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HelpRe: American Names
in reply to a message by NobodyOfConsequence
Gabriel is a throw back to the American Revolutionary period, a rennaisance for uniquely American culture including naming, so that makes sense. Original naming practices that erupted during and before this time period could be considered all-American. I think Americans have always traditionally used biblical names more than any other English-speaking country, and many virtue names originated in America. Even the simple popular virtue names of today -- Faith, Hope, and Joy gained their popularity in America. These practices started with the Puritan settlers who took a more literal minimalist approach to life and regected British fashion, which was reflected in their naming philosophies.
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All that you've said is true for other English speaking countries, but not if other countries are taken into account. For example most Slavic languages have Faith and Hope in their language (Nada, Vera, Nadezda, etc) and most Catholic countries are big on Bible names like Gabriel, so they're not what I'd call 'American names'.
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Yes, but Nadezda is not the same as hope. One is in English and one is in Russian and they obviously sound very different. And your right that many other cultures use lots of biblical names, but few of them are spelled and pronounced the same way. Gabriel is one of the few that is. But it's not like we borrowed Gabriel from Mexico or something. Americans started using it from biblical inspiration on their own. It's rightfully American, just like a name like Nicephore is considered uniquely French, even though equivalents in other languages (like Nikifor) exist for this name and it was borrowed from the Ancient Greek Nikephoros. All languages are related. So you can argue this for any name. But I'm referring to actual names that occur more commonly in America than anywhere else, disregarding lingual differences. Nathaniel may be used in Mexico as Nataniel, but that's not the exact same name to me because they are pronounced differently. Nathaniel, spelled this way, is pretty trademark American in the grand scheme of things.
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Wasn't the original question 'what is a uniquely American name?'? In which case names like Gabriel or Nathaniel can hardly be seen unique when they're used all over the world and are quite popular in some other countries. That's all I meant with my post. Just because a name is popular in the US that doesn't make it 'trademark American' which is what the OP was asking for I believe.
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