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I'm American, and I actually disagree with your theory to a certain extent. If I saw someone without a German or Slovakian heritage named Ladislava I'd be like... weird, what the heck? Same would go if I saw someone with a super Hebrew name who wasn't Jewish or someone with a super Italian name who had no Italian heritage, etc. I knew a girl in college named Leilani who wasn't at all Hawaiian, and I thought it was kind of odd. I don't know if it has to do with how heritage and staying consistent with that is meaningful to me or what, but I would think that people will only use names that are part of their heritage or are acceptable as generic in American culture. Like Aidan or Connor. If you weren't Irish, I wouldn't think it was weird because they're so common. Most popular names are English somehow, and that makes sense to me since we speak English and used to be English. Even though lots of other stuff has gotten thrown in there for the majority of families. Anyway, hope that makes sense.

This message was edited 7/15/2011, 2:58 PM