Anonymous #2 5w

As a first name ?

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Anonymous #3 5w

I think it’s a white people thing where being queer isn’t “different” enough so they try and adopt other identities so they can be even more different. That sounds so harsh 😭, but a lot of white people (mostly white women) I know will LIGHT UP if you ask them if they’re mixed. My friend is like 1/20th indiginous and makes it her WHOLE personality.

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Anonymous #3 5w

I think it’s sort of like white guilt, and if not white guilt, then it’s probably that stupid rcta shit 😭.

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Anonymous #4 5w

Ya

6

Anonymous #3 5w

Weeb culture

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Anonymous #2 5w

i give you permission as a half german

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Anonymous #12 5w

my grandfather’s name is albrecht if you need more credentials

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Anonymous #2 5w

that’s not even a name but if you’re from one of the areas in mexico with high german populations then yeah. if mexican american then no

0

Anonymous #15 5w

I love the name Kai 😍😍

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Anonymous OP 5w

For sure. I’m nonbinary and Chinese but I wouldn’t even choose a Chinese sounding name for myself simply because I only lived in China as a toddler before moving to the US. I’m all for people choosing a name that fits them but there are certain choices that are just off limits. I love anime and Japanese culture just as any other young adult that’s chronically online but I could never imagine naming myself something like that simply because it isn’t my culture

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Anonymous #15 5w

We need to ban the name Kai I think. No more

13

Anonymous #15 5w

not to be that person but there’s a conversation about intent to be had here! I know people from / with family from Scandinavia whose parents gave them Kai as a full name or nickname and people given the name Cai from Welsh. unfortunately people (esp online) who don’t know the full picture can leap to accusations without understanding context and intent

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Anonymous #15 5w

I don’t see the problem with “Kai” as a name and I’m Chinese. It’s also a Welsh name I believe (and of other origins) so why the hatred towards someone naming themselves that? I’ve seen this rhetoric quite a bit online but I don’t get it.

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Anonymous #19 5w

Neither do I. I just don’t like the name specifically because it is an overdone name.

2

Anonymous #16 5w

you’re literally fucking chinese. (assuming that born in china since you lived there as a toddler). also your parents are chinese (assumption) bc you said you’re chinese. so wtf is wrong with you picking a chinese name for yourself WHEN YOU ARE LITERALLY CHINESE in your blood, doesn’t really matter if if you’re removed. just kinda sounds like you’ve been white washed into believing you’re white.

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Anonymous #20 5w

* i do agree with not picking names from a culture you’re not from* i’m more surprised to hear you say “wouldn’t even choose a chinese sounding name bc you only lived in China as a toddler.” like mf you think when people from two parents of the same ethnicity are born in a different country it automatically removes their home country from them?

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Anonymous #20 5w

why are u so angry 😭😭😭😭😭😭

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Anonymous #15 5w

in the nicest way, if that’s what you mean maybe clarify or make a different post. when you comment it with “👀” on a post about people who aren’t Japanese/Korean renaming themselves Japanese/Korean names, it comes across like you’re criticizing people named Kai on the basis of cultural appropriation, not overuse

20

Anonymous #18 5w

thank you for telling me because I now realize how it’s coming across

8

Anonymous #15 5w

yeah for sure! I don’t want to sound mean or judgy, I just think people are very likely to misunderstand you here

11

Anonymous #20 5w

Brother I was abandoned by my bio parents and adopted by white people my culture goes as far as my blood and that’s it 😭 don’t be so godsdamn pressed

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Anonymous #2 5w

you can use my classic last name: smith

4

Anonymous OP 5w

People who enjoy getting asked “are you mixed” have never faced actual (racial) discrimination in their life and should be forced to answer no. I’m part Japanese (1/4) but I’m Japanese enough to know the people asking never have pure intentions and usually if I clock them as too weird I just say no. I used to know a “1/13 native” girl and it was exhausting. She acted like she was more native than I was asian

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Anonymous #22 5w

cultural appropriation? beautiful? what an odd thing to say

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Anonymous #25 5w

I’m just one Asian person, but I think in general nicknames of your culturally appropriate full name are ok

9

Anonymous #24 5w

It’s Alysa pronounced uh/lee/suh. It’s too girly and I’ve never liked it. I am very white. I definitely don’t want to offend anyone I meet. I’ve been Lee for years but like I said, I don’t want to overstep.

4

Anonymous #25 5w

I think you’re overthinking it because that is a sound that is literally in your name. It works as a nickname. This is more directed at people who will try to pick a name like Hinata when they are clearly a Hannah.

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Anonymous #11 5w

As someone (a white person) who originally chose the name Osiris like 5 years ago because it sounded cool, I’ve just shortened it to Siris and say it’s based on the character from Destiny 2. I originally just saw it on a “unique baby name” list lmfao, but I just treat it like a different spelling of Cyrus. And if someone’s like “oh like the god” I just say “yeah that’s how it’s spelled”. Idk if that makes it better or worse but I’m trying to not be an asshole 😭

14

Anonymous #29 5w

-I should add I never introduce myself as Osiris anymore

6

Anonymous #25 5w

I don’t know why I only just know remembered but Lee is also a legitimate English first and last name (and also an Irish name). Especially in the south, it’s very common (or was a few decades ago) to meet someone named Lee or Leigh and there was 0 association with the Chinese name.

14

Anonymous #1 5w

ichigo means strawberry in japanese so it kinda works lmao

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Anonymous OP 5w

every time I hear about rcta a year gets taken off my life 🫩

2

Anonymous #22 5w

As a Japanese queer person sybau

14

Anonymous #22 5w

I also have way more severe problems but yeah I would like to be nice to Asian people

13

it stands for “race change to another” so basically a community of teenagers who are insecure about their race and think they can become asian 💀

4

Anonymous #30 5w

Nuh uh

6

Anonymous #24 5w

Yeah, I'm named after my grandpa Lee. His family came from Ireland. We are white af. It’s not what I would have chosen because of the connotations being discussed here (Lee being a super common Chinese last name & ppl having largely forgotten it was ever an english name), but I'll be damned if I won't be able to share the name of one of the best people I knew in my family

2

Anonymous #35 5w

White people adopted by Asian families who are trans is like…. Very unlikely and obviously not why all these people are naming themselves Asian names bro. 💀

11

Anonymous #35 5w

“they might be a weeaboo” and they should know better

9

Anonymous #35 5w

“Can we just excuse cultural appropriation so white people can feel better about themselves?”

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Anonymous #25 5w

Lee is a name that has independent origins in both English and Chinese so I’d say it’s fine.

2

Anonymous #35 5w

Guys, I think we found Saiko(white person from the Midwest)

11

Anonymous #35 5w

it's not policing identities to say "don't appropriate cultures" there is no shortage of names and as a trans person, it's so easy to not choose one because... it's not my name to claim

8

Anonymous #23 5w

Reread my comment. I never excused cultural appropriation. All I said was that it’s not your place to inquire about someone’s name if you personally believe it may be offensive or cultural appropriation.

5

Anonymous #38 5w

Never said cultural appropriation should be excused. Reading comprehension is a valuable skill.

1

Anonymous OP 5w

And how do you know? Wouldn’t it be better to just, I don’t know, not judge someone without knowing a single thing about them? Personally, I’ve never even met a white trans person with an Asian name period. I’d love to know where this apparent epidemic is.

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Anonymous #35 5w

listen, i'm not about to go interrogate someone on their name. However, i think it's a bit odd that you immediately discredit how problematic it is for people to do this. it's far less likely for it to be any other reason other than appropriating a culture that isn't yours to claim. there's a lot more colonizers than there are white trans kids who were adopted by asian parents.

3

Anonymous #23 5w

Well, I think it’s a bit odd to be so obsessed with this weird online performative social justice. For example, calling a white American in 2025 a ‘colonizer’. Or being so anti-cultural appropriation, when many things deemed to be cultural appropriation, people of that culture are actually glad to share. I guess I just don’t understand the need to make such a display about how not PC having an Asian chosen name is, when it’s literally not even commonplace.

-4

Anonymous #35 5w

Like, I’m not denying that it’s cultural appropriation, or that it’s problematic. It just seems so showy, such a spectacle you know. “I will NOT call you this name because it’s cultural appropriation 😎” Like who are we even talking about? I read the post and just assumed we were bragging about something that doesn’t even exist.

0

Anonymous #35 5w

Oh it definitely exists and it definitely pisses me off. I’ve met at least 2 white people (no extra circumstances like being adopted) who chose inappropriately Asian names for themselves and got to live their lives in ignorant privilege. It’s a problem because my grandpa, my dad, and countless other Asian people are stripped of their Asian names and culture and forced to pick (or are assigned) white ones due to racism and assimilationism. But no, white people get to just play with our names?

10

Anonymous #24 5w

Like I won’t make a spectacle of not referring to that person by the name they pick, but I will either stop interacting with them (if I don’t know them well) or gently tell them my concerns (if we’re close like that) and go from there. All I can control is who I let into my life and cultural appropriators and people who lack the awareness to know that this is that don’t really make the cut

10

Anonymous #24 5w

this! you said it so well

2

Anonymous #35 5w

You never said it but you implied it:) thats how reading comprehension works! You can read between the lines. You also implied that poc voices matter less than white tran’s people’s comfortability in your comment as well.

1

Anonymous #35 5w

Asian communities have been very outspoken against non-Asian people using Asian names and language for aesthetics and deem it to be cultural appropriation. It’s a very common phenomenon that’s not just limited to trans people.

8

Anonymous #3 5w

It might be because they want their name to have meaning and American names like John James Jane Jessica etc have zero meaning, or because they found a character they resonated with that had that name, or it might just be wanting to choose a name no one around you has to feel special or unique. I’m just guessing though

1

Anonymous #15 5w

So is Emma but we don’t control if a lot of people happen to like the same names 😂

1

Anonymous mother_russia 5w

it’s true and i think should be considered in terms of cultural appropriation and mitigating it

1

Anonymous mother_russia 5w

every single one of these names DOES have significant meaning though. very ignorantly writing off names from a certain culture under the assumption that there’s no depth or meaning to them (which indicates that you think American culture has no depth or meaning?) will drive people from said culture to take things from others. this is a really bad take I’m sorry

4

Anonymous #18 5w

I can’t see what you’re replying to (I can see the name and think I have them blocked from somewhere else) but your reply leads to believe it was a WILD take and I’m dying to know. All names have meaning like what? I honestly can’t even begin to guess what they said

3

Anonymous #24 5w

idk I just think if you’re going to make this kind of claim you should take two seconds and google “(name) etymology” to double check! not to mention that these are not uniquely American names? brb going to go tell everyone named Seán, Ivan, Hans, Giovanni, João, Yahya, Janez, Ewan, etc that their name has no meaning.

1

Anonymous #18 5w

Or it’s biblical meaning which ppl here don’t care for

1

Anonymous #2 5w

that’s a pretty sweeping generalization. I 100% understand why someone would feel uncomfortable choosing a name with biblical meaning, but queer people can be christian themselves, find meaning in it as part of their cultural heritage, or find meaning in it otherwise. for example: I know a trans man who named himself Adam because he liked that connection to the “first man” and the act of creation, that he like God was creating a man. not to mention that biblical meaning is still meaning

0

Anonymous #44 5w

for example my chosen name is lake it has a british origin meaning tranquility and depth i chose it from a character named lake from fluidum by girlsonfilm research never hurts anyone, but not researching can harm others

1

Anonymous #18 5w

WOW WHAT LOL?! “I want to feel special and be unique” isn’t a good reason to do cultural appropriation??? Literally every name has meaning, 5 seconds on a baby name website will tell you this. I think this is possibly the worst take in the whole thread. If you resonate with a character find a name with the same meaning in your culture? It’s not that hard to avoid cultural appropriation!

0

Anonymous #18 5w

I am very well aware that Christian queer people exist. I am one, but I know it is less than popular in the community

3

Anonymous #2 5w

saying “which ppl here don’t care for” is misleading then, my bad!

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Anonymous #18 5w

So John in America means either the purchaser of prostitutes or referring to a family member John or John from the Bible, and that’s the extent of it for the most part. Names don’t have the same significance in the USA that other cultures do, and most names are based on religion, family name, or just what sounds good. But I didn’t mean cultural significance but LITERAL meaning of names like how in some African cultures they choose names specifically because of the literal meaning of the word.

1

Anonymous #18 5w

The depth of Christian names is very minimal, it’s just naming you after another person and a sign of faith or devoting your children to your religion, like baptizing. I say this as someone whose whole family is named after the Bible, they only wanted me to be a straight cis perfect Christian and that was the only meaning behind the name.

0

Anonymous #18 5w

Last names have a lot more meaning and are absolutely cultural and very interesting, but first names in the USA aren’t normally deep. Olivia (the most common name for girls in 2024) has etymological roots in the word “olive” but people weren’t naming their baby girl because they love olives or olive trees and meaning peace or something. Just bc a word originated somewhere doesn’t mean most people are using it with that intention.

1

Anonymous #18 5w

Seeing as Christianity has been a huge part of the oppression of people in the LGBTQIA, yeah it’s not something most of us care for. Even queer people who believe in the Bible, they most likely don’t like the church or what “Christian heritage” stands for, because those are the people who would have hated us. So it’s not strange for someone to say “people here don’t care for” it.

2