Active discussions

Help protect children from gaming harms.

Take our survey

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Original poster

Favourite Indian Names?

41 replies

MaraW · 05/12/2018 01:07

We are a mixed race couple living in England and would like to give our child an Indian (Hindu) name. It doesn’t have to be a short, easy to pronounce name, but we’d like to take into account the fact that we’d be raising the child here. So I’d appreciate any suggestions of names you’ve heard and loved.

We don’t know the gender yet and I’m especially struggling with boy’s names. The ones I like seem to end in “n” which is problematic because of our last name (think Johnson or Wilson).

Thanks in advance!

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Set a reminder
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
dinnafashsassenach · 04/01/2019 22:52

Anandani

MadisonAvenue · 04/01/2019 21:51

Kunal
Hari, although people may think you're using a unique spelling of Harry.
Nihal

legolammb · 04/01/2019 21:34

I've always liked Anjali (Anna/ie nn), and Maya

bobstersmum · 08/12/2018 22:49

My childhood best friend was called Preya, her sister was Dinah and her brother Amit.

mammmamia · 08/12/2018 22:41

chumsnet you’re right but loads of your list are names of my elderly uncles and aunts!

Sleather · 08/12/2018 12:35

Nalin is nice (boys name).

Autumnnymph · 08/12/2018 09:51

Totally agree with @chumsnet I know a few howlers amongst DDs classmates or ones that aren’t names but just sound “Indian”

chumsnet · 08/12/2018 09:18

Just so you know, some of the names above are not names, they’re just Hindi-sounding sounds 😂

You could do a lot worse than follow the old custom of asking your mother and/or grandmother for final approval just in case you pick a howler.

You should be fine with any name that doesn’t have a d or a t (sorry I don’t have a Hindi keyboard to show you the characters)

Shailesh
Shivan
Rajan
Ashwin
Narayan
Anshul
Indranil
Roshan
Saroj
Tarun
Varun
Vir
Samarth
Siddharth
Sunil

Got to give my gang breakfast but will be back with girls’ names

WelcomeToGreenvale · 07/12/2018 21:47

I like Archana. Archie is a sweet nickname, Archie Panjabi is an example of someone famous with the name!

Autumnnymph · 07/12/2018 08:24

Just to add Anya and Arya seem
To really popular now as is Ria. We have 3 of each. Name in DDs year group of 45ish girls. DD is 7

greatpotential · 07/12/2018 08:00

Poor you with the n problem! Similar family here and both our boys end with n. How about

Ayush
Aarav
Amit
Kabir
Sameer
Nikesh
Prem

Priti
Tulsi
Anjali
Amita
Annika
Uma
Anya
Arya
Padma

And if you think you could get past the n thing
Arun
Taran
Vivaan
Arjun
Rian
Rohin
Sachin

Snog · 06/12/2018 14:57

I love Shabnur

YepImafraidIchangeditagain · 06/12/2018 14:39

I like Aarti and Hari for a boy. Hema for a girl

Strokethefurrywall · 06/12/2018 14:36

Priya for a girl, I love it
Eshan for a boy

Autumnnymph · 06/12/2018 14:30

Here is the list we had for DD

Akshara
Sindhu
Dyuti
Dhwani
Kaavya
Sanjana
Laasya
Swechcha
Spandana
Aditi
Laya
Haarika

Original poster
MaraW · 06/12/2018 14:19

@KoshaMangsho I know! I looked at a name for a minute, thinking it was quite nice, until realizing it had “shit” in the name and I could never use it here. 😂

We probably won’t give a daaknaam because my parents never did with us. All my relatives have them but we never did! And yes, adults are still known by them, however embarrassing they may be.

It was a difficult concept to explain to my husband, how each relative is known by so many names, none of them sounding like their proper name.

@DulciUke thank you, I hadn’t considered those!

@TakeMe2Insanity I like Payal a lot but was worried people in the UK would just here “pile” and it would be a bad connotation. I love Priyanka though, I think it could be a serious contender if we had a girl.

@YouSetTheTone I had forgotten about that one, thanks!

@WhatTheWatersShowedMe I love Vivek but think it might be an odd choice because of a relative with this name.

OP posts:
WhatTheWatersShowedMe · 06/12/2018 10:29

I like Vivek for a boy and Kali for a girl.

YouSetTheTone · 06/12/2018 10:24

I love the name Rishi.

KoshaMangsho · 05/12/2018 19:58

Oh my favourite Bengali girls’ name is Shahana. And super easy to pronounce.

KoshaMangsho · 05/12/2018 19:56

Ah Bengali names work badly, my friend. I mean my own actual name is UNPRONOUNCEABLE the Bengali way to any non Bengali.
My Dad wanted to name DS1 ‘Proshit’ with the soft T which means like a sharp arrow and I was like: PRO SHIT?! Really?! No thanks.
Of my Bengali friends Ishaan is the commonest ‘foreign’ Bengali boy name of this generation. I like Shayon/Shayan or Nayan/Nayon.
I prefer Nayantara to Tara and she can be called Tara for short.
Other girls names I like are Anushka and Annika. Although someone pointed out that the first bit of Anushka spells ‘anus’...

And if you are Bengali I hope you are thinking of nicknames with due consideration. Both of mine have the requisite semi comical Bengali nickname and amusingly are known more commonly by those than their actual names, even in London.

TakeMe2Insanity · 05/12/2018 14:46

Theres some lovely names in bollywood at the moment

Anoushka
Priyanka
Payal
Karisma
Sonam

DulciUke · 05/12/2018 13:55

Dharini (girl)
Dhani (boy)

Original poster
MaraW · 05/12/2018 12:14

@AliCanTea I like that, thanks!

@Whifty I like Tara as well but not sure how it would be pronounced here. Sounds daft because it's such a simple name, I know.

@Unicornandbows another for Roshni, I do like that a lot. Also Reshma and Reema so maybe I have a thing for names with "R"? Akashi is very nice too.

@DonDrapersOldFashioned I like both of those (and associate them with nice people), thanks for the suggestions.

@KoshaMangsho I am Bengali by the way, so open to any Bengali names!

OP posts:
DonDrapersOldFashioned · 05/12/2018 11:59

Rima (f)
Narayan (m)

Unicornandbows · 05/12/2018 11:44

Girls name

Seema
Anjli
Reshma
anaiya
Akira
Roshni
Nisha
Maya
Chandani
Priya
Shruti

Boys
Jay
Sunny
Kishen
Akash
Tej

Can't think of others lol

Swipe left for the next trending thread