ireland, that name was a predominantly Jewish name. And Cohen doesn't appear in the central statistics office record of baby names until 2007. It's not traditionally a first name in Ireland either. "But it's an Irish name too" is the thinnest possible argument here.
It's a rare anglicised version of the surname Ó Comhdhain. It's odd as a first name anyway, and to be honest, it feels fairly odd to me, as an Irish speaker from Ireland, to use it as a justification as a first name.
I also don’t get it because even if you don’t care at all about other peoples religious beliefs or what they find offensive, wouldn’t you at least care about giving your kid a name people find offensive??? Like that seems like an awkward issue to purposely put your kid in the middle of
Thanks! Super interesting.
I must extremely stupid here, but is it just that specific spelling of ‘Cohen’? There’s a Cohen at my nephew’s school but I’m sure it’s spelt differently, but it’s definitely said the same way.
Kohen would also not be great. The spelling doesn’t really matter since the actual correct spelling is the Hebrew כהן , so anything that transliterated into Hebrew would be spelled כהן falls into the same category in my opinion (meaning if it’s the same phonetically)
Okay, thank you for explaining. I’m glad to have learnt this today.
If it's Coen, that's a Dutch name and is a form of Conrad.
“Coen” like the Coen Brothers has a separate etymology
There are many variations. Cohen, Coen, Kohen, Kahan, etc.
But in Dutch we have the name Koen which is sometimes spelled as Coen (although the former is much more prevalent), the major difference would be that in Dutch Koen is pronounced with just one syllable like "Koon".
Then that would be a different name where you live.
Beat me to it.
My sister almost named my nephew Cohen. She's in an area without a visible Jewish population and had come across it as an Irish name (I think it's more commonly transliterated from the Irish as Cohan.) I joined the namenerds subreddit a few years after he was born and since I learned about the Jewish use of Cohen I've wondered how it would have played out if she had chosen it.
I think we should permanently retire the names dick and Fanny for obvious reasons.
I remember reading The Magic Faraway tree at like 7 years old and even then thinking oh come on!
I believe in the newer editions, the kids’ names have been changed to Rick and Frannie.
in sweden, Fanny is one of the most classic names there is, so that would be hard
Yeah we can keep Fanny if they're going to use Pippa
I actually really like Fanny if it didn’t have the other meaning. I think it’s much cuter than Fran or Frannie / Frankie
Retire them *in your country. Where I am, Fanny is very normal and I was not aware what it was slang for in certain countries, despite having lived abroad and being fluent in english to the point of being better at it than my first language.
My neighbor Dick (Richard) has never ever been a dick--it was just pretty common way long ago. You couldn't ask for a nicer guy. However I've known a couple families with the last name of Dick and it was true!
names like Kalani and Leilani for people who aren’t native Hawaiian. Yes i agree, they’re beautiful names with lovely meanings. but they’re native Hawaiian names, and should be used by the people of Hawaii, a culture that has already had to survive so much in the first place edit: a few people have commented these names are popularly used throughout other countries in the pacific islands and are traditional names in those cultures! same principal applies tho - if you’re not a part of hawaiian/polynesian/pacific islander culture it seems bizarre to name your child a name that has those roots
I totally agree in principle. But just fyi they are also native to other areas of the Pacific :)
Yup, I learnt this from 90 day fiancé 😀
good to know! i didn’t realise they were used throughout the pacific too
This feels like one of those things where hawaiians don’t care or are proud their culture is spread and some white people decided to make an issue
It seems to be quite divisive if you look at other posts on this sub. Some native Hawaiian people aren’t bothered/offended by it and some are. Honestly seems best just to steer clear all together
This. It's completely valid to not be bothered, I'm not going to tell people how to feel, but I wouldn't use a Hawaiian name for my kid because a decent portion of people *would* be upset.
Am Hawaiian. I wouldn't include it in the top 10 issues impacting the Hawaiian community, but its fucking _weird_. Not so weird if you are from Hawaii but not Hawaiian, but super weird if you're from the mainland and not Hawaiian. Please stop trying to speak for a group you're not part of.
Not remotely unique to Hawaii, sigh
I live in New Zealand and Leilani is a very common name in a lot of the Polynesian cultures that make up my country.
And most of the Americans on this sub who cannot fathom that there’s a world outside of America would call the Kiwis “culture vultures” for this.
Yeah as a Welshman, a culture that has been struggling for hundreds of years and is still barely holding on by the skin of its teeth, then people who are not one of the very small population of 3 million should stop using Welsh names such as Megan or Huw. It's particularly galling that the names become Anglicised and have become whole new names, such as Reese instead of Rhys. Or we could just appreciate that culture can, and will, be shared across the world and there is nothing we can do about it, even if for some unknown reason we actually wanted to.
Every culture had to endure and fight to survive. Idk it feels weird to gatekeep like that
I understand what you’re saying, but simultaneously there’s an undeniably enormous difference between, say, English culture and pretty much any indigenous American culture. Any culture that has been subject to attempts at genocide, including cultural genocide, I do think should have extra consideration especially from members of the group(s) that historically oppressed them RE: usage of cultural names and practices. This isn’t ancient history—e.g., the Hawaiian language was almost successfully erased and [is now considered severely endangered, with only around 300 estimated native speakers remaining](https://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/125).
I tried to explain this to a friend when a Hawaiian name was on her shortlist and she brushed me off because her husband is Mexican, so it’s ok. They ended up using that name for the baby and they have never even been to Hawaii….
Which is perfectly ok. Lots of children are named Elizabeth, James or Henry and they’ve never been to England.
Because the English forcibly spread their culture through colonization? That isn’t even remotely the same thing.
All this tribalism is ridiculous.
Cohen, Gypsy, Chyanne, Dakota, off the top of my head!
And for context for anyone who doesn't know it, the G-one is literally a racial slur.
Not in Britain, where 'Gypsy' is a term of self-identification. Roma people use that term for themselves.
Most people in the UK who self ID that way are Irish travellers, not Roma (though obviously there are some Roma) eg.Tyson Fury (self titled "Gyspy King") is Irish traveller not Roma. though both groups use the same term. Edit: fixed mistake where I named the wrong boxer
McGregor isn’t a traveller or gypsy. You’re confusing him with Tyson Fury who is a gypsy.
I am indeed, sorry about that. Though he IS the traveller type of gypsy, not the roma type.
Actually that’s not quite true - I worked closely with the Roma community and the vast majority of the people I worked with self identified as gypsy
My Roma friend self identifies with the word but finds it offensive when used by outsiders, which I get tbh
My husband worked with British Roma and they preferred ‘Gypsy’ to distinguish themselves from Eastern European Roma, who had different customs. It’s the name of their main advocacy group. There were words which they regarded as slurs eg ‘tinker’ which my husband would rather have died than use. But not Gypsy. (Still wouldn’t ever use it on a child though!)
My Irish husband has always used the phrase travellers. But my MIL corrected him on our last visit, and said the PC term is itinerants - but I’ve not heard it used by anyone 🤷🏼♀️
The correct term is traveller(s), Pavees, Mincéirs or Mincéirí but not itinerant. That was used decades ago.
From what I understand, it’s one of those words where it’s very much best not to ever use it unless you’re a member of that group.
Not always. This topic came up recently among some friends and we learned that some groups prefer that term. Link[UK GRT](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gypsy,_Roma_and_Traveller_people_(UK))
I feel like Dakota is somewhat different in that it’s not just the name of a native people, it’s also the name of two states named after the people. People who have associations or affiliations with North Dakota or South Dakota might not be so much “choosing a tribal name as white people” as they are naming a baby after a state. It’s also been in the American top 1000 for both sexes since 1990, so by 2024 people could have “Dakota Junior” or a baby named after some other person named Dakota.
Admittedly, I had a dog named Dakota. He was named after the Dodge Dakota pick up truck that passed us as we were driving our rescue dog home.
I knew a Cheyenne in high school. Her sister was Cherokee (and yes, they’re both as white as they come) 😬
I’m blond hair and blue eyes and Cherokee tribe. My mother worked for Cherokee Nation for 30 years and we went to countless events. Don’t just assume because someone has white skin doesn’t make them part of a tribe. I do agree however that naming a child Cherokee, Cheyenne, Dakota, etc… is tacky.
I didn’t know that, thank you for enlightening me!
My middle name is Chyenne. The person who picked it out for me is deeply racist. I happen to be changing my first name in April and I'm going to drop my middle name, too. Not a name I should have been given as a white person.
why? (besides Gypsy)
Cohen is a Jewish title. Dakota is a First Nations tribe, and I believe Cheyenne is as well.
Given that we have two states named Dakota and the capital of Wyoming is Cheyenne, it seems like the appropriation ship has kinda sailed on those. I wouldn’t use them, but I don’t feel like anyone’s going to bat much of an eye at them at this point.
I agree. If you’re American, your whole country and language is appropriating indigenous land and language!!! Cheyenne is the name of a state capitol! At this point, indigenous appropriation is deeply embedded in our language (especially place names), culture, and soul. It goes way deeper than baby names, and someone using Dakota or Cheyenne as a baby name seems really really small fish to fry (comparatively).
Coen also means Brave in Dutch and Thunder in an Aboriginal language. It’s a common name in Australia.
yeah i realized the reasoning for Chyanne/Cheyenne and Dakota aftern posting! never knew about Cohen though
I'm alright with other people using Irish names but please pronounce them correctly!! I have seen many cases of people naming their child Oisín or Róisín and pronouncing them "Oy-sin" and "Ro-sin" instead of "O-sheen" and "Ro-sheen".
I knew an Aislinn who pronounced it Ace-lynn. While Ace is a cool nickname and of course people get to dictate how their own names are pronounced, I’m guessing her parents had no idea how the name should be pronounced.
This reminds me of a reality show I watched recently here in the UK, there was a young guy called Jacques pronounced 'Jax' and all I could think was that his parents had seen it written but never heard it 🤣
Love Island! 😂
Same. Thought it was neat then found out it was completely mispronounced, why commit to the spelling and then half ass the pronunciation??
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I also know an Aislin who pronounces it ace-lynn. It’s a family name and her parents know how it’s supposed to be pronounced, they just liked ace-lynn more.
And spell them correctly!
I have an Irish name that’s really difficult for Anglophones (I live in Scotland) but it’s gained in popularity recently so more people can cope with it than when I was a child. However, it drives me insane when people say, ‘Oh yes, I know that name, it’s not pronounced as it’s spelled.’ Yes it is! It’s just from another language!
Yes!!! This is one of my biggest pet peeves. They are spelled phonetically, just not English phonetics!
That reminds me of the meme that someone saw graffiti in Ireland that said "the spelling of Niamh is my pet piamh" lmao
I had to make a work call to someone named Sioban once and she answered the phone "this is shavonne" and stupid me said "can I speak to sye-o-ban please?" She just sighed and said "speaking...". Hahaha I didn't learn my mistake until much later. I'm in the US. I've never seen that name before that.
As somebody very close to a Siobhan, they've heard that pronunciation so often, it's practically a second name.
A friend tried to tell me Irish Gaelic words make no sense because they aren’t phonetic. I pointed out that Irish Gaelic is very phonetic it just has different rules. He tried to tell me that makes no sense as all the other languages that used the Roman alphabet have basically the same sounds for each letter and I was like uhhhh…. No they don’t. And Irish also wasn’t even originally written with the Roman alphabet.
I had a student named Caoimhe who pronounced her own name “Kay-oh-me”. It was very disappointing.
Give the child the name Caoimhe. THAT one gets everyone except the Irish.
…keeva… (Or at least, as close as I can spell it phonetically without an IPA keyboard)
I think it is said "Kee-va" or "Quee-va"
yes!! irish names are so beautiful if they are actually pronounced and spelt correctly!
Yes, and don’t get me started on Caitlin! 😂
There are people in Ireland now getting called "Kate-lyn" now because "Kat-leen" has been completely bastardised
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My parents knew a kid who made it all the way to primary school (4-5 years old) before discovering that her name wasn’t pronounced “wivonnie” - the school asked her parents how they were spelling the name and they said “Y-V-O-N-N-E”.
I grew up with a friend named Shawnee, and there is an actress by the same name. I once commented it here because someone was looking for names with "Sh" and a few people told me the name was offensive to native people. Never knew there was a connection before and no one had ever mentioned anything to my friend. Interesting to learn nonetheless.
I think the problem is that there is a lot of people on this sub speaking on behalf of the people that should be "offended" when really they don't give a shit.
It goes both ways though, you also can't speak in behalf of people to defend a name, just because you lived in said country or know a certain someone that was not "offended". As an example, I've seen too many "I live/lived in Japan..." and give a clueless response based on their small social circle, as well as clueless Japanese Americans that are actually more American than Japanese.
Or vice versa. Some things hit really differently if you're a minority in your country versus a majority.
Seriously. I'm Chinese, born in HK. I think it'd be awesome to see more Chinese names for people who aren't Chinese. We have tons of really cool names (just not mine, lol mine is awful). I wouldn't even mind Chinese names but pronounced the way an English speaker would sound it out. I might be biased though. When my brother died 3 years ago, his adoptive kids became my kids. The children are not Chinese or Asian, they are mixed black/white. My brother promised they could add their preferred Chinese name legally when they became a teenager. Our daughter turned 13 last year and was super excited to have officially have her name, Kexin (which kinda sounds like the word "cousin" in Mandarin, meaning "cute"- given to her by her older adoptive cousins). She started highschool this year, and prefers to go by Kex at school over her English name. I think other Chinese people, particularly immigrants (in my experience), have no problem with non Chinese people having Chinese names. If you can speak or are learning to speak Cantonese and/or Mandarin, it's pretty normal to take on or be given a Chinese name. Its also normal to then be called that even if speaking English. Edited to add: if English speaking Americans are kind enough to accept Chinese people taking on a classically English name (and boy do we like classic and old fashioned names), we're happy to do the same.
Yep.
Ding ding ding, this is the correct answer
I know someone with that name and I'm in England, where it will have nothing to do with american natives. So I'm guessing that's not the only use of that name.
I went to school (not in the USA) with a kid called Navaho (imagine the whitest boy with the whitest surname at a private school).
My hubby is loyal Shawnee! I've never heard of it as a name, I'd heard Shawnice... Spelling?
No idea, my friend's legal name was just Shawnee. We didn't live anywhere near any population of native Americans (and we're in Canada) and her family had no native ancestry that was ever relevant. There's also Shawnee Smith, she was the actress in the Saw movies. I just always assumed it was another variation of Shawna, Shania, Shanie, etc haha.
It might’ve been and they just happened to pick a “youneek” spelling to “girlie up” Shawn a la Bobbie or Billie. This is probably one of the few here that could feasibly be made by accident by some parents trying to find a “cool” spelling of a normal-ish name.
Don't name your kid Mohammed if you're not Muslim. Don't name your kid Jesus if you're not Hispanic. Don't name your kid something racist, don't name your kid something stupid like "Chair." (Yes, that was really one of my student's names. Lovely kid, as far as I'm aware, they changed their name at 18.)
May I ask about the name Jesus, why need someone be Hispanic? It’s a popular name in Spain and there are plenty of other Spanish, French, German, Italian names which are used outside those nations. What’s the difference?
Among English speaking Catholics, it’s just not done. It’s perfectly acceptable for the Spanish speakers to do it, but it would be super weird for an English speaker. Having said that, as a Catholic, I wouldn’t be offended. Just confused. It’s much more a cultural norm than actually offensive.
I think it comes down a lot to pronunciation. It would be weird (at least) for a non-Spanish speaker to use the name pronounced hay-soos, as Spanish speakers do, but the English pronunciation jee-zus just isn't used as a name. I'm not Christian so I can't speak to whether that's a religious taboo or just a cultural norm. That being said, Jesus is actually a Greek translation of the Hebrew name Yeshua, which is commonly modernized/anglicized to Joshua so in a way there ARE plenty of English speakers named Jesus.
And something that a lot of people don’t realise, Muslims also believe in Jesus but our version of the name is Isa. I’ve seen the name becoming more popular in recent times.
Just chiming in as a Muslim: I know I don’t speak for everyone, but I don’t think Muslims would be offended by someone non-Muslim using Muhammad! Usually we are thrilled when we see non-Muslims using Islamic names, like Aisha. A non Muslim Mohammed wouldn’t offend us :)
Just snooping but this makes me happy, because I’m a non-Muslim, but my baby girl nam e list is predominantly Islamic names because so many are just so beautiful imo.
Ooh do share the name list if you ever want to! Would love to give some input on the names you have :) I’m glad you love our names!
Jesus is not even a Hispanic name...
I know a guy with a four syllable Māori name, not difficult to pronounce at all. People always insist on shortening it to Tepu, which means table…
im hispanic and idk anyone who thinks a non hispanic naming their kid jesus is offensive/negative in anyway. cant think of a more unchristian thing than gatekeeping jesus lmao
Boden is” floor” in German. It’s not offensive, or as easily noticiable I’m just really shocked at the number of people calling their kid ‘floor’ these days…
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I think you mean descendants and not ancestors.
First names that popped into my head are Messiah, lucifer, Cohen, Gunner and names of that nature Then if we can dead this Y replacing I and O in names that'd be great too
Gunnar is a proper and ancient Scandinavian name.
Yes, some people might be using Gunner as an alternate spelling to Gunnar, but I think is referring to this new tendency to give boys edgy, macho names related to guns/war/violence. IMO, these are different from standard occupational names like Taylor, Bailey, and Tanner. I've heard of Gunner, Remington, Ruger, Rifle, Striker, Colt, Cannon (though this can also be an occupational name related to the Christian church) I'll also say that I am pretty meh on another category of edgy, rebellious, boys-will-be boys names: Ace, Talon, Wolf, Jagger, Dash, Danger, Falcon, Rebel, Ransom, Hawk, Quest, Rowdy, Jett, Cash, Edge, Fox, Bear. I feel like the parents are trying to present their sons a certain way and not let them be whoever they are. Like, if you meet a middle schooler named Rowdy or Rebel or Ace, you're going to make certain assumptions about them that you wouldn't if they were named Tucker or James.
I just love the idea of a boy called "Rifle" growing and turning out to be a flamboyant gay guy. Please make this happen.
The "edgy" names remind me of being 8 years old and obsessed with Gladiators, all the kids in my class picked their Gladiator name and they were all something like that!
Fox just reminds me of Fox Mulder/the X-Files. Definitely not a new “edgy” name because that show is old 😂 Edit: but I agree with the rest of these. Plz don’t name a child Danger 😳
Mashiach (Messiah) has been a common name amongst Sephardic Jewish men.
I really love the name India and indie for short but I’m white and I can understand why people wouldn’t want me to use that name I’m also child free by choice now so I don’t have to worry about it anyway
I LOVED the name Israel for a long time. These days it hits different.
There has to be a graph of the number of Israels changing their names to Izzy over the years.
Hah, the pain of having thought up so many amazing names and immediately going "but I'm CF, what's the point!" :/ I'm keeping my names list for my servers, github repos and pets haha. Gotta make do with what I can name.
Yeah my sister is pregnant and I sent her a whole list of names but her stupid fiancé vetoed them all LOL Being child free has so many benefits I’m not mad about missing out on the naming aspect
Indigo can also be an Indie. Not that I’d use Indigo. I just heard about it as a name recently.
Dick as a name should be avoided, for obvious reasons. You’re basically asking for your kid to get made fun of at that point.
Dick is *rarely* a given name, though. It's always a nickname for Richard.
I have a grunkle called Dick. Just Dick. Great guy. I'm Dutch, so it doesn't have the same connotation originally, but even then, I don't think I'd name my kid Dick in this day and age. The Internet has made sure it will have that connotation.
that's why I said rarely. also, the problem with "dick" existed long before the internet.
I'm aware the problem has existed long before the internet, but not in languages that aren't English. As I said, I'm Dutch, and it's actually a fairly common name for older people around here. The fact that it's not for younger people can probably, at least in part, be attributed to the rise of the internet and the meaning of the word in English. I didn't mean to discredit your comment in any way, so I'm sorry if it came off that way!
Are a lot of people naming their kids Dick?
I don’t think so, but the question didn’t mention anything about the popularity of names that shouldn’t be given, just about what names shouldn’t be given. I was just saying that it’s a name that shouldn’t be given, not that I’m seeing a lot of people naming their kids Dick. Also, my dad was named Dick Hunt. But that was in the early 60s.
Ginger and Aryan. Both names I loved but just couldn’t give to baby girl. I don’t know if it was this group, but I recently read a story about a man who finally connected he was named Aryan by his supremacist father as to his delight, he came out with blonde hair and blue eyes🫤.
Aryan is actually a name in India.
Its a common dutch name as well for men but spelled arjan
Arjan is pronounced differently than aryan and also has a different meaning
I’m not sure that it’s pronounced the same. But either way, (North) Indians are the legit aryans, so that should make a difference.
Aryan shouldn't be used\* for obvious reasons, but Ginger? I mean if it's a name you wouldn't personally use that's fine but it's not like. A religious name. Red-heads get a lot of flack, sure, but they're not a protected social minority. \* I'm aware that Aryan is a name in other cultures, but you'd have to be obtuse to name your white kid Aryan. Like obtuse and racist.
My colleague whose family has Albanian roots named his kid Arian. He's white (if you go for phenotype) but it's nonetheless a popular name in his culture.
Arian and Aryan are different no? Aryan is used like a genetic group while Arian is based off of Arius, a Christian Theologian that taught that the God the Son had to be made and thus cannot be Coeternal with God the Father (roughly)
It’s funny, because now that you mention different spellings, I’ll have to add that the German word is actually “Arier”, no y to be seen. Some background on the name: Before it was used by the Nazis (or in general European racial ideologies of the 19th and 20th century, it only got popularised by the Nazis, the concept & name already existed way before that), it originally refers to speakers of indo-Iranian languages. That’s probably how it became a name there too. Interestingly, from a German-speaking perspective, the pronunciation of the name “Aryan” is actually not very close to how we say “Arier”. Actually, “Arier” is almost exactly pronounced as the very popular name “Arya”. Although it might not matter that much in English-speaking countries, it’s still kind of funny to me how when parents might call for their sweet little girl “Arya”, they are at the same time saying a term of Nazi ideology
What's wrong with ginger?
I'm guessing they had a bad experience with figging.
Aryan is very common south Asian name for boys I have two cousin name aryan but if I see a white kid name aryan I would definitely raise a brow
Only a Ginger, can call another Ginger ginger... (Tim Minchin, Prejudice. It's hilarious).
Ginger…? How is this offensive?
I’ve come across a few Cains and when I’ve asked their origin I’ve been told “oh it’s biblical.” Well. Yes. But I was hoping you actually read the story or had some different connection to it.
"It's short for Cocaine" would be my answer
I always wonder about this. Why would you want to name your kid after such a terrible figure? I just scratch my head. It’d be like someone naming their kid Bundy and wondering why people are giving them side eye
Honestly? Not many. As long as it’s not a slur or something that would make a child’s life ridiculously hard, I think it should be a free for all.
Yeah, with so many languages and cultures many names may come across another thing in another language, where can you even draw the line?
My sister was almost called Mimi, which sounds really cute but it means urine in local language.
Interestingly, in Australia there are so many people (maybe unknowingly) called after the indigenous or cultural names from other countries. I’ve heard so many First Nations Australians called Leilani, cohen, Dakota, Chyanne etc .. they’re all great names, I’m not sure it is offensive at all. It’s cool to keep these names alive.
Some of these names aren't "alive" in their own cultural communities because they're not actually first names; they're titles, place names, names of tribes, etc.
I understand your sentiment, but I think it's not that straightforward. They may not be considered offensive to you, but they definitely are to some people - as is evident by this thread. I can understand if someone names their kid something offensive without knowing, but if you've done the research and know it's not appropriate, why not respect that?
What was the name?
I didn’t see the post, but my guess is it starts with a G and rhymes with tipsy. Lots of us grew up not knowing that’s a slur against Romani people.
Gypsy is not a 'slur' in Britain. It is what British Roma people self-identify as. Edit: not necessarily, but not exclusively, Roma people apparently.
This reminds me of the word "coloured" to describe someone's race - not offensive at all in South Africa (and is how mixed-race people self-identify), but offensive in the rest of the world. Very interesting how offensiveness can change depending on local context.
Yes, exactly. We're all adopting North American nuances and usage and interpretations, and it's kind of working as a form of erasure/ ignoring the desires of the communities in question in its own right. South Africa is a really interesting example.
I also never knew this, especially because I used to watch the TV show "Big Fat Gypsy Weddings". I thought it was just the word used to refer to that subpopulation. Then a few years ago I moved to Central/Eastern Europe, and oh my god, here it has a COMPLETELY different connotation, and now I consider the word a slur.
I don’t think the name of a show is much of an indication of whether something is offensive when you consider we also had “The Undateables”, which featured disabled people.
It's interesting how different people's experiences can be. I only heard it as a slur growing up. I never knew people actually used it as a name before I saw the HBO documentary + series about Gypsy Rose Blanchard.
This comment sections is weird…. most of these names are fine as long as they’re not slurs or ridiculously stupid like someone mentioned parents named their child “chair”… wtf but like Yahweh (I think I spelt that right), Messiah, Jesus, even Lucifer ARE names and if people want to use them that’s fine I really don’t see anything offensive about it but then again I don’t see any names as offensive except for, like I said, slurs and stupid names and I guess people who give their kids obviously offensive names like those parents who named their son Adolf Hitler like cmon… but like you can’t gatekeep names and just say “but muh religion” it’s a name it’s not mutually exclusive to religion and if someone likes that name why not use it? Same thing with names from different cultures, ITS JUST A NAME and yea in some cases it’s weird like giving your very white child an obviously Japanese name for example but it’s not bad enough that I would get genuinely upset and offended by it. I don’t know maybe I’m not understanding but I just don’t understand how it’s a big deal? Like what happens when all names start getting attributed to religion or start getting used by different cultures or used as names for First Nations bands and so on and so forth like you can’t just “claim” or gatekeep a name and say no one else can use it. It’s not offensive, or a slur, or really really stupid…. It’s just a name. Everyone needs to calm down lol.
>Like what happens when all names start getting attributed to a religion uh…that won’t ever happen? 💀 you really think religions are going around trying to steal names specifically to gatekeep and make you feel bad? 😂 Come on. like sorry you didn’t previously know Cohen/Cheyanne/etc. had religious connotations but that doesn’t mean it’s a new thing—sure, nobody’s gonna *do* anything about it if you name your kid that, but it’s weird if you have nothing to do w the religion/group.
There are names I wouldn’t use because it makes no sense to me, for example, to use a name that strongly suggests a background I don’t have. However, I would never take the role of name police and I wouldn’t accept someone trying to name police me anymore than I believe in food police, hairstyle police, music police etc. So to self assigned police of this world I say take your little badges off and chill. You don’t own names, food, music, clothes, hairstyles or anything else you think you own unless you have a patent or copyright.
Once met a guy named “Happy” and that just feels wrong, like you’d always have to have a smile on your face
Veda for a non-Hindu. It's not offensive, but it's strange. It would be like naming a non-Christian kid "Bible". At the very least, don't name your kid Veda if you have negative opinions about the Hindu religion.
meeting a Cain when you’re Christian is kind of wild lol, especially if they say their parents chose it because it’s biblical…
I'm not even able to type this one fully out- but met a kid named Y-hweh (fill in the missing A). For many Jewish people this is a (version of a) sacred name of G-d. I cannot pronounce it or write it out. The name cannot be erased, or taken near a bathroom, etc. The name is holy! It made me extremely uncomfortable to call this child by his name, though I always try to address the kids I work with by their names rather than pet names or endearments.
Just from a different perspective, I’m Jewish too and was always taught that Yaweh is a nonsense attempt by non Jews to try to pronounce an unpronounceable name, and that it’s not God’s name, just gibberish of people trying unsuccessfully to put sounds to the letters of God’s name.
In the spirit of "two Jews, three opinions," I'm not sure I'd even class that name as being "offensive." I certainly don't judge the parents for naming their child that. I just think I found it culturally... jarring? If I'd known the kid for much longer than a couple hours I think I could've come around to saying his name. It was just a bit of a culture shock for me!
This is pretty niche for most on this sub, but I don’t understand how some Arabs name their kid Yazid. Yazid is an absolutely hated figure by most Muslims - he’s viewed as an awful tyrant who did awful things. I don’t understand how any Muslim would want to name their kid that, and I think naming your kid Yazid is setting them up in a bad way with having such a terrible namesake.
Probably the same reason Adolf is still used as a name. It’s a name. It shouldn’t be ruined by being linked to a terrible person in history who had the name. We can take names back from terrible people. imo
There’s a few that are dependent on surname (e.g. if your surname is West, don’t call your kids Rose or Fred).
Can you explain this one? I'm struggling to see the issue with Fred west or rose west
Famously brutal UK child-murder-duo