Place names?

[velkoria.livejournal.com]

Inspired by a recent post... what do you think of place named when you're not from the place or have no heritage there... like for example Ireland. I am not Irish, directly or have any past heritage from there... but I may love the name and the place, the culture, the people. Same with people naming their children Asia and having no heritage there. Yay, Nay? what say you?

Comments

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

I don't really like place names anyway, so I have a hard time saying. I guess I could go with my opinion on India as a name... I like India, because I love the way it sounds/looks. But I wouldn't use it, one of the reasons being that I have absolutely no connection with the place, and it would seem odd.

[schexyschteve.livejournal.com]

I'm the same way with India.

But then, what makes it "okay" to use other names, you know? Most people pick a name because they like the way it looks or sounds (meaning also ranks up there). Why is using a "cultural" name any different?

[pegasus2o5.livejournal.com]

I think place names are different because they're already "taken" in a way normal names are not. You may know any number of Sarahs, and none of them have any greater claim on the name than any other, but there's already one "real" India. So to name your child *after* that India is one thing, but just to take the name for no reason is odd. Say you had a really unusual first name, "Starfish" or something. No one else has this name; for better or worse, you are the only Starfish in your world. Wouldn't you be kind of weirded out if a co-worker you barely knew named her daughter Starfish without even consulting you about it?

That's my take on it anyway.

[schexyschteve.livejournal.com]

That makes sense.