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There probably are some I would think were ill-advised (maybe Cohen for example, even though I don't care about Adonai or Saint, for reasons), but I feel like this is too vague a question to really answer. Most names are less American than Plutina and Zitkala, yet those are foreign for most Americans. American culture is different than English culture, and many many names have had use in America - I wouldn't even know which haven't.

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In general, I think it makes sense for people not to use names that seem exclusively foreign to them, but that doesn't mean anything about a specific language, broadly. Like there are many Arabic, Greek, German, Hebrew, Spanish, Irish, Italian, and French names that don't seem foreign/unfamiliar to me, so for example, I'd be comfortable using girl names like Nomiki, Carmen, Siobhan, Helga, Astrid, Rivka, Francesca, Aisha, Matilde, Simone as a monolingual English speaking American, but I would feel awkward using Matsuko, unless my SO felt it was familiar I guess, because I personally have very little meaningful connection with Japanese culture even as it exists within American culture (maybe other Americans have personal associations with Matsuko like a friend or great-grandmother or fav artist or some other good memory, and it'd be strange to act like that means nothing because they speak English). Although I don't think it's bad or dumb to use foreign seeming names either, necessarily; if a Turkish person wanted to use Plutina despite having no longstanding personal association with it and being completely unfamiliar with its origin and cultural context, I might think that was weird and wonder why but would not care at all.

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Or, should Americans only use names in the US top 1000? No.

This message was edited 9/5/2023, 11:56 PM