Race and Baby Names

I have to say..I really love to hear names that may have a race perception, and then the adult or kid turns out to be something quite opposite!

Who cares? Mix it up.  Pick a name you love!

Shirah is beautiful!!!  Maurice is good too--although I can't picture baby Maurice..definitely an adult though.  Some names are like that for me..

Hmm, well, I was just pointing that out, because maybe she associates it with Spanish culture since those names are widely used in Hispanic families...  That's all my point was.  :)  Do you know a Greek Sophia?  I don't.  But I've met quite a few Hispanic little Sofias/Sophias.  That's all my point was.  :)

When I hear Sophia or Isabella, I don't think of Hispanic girls. I think of White girls, but with dark hair and probably like green eyes. 

I understand that, but the poster said she always does a double take when she hears a child is named Isabella or Sophia and they are not Hispanic and I think that is crazy because they aren't even Spanish names...they may be often used in Spanish culture but they are also used in their own cultures as well as most other cultures so that is kind of a silly thing to say in my opinion

Whoops, didn't finish my post. But, erm- my girls are Quinn Elise and Teal Addison. People in my family, because I'm Black, feel as though my girls names are "too White" and should have some Afrocentrism in them. I strongly disagree. Some of the other kids  in the family are named Linnea, Zariyah, Dante, Vaughn, Marquis, Korea, Anniyah, and Jhamel- just to name a few- and they're all fully Black. Al of these kids parents, my cousins, they think Quinn and Teal's name's don't mesh with everybody else's. I just think that race, at times, plays too much of a factor in naming a kid! 

For me, to a point I think it does. My kids are mixed, half Black and half White, but I didn't want to give them a name that was "too Black or too White". I remember when I was pregnant I wanted to possibly name one of my girls Ruby and one of my husband's coworkers went "Oh, like Ruby Bridges? That's a great person to name an African American child after"  ...I just liked the name. When I hear Maurice David, I automatically think of someone AA because I only know AA people named Maurice. Shirah on the other hand makes me think of someone from the Middle East for some reason. Siobhan and Owen- I thought I would see White children and I actually saw an AA little girl and boy. That surprised me.

This is true, but Sofia/Sophia and Isabela are still used quite often in Spanish culture.  lol, in my Spanish textbook in college, if the characters in the exercises weren't Elena, they were likely Sofia, Isabela/Isabel, or Matilda!  Or really weird French names, lol, like Amelie or Charlotte (which aren't that weird normally, but you wouldn't expect to find them in a Spanish book!).

I don't have any children yet but I do often think about what my children might look like. I'm fairly light haired, blue eyes and fair skin but this might not be what my kids look like if I have children with say someone of a different race.

I'm happy with all the boys names on my list, and I think they could suit any child, excluding Rourke and Cavan, which sound so Irish and I couldn't imagine a a black, mixed race child named either of those.

My biggest worry is that all my girls names sound so much like little white girls (Matilda Jemima, Tabitha, Arabella, Maeve, Esther) that I have actually thought of other names that I could actually name a child of a different race, including; Reina, Saffron and Lilah. I know that sounds really bad and I'd love to be able to name them whatever names I love but I don't think the world works that way.

With Maurice David and Shirah Elizabeth, I'd probably expect them to be black. Although, Maurice could definitely be of a white French man?

thank you!  i'll let Ira know.. lol  i love it, too :)  and it fits him soooo well!

I can so see myself being like your sister and getting ridiculously upset (momentarily of course) about that.

Oh, I worry about this all the time!  I plan on adopting most of my children, but since I have no idea what my future children will look like, I often envision them having similar features to mine (blue eyes, soft brown hair, fair skin) or my sisters (blond hair, blue eyes, fair).  Sometimes I think about the fact that I could get an Asian, Middle Eastern, African American, or Latin child and I freak out that Isabelle, Charlotte, Violet, Josephine, Arianne, Olivia, Caleb, or Everett won't suit them as well as a name geared toward their nationality!  I think 90% of legitimate names out there work well on any nationality, but it still shocks me when I think of it.  Some names, like Priya, stand out a lot as belonging to one nationality to me, but I would definitely consider using Eleni (Greek) or Giovanna (Italian), and I have neither of those nationalities in me.

And no, probably not...  I mean, I don't have kids yet, but since I'm adopting, they really could be any nationality, and I would still want to name them Isabelle, Arianne, Olivia, Caleb, Jack, and Everett!  Those are my favorite names, and that doesn't change, just because their skin color might.  If I was a different nationality, though, I don't know.  Maybe.  I can't really say then.  If I was strongly tied to any particular nationality, I would think I would want to embrace it.  I think that's why I love Beckett Oscar Rhys that's on my list so much--it honors the three prominent nationalities in my past (English, German, and Welsh)...

Maurice David and Shirah Elizabeth are very nice!  My first thought was that they would fit in well with a Jewish/Hebrew family, but I definitely think they could fit just about anywhere.

I can't really think of anyone that I expected them to be one nationality and then they were another...  but my sister did, lol.  She got a new classmate several years ago whose name was George, and he's Hispanic.  When I picked her up from school one day, she was like, "His name is GEORGE!  And he's Spanish!  He's Spanish!  That just doesn't make any sense, Ashley."  bahaha.  I think she expected a Spanish boy to be Jorge, not George, lol.

Isabella is Italian and Sophia is Greek..some websites classify it also as German....not Spanish/Hispanic.  I have met more white Italians and Sophias than Hispanic ones it shouldn't cause a double take

My brother's girlfriend's name is Teona and we all assumed she was black, but she is pale with blonde hair and blue eyes..her mother just liked the name.  I do see the reasoning behind not using names that are typically associated with a specific race if you are not that race...it does cause some confusion. 

Of topic but I love Ira! It's my favourite name ever! : D

My stance with names runs thusly: if it's honestly, genuinely a real name (eg, you can prove that it's real and not something you've just made up) and you love it then it shouldn't matter what class or race or religion you are! Go for it!

I'm white and English but I'd have no problem using Ira (Jewish), Vasiliy (Russian), Clara (German) or any of my other favourite names : ) 

Yeah it does matter to some degree. On one hand, a name like Michael or Sarah can fit on any race at any given time. It really does depend on the name. I probably couldn't get away with naming my kids Salem or Faquisha, for example.

When I hear the name Maurice, I think Spanish. Or French. Lol.

When I hear Shirah, I think Arabic.

As for the no debate part, while I was working one day there was this little blond haired- blue eyed boy named Lorenzo. I didn't think it fit him at all. When I hear Lorenzo I automatically think uber Italian.

Well, I do think race matters somewhat (it would be odd to give a white child a Chinese name, for example), but as long as you're not going to extremes in style, I don't think it's really something to be concerned about. 

I'd probably assume Maurice David and Shirah Elizabeth were black, if I assumed any race at all. 

One time I was going to meet a girl named Kristen. Kristen, in my mind, is very preppy-white-girl, but she ended up being black, which surprised me a little bit, but it was really no big deal. 

I constantly run into this..  i love names like Monique and Chantal, but everyone tells me that these are "black names", even though they are French names.  My absolute favorite by far boy name is Angel, but unless you are hispanic, it seems likr a no-go.  i named my son Ira, and everyone tells me that he's the only white Ira they've ever met. lol  i LOVE Maria and Carmina, but dh says that sounds super hispanic, to the point that it'd be strange.  i wish it didn't matter, and sometimes i think about just saying to heck with it, and using a name regardless.

I think with some names, yes, it does matter.  Even though I like some names, I hear a name and automatically think of a certain ethnicity. It's mostly Spanish/Hispanic names. Maria, Sophia, Isabella...every single one of those names make me picture a little dark haired girl. I definitely would have considered one of those names had I been born of Spanish descent. I consider Maurice to be a Spanish name, so I would anticipate the child to have darker skin and black/dark brown hair. Shirah sounds Irish to me so I would expect a white/pale child. David and Elizabeth both I associate with white children.

I'm not really surprised anymore because the name is so common, but I always do an inner double take when I see a white child named Isabella.