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Baby names

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

Original poster

Jiya, Maya, Siya or Ruhi? Indian baby girl living in the UK

111 replies

meera454 · 16/12/2020 11:13

We have scrapped most of our previous list and are leaning more towards simpler names. What are your thoughts on Jiya, Maya, Siya and Ruhi? Be as brutally honest as you like :)

Really love the name Ruhi in particular but written down it looks a bit incomplete to me? Maybe we could use this as a nickname for Rohini or Ruhani? Ruhi has a beautiful meaning in Hindi.

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TheTeenageYears · 18/12/2020 17:50

I know a Jaya and have always liked the name.

itssquidstella · 18/12/2020 17:48

I really like Ruhi (just on its own, I don't think it needs to be short for anything) and Jiya.

I'm less keen on Siya (but I like Sita), and Mayas are ten a penny where I am so it feels a bit overdone.

Quads4x4 · 18/12/2020 17:28

Maya is good for an indian international person..its good in both worlds... easy to spell
.. she will love finding her name in kids shops when they sell magnets or toys with henry george sarah maya will be there but an unusual name will be very frustrating.

ForestNymph · 18/12/2020 17:20

[quote meera454]@speakout that is a great tip, i have heard of people waiting until the baby is born to decide but that makes me slightly anxious! If we decide that we like all of them and can't reach a conclusion, we will probably just wait until dd is here.

@Winterplant I totally agree. I love beautiful long sanskrit names and we were thinking of either using them as a first name or a middle name, my only concern is pronunciation issues. Longer name options include: Rohini, Ruhani, Lavanya, Shanaya, Ahana, Avanika, Anuskha, Anika, Anya, Ananya, Mihira, Mallika, Shreya, Avani

@IdblowJonSnow Ruhi means spiritual[/quote]
We considered Ananya Smile We went for English names in the end but that was our choice if we'd have gone with an Indian name, its very pretty in my opinion.

Original poster
meera454 · 18/12/2020 17:18

@speakout that is a great tip, i have heard of people waiting until the baby is born to decide but that makes me slightly anxious! If we decide that we like all of them and can't reach a conclusion, we will probably just wait until dd is here.

@Winterplant I totally agree. I love beautiful long sanskrit names and we were thinking of either using them as a first name or a middle name, my only concern is pronunciation issues. Longer name options include: Rohini, Ruhani, Lavanya, Shanaya, Ahana, Avanika, Anuskha, Anika, Anya, Ananya, Mihira, Mallika, Shreya, Avani

@IdblowJonSnow Ruhi means spiritual

OP posts:
IdblowJonSnow · 18/12/2020 17:12

I know a few Mayas.
I do like Ruhi. What's it mean?

Winterplant · 18/12/2020 17:07

I am Indian, OP I would love to hear your longer name options.
I think it will be nice for her to have a traditionally Indian name. Maya is too Anglised imo.
I'm not keen on Siya/Jiya/Diya etc names they are very very popular in the Indian community.
Ruhi is my fave.

speakout · 18/12/2020 16:58

Just a tip, unless you need to have a baby named as soon as he/she is born we found it really helpful to just have a shortlist of 4 or 5 , then wait until the arrival.

Once we had a few days to get to know our little arrival the names became far easier to decide upon.
Some of the names we had liked before our babies were born just didn't seem to fit the personality- it was far easier to finally decide when the baby was here.
Whether your baby is mellow and chilled, or active, bright eyed, very snuggly, energetic- all babies are different even in the very early days.

Although it was hard to choose an exact name before our babies were born it became super easy after delivery.

Original poster
meera454 · 18/12/2020 16:44

In terms of middle name options...

Maya Rohini/ Ruhi
Maya Shreya
Maya Leela

Jiya Rohini / Ruhi
Jiya Shreya (too similar?)
Jiya Leela

Ruhi Shreya
Ruhi Jiya
Ruhi Maya

What do you think and can you think of any other ideas? :)

OP posts:
Original poster
meera454 · 18/12/2020 16:33

Right, so after discussing with DH, we have decided to rule out Siya, because as many of you have pointed out, it does sound a bit too similar to 'see ya' and 'sear' which could lead to potential teasing.

Ruhi, Jiya, Maya are still on the list... Maya is starting to grow on me more (even though it is so popular), I like how international the name is whereas Ruhi and Jiya are very Indian, I do love the nod to the culture but Maya has both Indian roots and will also travel well... so there are lots of points going towards Maya at the moment. Jiya is another favourite in the family, and my best friend loves the name Ruhi.

OP posts:
danascully96 · 18/12/2020 15:07

Adore Maya 🥰 It’s so warm sounding!

lljkk · 18/12/2020 11:58

Maya is very popular with white parents, so might translate well across cultures.

We were very enamoured for a long while with Somaya (Summaiah). I think that might be Bengali, though.

Brown76 · 18/12/2020 11:57

They are all nice but Ruhi is my favourite. Maya is familiar and would be probably the most common in the UK

Ohmymo · 18/12/2020 11:43

Siya sounds like see ya!
And jiya will be spelled Gia.

Don't make life harder to your non white female daughter further by giving her a difficult name. I say this as a non white woman in the UK with a foreign name who had added complications and covert racism due to unusual name.

Give her a universal plain solid name like Laura, Linda, Sara or Mary or something.
If you really must, have that Indian name as her middle name.
You probably have a long difficult surname already.

TyroTerf · 18/12/2020 11:37

Siya (in my accent) sounds like saying goodbye, which is the main reason I wouldn't go for it!

In terms of other homophones... sear is better than jeer. But I thought of sear straight away whereas it took a while to remember jeer. And I like J better as a first letter.

madcatladyforever · 18/12/2020 11:03

My sister is half Indian, we have different dads, she called her daughter Maya and I think its a beautiful name Smile

Original poster
meera454 · 18/12/2020 11:01

Siya or Jiya? And why? Please help solve our confusion between the two!

OP posts:
Original poster
meera454 · 18/12/2020 11:00

@CeeceeBloomingdale I have considered the spelling Sia but I feel like it looks too short for a name? Siya looks a bit more complete to my eyes.

@TyroTerf Absolutely! I think that once you tell people that it's Ruhi with a hard 'h' sound, it will be quite memorable and easy. Jiya is beautiful and high up on our list!

@Scabetty Ah that's great to know! I love the names Ruhi and Siya as well but Siya is bit further down the list, for some reason I'm not loving it as much as Ruhi and Jiya.

@speakout Totally agree! Lucky our surname starts with a consonant

@JustCurious2 what makes you less inclined towards Jiya and prefer Siya over Jiya? They are such similar names but we are so confused between these two.

OP posts:
JustCurious2 · 17/12/2020 17:57

Ruhi and Siya are my favourite out of those four. Not keen on Jiya and Maya seems both more popular and more likely to be mispronounced.

lobsteroll · 17/12/2020 17:56

All beautiful but I Iike Ruhi the best too

Ynwa12345 · 17/12/2020 17:43

i like Ruchi/Ruhi

speakout · 17/12/2020 17:42

Also consider the last letter of the first name and how it sounds when said together with the surname.

For Instance Ruhi Imani may not flow,

But Ruhi Dewan is pretty.

MrsDoctorDear · 17/12/2020 17:33

Love Ruhi!!

Scabetty · 17/12/2020 17:31

I work in a Hindu faith school where there are lots of Mayas and names like Siya and Jiya. Ruhi is lovely imho but I also like Siya.

TyroTerf · 17/12/2020 17:28

Ah, I'm glad the h in Ruhi is pronounced - I retract my previous comment! Roo-ee is the most likely mispronunciation there I think, but not tremendously likely; I doubt you'd be correcting people every day.

I'm still on Team Jiya though!