is miguel a white name?

Question

i want name my kid (in the future) miguel. some friends and family dissagree saying its a mexican name. other friends and family think its ok because they have friends,aunts, dads, uncles, ecx. that have that name and they are white.
in my opinion, it goes both ways. but what do you guys think? its better off a mexican name, or that it can go both ways?

Answer 1

It is a mexican name but i am sure there are white people named that.

Answer 2

Miguel Name

Answer 3

Well it is quite literally the Spanish/Portuguese form of Michael. No getting around that simple fact. ;)

So I suppose it depends on your definition of a "white" name. ;) Would you generalize, for example, Eoin, Ian, Sean, Giovanni, Ivan, Jochjo, Johannes, Keoni, Joop and Yanko ALL as "white names," because they're all similarly used as translations of John?

Personally, I don't buy into such stereotypes, so I wouldn't want to generalize, but it's certainly true that certain of these forms -- especially those not commonly used (or at least not by those that DON'T share that particular heritage) -- do make a definite impression regarding the culture/ethnicity of the family in question. For instance, when I (rarely) come across a young Eoin, I certainly assume the family has Celtic ties. And Giovanni practically screams "We're Italian ... and proud of it!" ;) All wonderful ways to reflect one's heritage. And along those same lines, often a bit "off" on a child whose culture is obviously NOT in line with that particular form.

So while I wouldn't categorize Miguel as a "white" OR "Mexican" name, I would think it fairly safe to assume the child bearing it was of some sort of Hispanic decent. It's only logical.

Answer 4

What kind of a racist idiot are you? You must be American. I bet you think the guy who washes your car or cuts your grass or paints your house or does just about anything that you're too lazy to do speaks "Mexican". Are you saying that only white Americans speak English and have English names? Are there no "white" people in Spain?

heysemberg said it right. It's a Spanish name. What does color have to do with it?

Answer 5

How is a name a color? Name your baby what you want and to heck with your family that sees color in a name. And whats wrong with being mexican or having a mexican name? I happen to love names from other countries. It gives my children a different type of name than the 50 kids in church/playgroups/sports that all have the exact same name.

Answer 6

Did you know that many Mexicans actually are white? Yeesh! Why does it even matter whether a baby has a name that's associated with his or her own obvious ethnic origin?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=377839&in_page_id=1770&in_a_source=&ct=5

Anyway,just for the record, Miguel is an HISPANIC name. It originated in Spain, though it is common in Mexican communities now because of how Spain came to dominate the indigenous people of Mexico.

Why should it matter, though? Is your family so racist that it isn't open to Hispanic names?

Answer 7

It's not a "Mexican" name. Miguel is the Spanish version of Michael. Why would that concern people.

Answer 8

Miguel is definitely more common in Spanish speaking countries. I have never met or heard of a white man being named Miguel but if you really like it then it shouldn't matter whether or not it is white, black, spanish/mexican....all that matters is that you love it and that is that!

Answer 9

Sounds like a hispanic name to me, in my spanish class all the Micheals were called Miguel

Answer 10

Michael is White, Miguel is Mexican.