[Opinions] Re: Maple
in reply to a message by Amphelise
In the Greater Vancouver area, while you might encounter the odd random word name, THESE DAYS, you're more likely to encounter an Asian name because the population has a high percentage of people of Asian origins and even among those not of Asian descent, there are a number of people who've at least lived in Asia or grown up with friends of Asian descent. There was a man on the radio one day saying that when he was a kid, there were a HUNDRED or so languages represented by the kids in the elementary school he'd gone to... and I can pretty much guarantee you that in that part of the country, some of those would be Asian. My blond haired, blue-eyed cousin stuck out like a sore thumb in public school in her area because a large percentage of her classmates were East Indian. Punjabi names are seen as "normal" in BC because they're actually quite common... and that's only one of many languages influencing naming there. Random word names, depending on what they are, would be more likely to make people think your parents were hippies... which you'd be more likely to find on the islands or in the Kootenays. Thus, "foreign name" would be super-easy to explain in the Greater Vancouver area. Random word names would have a greater chance of having people say "The parents named their kid WHAT?!" ... depending on what the word names were of course... 20 years ago, even Journey and Destiny were fringe and now they seem a bit more normal... though I'm not sure how common around Van. I met a white woman in the Van area who had named her daughter Midori even though their fam wasn't Jpns. Didn't phase me much.
Europe on the other hand may be different (and even the East Coast and Mid-West may be different) though because of lower populations of East Asians.
Europe on the other hand may be different (and even the East Coast and Mid-West may be different) though because of lower populations of East Asians.
Replies
I've lived in hugely ethnically diverse areas most of my life too, but I would still look askance at an Asian, Arabic or African name on a white British baby. I would see, for example, Khadija or Tabassum as really weird on a white British girl, but while Maple would also be odd, I'd recognise it as part of an established naming tradition. Names from outside the existing naming tradition are more jarring than rare ones from within it.
This message was edited 2/18/2012, 11:04 AM
Maybe people are just more stuck on ethnically dividing names where you're from than they are in my circles... People make their choices... I went to school with a Katija when I was in Ont. as a little kid and I have no idea if she had any Arabic roots whatsoever. That was just her name... I was prob'ly an adult or close to it before I knew it even had those roots. When kids grow up with someone with a certain name, they're often more accepting of it than if they don't hear it until they're older. I know people with a blond-haired blue-eyed Aiko. She was born in Japan to American parents and now lives in Canada. I haven't heard of her having any problems with it... and she's not even at the west coast. She's in mid-elementary school now. My friend Sundeia is white and from NZ and she has to tell people how to say or spell her name a fair bit, but once they get it, it's no problem even though her name is Sanskrit... and I know 2 white gals named Chandra as well that I went to school with in Canada. You can segregate names by ethnicity if you so choose, but I'm not about to... esp. when a meaning I want works better namewise in another language.
This message was edited 2/18/2012, 4:54 PM