Do you think it is a shame to use other ethnic backgrounds family name ?

[pat grimshaw]

^
I think it's OK to change your name. I know about 5 people who have changed the spelling and their complete first name and last name.

It's standard practice for hetero defacto couples in my country to keep their own surname. I know one man-hating feminist who even refused to use her mother's maiden name because it came from a man's. She invented her own surname.

 

[bankside]

^
I think it's OK to change your name. I know about 5 people who have changed the spelling and their complete first name and last name.

It's standard practice for hetero defacto couples in my country to keep their own surname. I know one man-hating feminist who even refused to use her mother's maiden name because it came from a man's. She invented her own surname.

I think that would have made more sense if she had simultaneously changed her first name to Roger or Doug or something like that. No man can tell her to use a "girl name!"

 

[freefall]

My last name is French-Canadian and I am neither

Sure you're not abducted as an infant?

 

[freefall]

^There you go. First clue

Sorry about the abduction joke anyway.

 

[blackbeltninja]

I find it interesting (and frequently amusing) when the name and surname really don't add up.

We had a semi-pro martial arts guy down here whose surname was Pretorius, which is vars-van-die-plaas straight-up old skool Afrikaner farm-boy, and whose first name was the fairly common Italian one Giovanni. Perhaps it was his mother's way of honouring a relative or something, I don't know, but Giovanni Pretorius really doesn't roll off the tongue. Something for prospective parents to consider, perhaps.

-d-

 

[bankside]

I find it interesting (and frequently amusing) when the name and surname really don't add up.

We had a semi-pro martial arts guy down here whose surname was Pretorius, which is vars-van-die-plaas straight-up old skool Afrikaner farm-boy, and whose first name was the fairly common Italian one Giovanni. Perhaps it was his mother's way of honouring a relative or something, I don't know, but Giovanni Pretorius really doesn't roll off the tongue. Something for prospective parents to consider, perhaps.

-d-

I don't know..I find it interesting but also desirable. I think it can tell a bit of the family story, and I always assumed growing up that it would mean greater convergence and greater opportunity every generation for integration. In Canada we've had a few centuries to work on english-french integration, and sometimes there have been false starts and setbacks. But you also see the french-speaking former premier of Quebec with a name like Pierre-Marc Johnson. I know a lot of families with mixed ethnic backgrounds and it is not unheard of to see a Canadian child named Risto Kumar Suzuki for his Japanese grandfather, his Finnish grandmother, and his mother's Bengali side of the family. This always seemed the inevitable future for my country growing up in the 90s.

What does strike me as odd is when new cleavages emerge as in the States:

Hopefully this is just one of those false starts and setbacks.

Incidentally, Pierre-Marc Johnson represented in his family history and by his name unity of English and French Canadians, but he served as a French separatist premier planning to split the country, so he also represents one of those setbacks. On the other hand we also had Pierre Elliott Trudeau (named after the Scottish Elliotts of his mother's family) who was very much a success story of bilingual integration as Prime Minister.

His laws are still pissing off the rednecks in Western Canada who think that after the British defeated the French in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham that the French should have just shut up and learned to "speak white."

 

[Beachguyj]

Example:
All the Filipinos use Spanish surnames ... etc.
All the Malaysians use the arabs surnames ... etc.
All the Pakistanis use arabs surnames ... etc.
Why can't they use their own surnames names ?
Were the above people also slaves in history ?



Exclude African Americans because i understood their history.

It's a shame that you care. They are not using anyone else's name, they are using their own.

 

[MoufOfKhaos]

I'm not certain I care why both my names have no African origin, and, to date, have not gotten ahead or held back because of it.

 

[LilBit]

There have been times when I considered un-Americanizing my last name, but people have enough trouble with the spelling and pronunciation of my Americanized name. I think people would have a lot more trouble with the Catalan version.

 

[Telstra]

People should go back to basic and name their kids depends on what they look like.

Example:
Rose
Cute
Turtle
Little
Chubby .... etc