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Ok then... I'm sorry if you found the term offensive and the term may not apply to other aspects of your life and attitude... Another post you made some time back condemning people with no Italian heritage using the name Francesca did come across as extremely ethnocentric though... It's not just about superiority though... it's about having to have things done the way one's own culture does things and a possessiveness of that language and culture for only that group... and you need to consider that some people who happen to LOVE names not of their own ethnic heritage or have those names might find your labelling such combos as "tacky" simply on the basis of not being part of their own origins or not "matching" them somehow to be offensive... esp. in cultures like Canada and the States where mixing cultures in some ways is part of the culture. You can walk down the street in some neighbourhoods and find a colourful mix of children and languages and some of them may intermarry. That in itself will naturally result in surnames and given names that don't necessarily match... as well as children who see other languages and cultures as part of a bigger picture. I remember having 3 girls in the same Sun. school class who'd gone all through school together and were fairly good friends and all had different ethnic backgrounds... Their children could marry each other and have the result be children with these "mis-matched" names. 1 had a Fr. fn (that's also common in En.) w/ a surname that I'm not sure exact origins of (but it wasn't Fr.) and Friesian (sp?) ancestors. Another was Cdn. born Chinese. Another was white and Filipino mixed. It finally hit 1 of them near the end of gr. 7 that they were all different that way. It didn't bother her and it was just an observation, but the point was that that mixture of cultures was just normal and natural to them... when the mix is normal and natural, the potential to adopt bits of other languages and cultures into one's own life -regardless of ethnic origins. That may result in names being among those things that just seem "normal" to those children growing up until they reach the point that as adults they decide to use a name they absolutely loved for a child that is not of their heritage... and that need not be an issue. In fact, the mixture is part of that person's culture because that person's culture is a mixture of all sorts of influences. What is true Canadian or American cuisine? Most of it is influenced by either Europe or Asia or both... and maybe a bit from Mexico and various other areas of the world... If it can happen with food, it can happen with languages and names too.
I know of a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Aiko who was born to Am'n parents in Japan and now lives in Canada and the fact that her mn that she goes by doesn't "match" her family name or parental heritage doesn't even phase me because that's part of where their parents were at in life when she was born. You don't have to find them attractive, but labeling them "tacky" just because people choose to cross over cultures does seem a little bit segregationalist even if you're not saying one group is better than the other. BTW. A LOT of Filipinos have western names rather than Tagalog names... influenced by those who went in and took over at various times... They don't even have to go to western countries to have western names... It's just what they've chosen... Same in Africa... There are some Africans in Africa with traditional African names and some who've been given western names at birth instead. It had to start at one point as something that seemed maybe unnusual to some and now it's just accepted... If it can go one way, then it can go the other... It's not a MUST thing, but a can thing... and it's no more tacky for it to go one way than the other... It just isn't attractive to YOUR eyes and ears... and I think while some people may be quite ignorant (re: the languages and cultures they're taking their names from), more often than not, there tends to be a reason why someone would even choose to go beyond the typical trends of those around them and their own culture and choose a name from another... and if that reason is even that they happened to just like the sound and meaning and it happens to be a real name in the culture it's taken from, then I have no problem with that. I'm sorry you do (not that you happen to prefer it that way for yourself necessarily, but that you seem to think it should be a big deal for others as well). In fact, a lot of people (not all) who just choose names that are common or known in their own culture tend to be ignorant of the meanings and origins (in the case of many western names in N. Am.) and/or don't really care. Some kids would rather have a foreign name w/ much love and thought put into it than a common one with less thought (not necessarily less love) and I don't think it's fair to call that tacky just because they're of different ethnic origins than the names. I'd take the name Sundeia over Apple any day... and I'm not even a smidgen Indian. However, Apple is an En. word. Both have been used as names.
Humans are exactly that- human... and while diversity in languages and cultures can be something to be celebrated, unfortunately, too often they're also used to divide more than they should... and if that cross-over can express the value of the languages and cultures coming together, then I think that's a beautiful thing... and some others might too... We need not let languages and cultures divide us more than necessary.

This message was edited 2/24/2012, 12:33 AM