Heritage and Baby Names

The world is populated with many different ethnicities. Ethnic, or cultural heritage, refers to a person's family ancestry. Pride in one's ethnicity, or love of a particular ethnicity, often is shown through naming. Some ethnicities, or cultures, have a wide spread popularity and so names belonging to these specific groups are prevalent among various people of different beliefs and cultures.

Italian baby names are those that are born of Mediterranean culture and reflect the love of the old school sounds of exotic Italian names. Popular Italian baby names such as Angelo, Adriana, Giovanni and Gabriella are among the many Italian names that have become much more commonly heard in mainstream culture.

A popular French name for a baby may be one single word as the name or two names hyphenated serving as one full name. Hyphenated names may be one gender or two gender oriented. For example, Jean-Luc is a French boy baby's name but so is Jean-Marie. The same kind of mix and match may be used for a girl baby's name, with Marie-Yves being one and Marie-Henri. Other popular French names for a baby are Armand, Beau, Belle, Dominique and Claire.

Some popular Spanish baby names are Emilio, Gracias, Anna, Isabel, Jorge, Pilar, Nadia, Alejandro and Pedro. Spanish heritage is a diverse heritage that not only encompasses the North American continent but also countries in Central and South America as well as of Spain. The names and cultural identities of the people are diverse as is the naming of the children.

African American culture creates variations on names with interesting and colorful results. Popular African American names for a baby can be standard names, names from the continent of Africa, or names creatively made up by the mother and used by other mothers who admire the name. Denzel, Mekelle, Latisha,, Roshaun, Deshawn and Quanda are just a few of the more popular names that have been given to African American babies.