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Ultimately, I think it comes down to pronunciation. To me, a name like Aidan is no longer Irish; it is an English version of an Irish name. I live in a town where most people speak French and English or at least, they know bits and pieces of the other language, and to me, it isn’t strange to meet an English Pierre or a French Peter. A name like Genevieve, for example, may have a French origin, but it has been made pronounceable in English; thus, to me, it is completely different from Geneviève.

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My family is from Lithuania and Latvia, and many people in my family changed their names to “Canadian” names. For example, Bronius became Bruce. He didn’t change his name because the Canadians were racist pigs and he was forced to conform to another culture; he changed his name to make it pronounceable for English- and French-speakers alike. My first name, Samantha, is a very English name, and to the French-speakers, I am "Sah-mahn-tah" instead of "Sah-mahn-tha". It’s almost like I have two names. It is also a regional issue too; to some Canadians, I am "Sah-mahnff-uh" or "Sah-mahn-dah". I consider these different pronunciations to be different names, and if I lived in that region/culture, I would change my name to the dominant pronunciation.

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So, people borrow from other cultures all the time, but generally, (in North America) they Anglicize or Gallicize the names; they make them pronounceable in the dominant language. When the name isn’t Anglicized or Gallicized, I find it strange. Whether it’s Lithuanian, French, Dutch, Indian etc., I still find it to be an odd name if I can’t pronounce it in my native languages. This is also the reason I call my boyfriend Kay instead of his real name, which is very, very Indian and an absolute nightmare for my English/French tongue to say.