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HelpWarning: Rant ahead
in reply to a message by kizuko
Don't take this personally, kizuko, but you've hit on a touchy subject, and I find your wording particularly poor.
Do you think this little looks Asian enough to have been given a Vietnamese name? IMO she is Asian enough to have the name because she is Vietnamese
That is a ridiculous way to look at naming. People don't necessarily need to have the background of their names. Do you think half of the little Aidans running around in America right now are anything close to Irish? No, but most people didn't get riled up about it. Why should it be any different if a little Mai doesn't, heaven help us, "look" Asian. Oh, and I'm glad you think Vietnamese is "Asian enough."
In my opinion, this lovely little girl could be named Zoe or Vittoria or Mai or Mercedes or Inanna or Siobhan or Mnemosyne or even Nevaeh or whatever. I may not necessarily like a name, but I would never tell someone not to use it because that person isn't from the same culture as the name. If the name means something to the parents, who cares? Should a Nebraskan born Caucasian not name her daughter Mai because they're not "Asian enough?" What if that Nebraska native graduated from a university with a degree in Asian civilizations, lived in China for a few years, and then returned to Nebraska before having her kids? Or what is she just thinks Akemi is a beautiful name? Who cares whether or not she's Asian!
I was just commenting to a friend the other day how no one thinks twice about a non-Italian using Alessandra or the like, but then, someone wants to use Mercedes, and we hear that it's too Spanish sounding for a white person. This attitude has really been bothering me lately, and I think it's deeper rooted than names. I hope the people who think this way get over it because we live in a global world, and they sound ridiculously close-minded.
//Soapbox. Sorry.
Edited for structure
Do you think this little looks Asian enough to have been given a Vietnamese name? IMO she is Asian enough to have the name because she is Vietnamese
That is a ridiculous way to look at naming. People don't necessarily need to have the background of their names. Do you think half of the little Aidans running around in America right now are anything close to Irish? No, but most people didn't get riled up about it. Why should it be any different if a little Mai doesn't, heaven help us, "look" Asian. Oh, and I'm glad you think Vietnamese is "Asian enough."
In my opinion, this lovely little girl could be named Zoe or Vittoria or Mai or Mercedes or Inanna or Siobhan or Mnemosyne or even Nevaeh or whatever. I may not necessarily like a name, but I would never tell someone not to use it because that person isn't from the same culture as the name. If the name means something to the parents, who cares? Should a Nebraskan born Caucasian not name her daughter Mai because they're not "Asian enough?" What if that Nebraska native graduated from a university with a degree in Asian civilizations, lived in China for a few years, and then returned to Nebraska before having her kids? Or what is she just thinks Akemi is a beautiful name? Who cares whether or not she's Asian!
I was just commenting to a friend the other day how no one thinks twice about a non-Italian using Alessandra or the like, but then, someone wants to use Mercedes, and we hear that it's too Spanish sounding for a white person. This attitude has really been bothering me lately, and I think it's deeper rooted than names. I hope the people who think this way get over it because we live in a global world, and they sound ridiculously close-minded.
//Soapbox. Sorry.
Edited for structure
This message was edited 1/5/2007, 1:07 AM
Archived Thread - replies disabled
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Replies
Well said Cora!!!!!
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Is it even necessary for me to say "Ditto"? ;-)
As someone who spent her teen years in love with Japanese names, this is a bit of racism that bothers me immensely. All names are up for grabs...provided they have a Western European origin or from an ethnicity you clearly share?
I don't think so. If I want to use Ruxandra, or Shoshana, or Hanako, I have every right to do so--even if I'm not Romanian, Jewish, or Japanese. If I respect the culture and use appropriate names (the difference between Winona and Dakota), then I see no reason why they should be off-limits, even if my child would happen to be of predominantly German and Norwegian origin.
Array (still thinks Mercedes shouldn't even come into the picture, since it has never been an exclusively Spanish name)
As someone who spent her teen years in love with Japanese names, this is a bit of racism that bothers me immensely. All names are up for grabs...provided they have a Western European origin or from an ethnicity you clearly share?
I don't think so. If I want to use Ruxandra, or Shoshana, or Hanako, I have every right to do so--even if I'm not Romanian, Jewish, or Japanese. If I respect the culture and use appropriate names (the difference between Winona and Dakota), then I see no reason why they should be off-limits, even if my child would happen to be of predominantly German and Norwegian origin.
Array (still thinks Mercedes shouldn't even come into the picture, since it has never been an exclusively Spanish name)
This message was edited 1/5/2007, 7:47 AM
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I'll say it: Ditto!
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^_^
Thank you! That was the question I was asking . . . if you would have thought twice upon meeting this little girl if her name was "Mai". Her mother and father, bless their souls, thought she didn't look the part, while I thought that -- simply by virtue of the fact that she is a member of the culture -- she has every right to have the name, whether she looks the part or not.
I didn't mean to say that a person of Vietnamese descent is Asian enough to have an Asian name -- I meant that she is part Vietnamese so, by default, there is aboslutely nothing wrong with giving her a Vietnamese name (actually, I guess I mistyped because I did mean to write "part Vietnamese" to begin with . . . but I wasn't logged in so I can't fix it now ~_~).
Thank you! That was the question I was asking . . . if you would have thought twice upon meeting this little girl if her name was "Mai". Her mother and father, bless their souls, thought she didn't look the part, while I thought that -- simply by virtue of the fact that she is a member of the culture -- she has every right to have the name, whether she looks the part or not.
I didn't mean to say that a person of Vietnamese descent is Asian enough to have an Asian name -- I meant that she is part Vietnamese so, by default, there is aboslutely nothing wrong with giving her a Vietnamese name (actually, I guess I mistyped because I did mean to write "part Vietnamese" to begin with . . . but I wasn't logged in so I can't fix it now ~_~).
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Re:
I meant that she is part Vietnamese so, by default, there is aboslutely nothing wrong with giving her a Vietnamese name
The part that I find fault with is that you think her looks don't matter because she is Asian. My point is that people seem to think it's wrong if she were neither Asian nor looked the part. A half French/half Slovak person living in Alaska should be able to be named Mai without people thinking twice.
Edited because the face looks weird as a link with the underline through it. :)
I meant that she is part Vietnamese so, by default, there is aboslutely nothing wrong with giving her a Vietnamese name
The part that I find fault with is that you think her looks don't matter because she is Asian. My point is that people seem to think it's wrong if she were neither Asian nor looked the part. A half French/half Slovak person living in Alaska should be able to be named Mai without people thinking twice.
Edited because the face looks weird as a link with the underline through it. :)
This message was edited 1/5/2007, 1:18 AM
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Phew . . . here's where we agree
As do I. However, her parents were bothered by the idea of naming a non-ethnic-looking child an ethnic name, which is what I was curious about -- if anyone else thought the child, despite looking Caucasian in the parents opinion, did not look ethnic enough to be given an ethnic name.
I don't think that an individual has to be a member of a specific creed or culture to have the right to a name . . . but my point is that it shouldn't have bothered her parents in the least because she is a member of that culture and, therefore, has a right to be named thusly regardless of whether or not she looks it. The way a phrased the statement was meant to punctuate the fact that, even though the parents obviously think that one has to be a member of a culture to have a name from said culture, the simple fact that she is a member of the culture should have been enough for them without her appearance factoring into it.
As do I. However, her parents were bothered by the idea of naming a non-ethnic-looking child an ethnic name, which is what I was curious about -- if anyone else thought the child, despite looking Caucasian in the parents opinion, did not look ethnic enough to be given an ethnic name.
I don't think that an individual has to be a member of a specific creed or culture to have the right to a name . . . but my point is that it shouldn't have bothered her parents in the least because she is a member of that culture and, therefore, has a right to be named thusly regardless of whether or not she looks it. The way a phrased the statement was meant to punctuate the fact that, even though the parents obviously think that one has to be a member of a culture to have a name from said culture, the simple fact that she is a member of the culture should have been enough for them without her appearance factoring into it.
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Good job of straightening things out without anyone getting rude :-)
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I see.
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I wish I had taken more time to word my post . . . I hope you don't think poorly of me now
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