becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys:

cosmicdeviant:

tikkunolamorgtfo:

metradell-vyorei:

fecktrecool:

Can Americans please not bring Irish Gaelic names into white names discourse?

Irish is the native language of Irish people. It’s an ancient language that is on the brink of extinction as a direct result of colonialism and cultural and physical genocide.

Names like Saoirse (freedom), Áine (radiant), Aoife (beautiful) etc are traditional Irish names. They’re spelt “funny” because Irish is a different language from English, and has some sounds that aren’t found in the English language.

It’s not the same thing as edgy white Americans naming their kid Kathylyn instead of Kathleen to try to be different

Also it’s not even called Irish Gaelic it’s called Gaeilge (gayl-ga) and is its own language, a beautiful one at that, fully encourage everyone interested in language revival to try learning it because we’re losing it rapidly and there’s not many Gaeilgeoirí (“gayl-gor-ee” ie: fluent speakers) left

Yes—this happens with Hebrew names all the time, too, and it’s really frustrating. No, the name Ariel isn’t just a stupid Disney reference, it’s Hebrew. Toby isn’t “weird for a girl,” it’s common for Jewish girls because it’s Toiba in Yiddish. Asher isn’t a “trendy white name”—the influencer yummy mummy fucking stole it from us (which I hate). Believe me, I absolutely loathe those trendy made-up white people names like Bryzzley and Paedon, but keep in mind that there’s a difference between names you haven’t heard of because they belong to a different culture, and names some Mormon housewife made up by adding a bunch of Ys to a random noun. 

This is also relevant with Welsh names. Cymraeg (Welsh) is a language found in Wales that has been severely damaged by English colonialism. Currently the Welsh government have been combating the dying of this language by making Welsh language a compulsory subject in schools up until sixth form, when you can drop it. All the signs have Welsh translations and almost all radio broadcasts, announcements, and phone lines have a Welsh option.

There are villages in Wales that speak only Welsh as well, I grew up in one that was mixed language but pretty much everyone bar a few immigrant parents spoke Welsh.

Here a some example names

Efnision, Branwen, Iown, Rhys, Nerys, Ceridwen, Sian, Taliesin

A few example names are from the Mabinogion which is the Welsh book of fables and includes some of the first stories about King Arthur.

This language is dying, but it’s fighting to stay alive, and a lot of White Americans don’t understand the history and significance of Welsh names.

Tumblr in particular is a very America centric site due to the majority of users being American so it’s understandable that this isn’t common knowledge, but it is still knowledge that exists and is valuable to learn.

Important correction: Welsh is NOT dying. It’s literally a growing language, directly because of the enormous amount of work language activist groups and the Welsh Government have put into reviving it. Current estimates put it at ~30% of the population, up from 17% in the 1980s. 

But it IS still endangered, and England is very unhappy about this reversal of its decline. Currently (the space year 2021) Boris Johnson’s government is starting to crack down on Welsh cultural and linguistic differences and identities in a bid to make us conform more to England’s idea of “Britishness” (i.e. Englishness but they get to claim our achievements as theirs.)