Is it unusual to choose a name outside your heritage?

[Zarry]

Do you think it's common to use a name that's not of your (or your spouse's) heritage? I'm currently eyeing a very beautiful Italian name for DC. We don't have any connection to Italy, but that hasn't stopped me loving the name. Our surname is Irish, but we live in England. I have worried if extremely Italian first name + extremely Irish surname (think something similar to Giovanni O'Brien or Alessandra McCarthy) would sound like something out of an odd comedy to others. Then there will surely be the inevitable questions about why we've gone with this name.

Maybe I'm overthinking (which I tend to do with decisions). Just looking to see what the general consensus is.

To be fair, they are two different names. Someone might like Alessandra but not Alexandra (or vice versa).

I wonder why this viewpoint is only applied to certain names. I can't imagine anyone suggesting that it's pretentious to use Isabella rather than Elizabeth, Lucia rather than Lucy, or Rosa rather than Rose.

@Juryduty, They might if they were in the UK and found that the little girl called Julia was really Guilia [sic], or that Gee-Anna was Gianna.

I think it depends what it is. If not something very unusual, out there or unheard of outside that culture then it should be fine. But something that sounds very odd to a British ear can be a bit cringy. I think some like Alessandra or Giovanni would be fine but i would do a double take if i came across a white child named Muhammed of Achmed.

I would find it quite odd, in the same way that I would find it odd for a person with no Irish connections to chose a traditional Irish name.