Giving Children "Ethnic" Names?

This is a question that came up for me when I had my son.  He is Persian on one side, and European mutt on my side. :)  I was the one who insisted on a Persian name for him because I knew that, growing up in Canada, he would already feel a very strong connection to his European side because it's the dominant ethnic background, and I wanted him to also feel a strong connection to his Persian side.

So the names we chose for him turned out to be a "European" sounding first name similar to mine, and a Persian middle name, after his father's nickname.  So he's named for both of us.  But he goes by his Persian middle name (and the only reason we made it his middle name is because the two names flowed better off the tongue in that order).

It's been interesting because, strangely enough, he inherited my colouring (pale skin, green eyes, light brown hair) and not his father's (darker skin, black hair, brown eyes).  So he's basically this white kid with a name that is distinctly Persian/Arabic (and actually, Jewish, too).  I've often wondered whether, when he's with me (since I'm divorced from his father) and I introduce him to people, they wonder why I would give him a name that doesn't look like it corresponds with his background.  I also sometimes wonder whether some people assume I am a white mother who is culturally appropriating a name from another background in order to be trendy or something.

However, I think Unionist is right about something - a lot more parents, white and of colour, are giving their kids "unique" names or names from non-English and non-European origin, and I don't find that my son gets any open disapproval or mocking or anything like that over his name, whether in downtown Toronto, or the small towns where my relatives live.

As for names you have to spell - my last name is a relatively common French Canadian last name but the pronounciation is tricky (silent "s", somewhat silent "l" depending on how you say it), but everywhere I've lived (usually very anglophone areas), everyone spells it wrong or has no idea how to spell it.  Then when I got married, I took my husband's last name (don't ask me why, I was young and silly then, I guess), and wound up with an even more difficult name for people to spell for the few years we were together.  Then when we separated, the very first thing I did (after moving out) was to get my maiden name back officially, and I'm back to spelling my maiden name for everyone again.

So it's really not that big a deal.  I'm used to it. :)

We named our son with an easy to spell, but fairly uncommon, 4 letter name that is one letter off from a common French name. So it is often mis-pronounced by adults - either by mistake or on purpose (europeanization). People used to regularly ask how it's spelled even though it's spelled pretty much like it sounds. His friends get it though. 

The name is actually an abbeviation of the first name of an engineer, writer and political leader who was assassinated in what is now called The Republic of Guinea Bissau. However, the long name may be phoenecian in origin while the short name may be of Hindi origin if you can believe the internet. We understood that it was a western African name.  

He likes his name but did not like the name we had picked out had he been a girl. No, it was not Sue.