Yahya or Eesa?

[Aaliyah1]

I need some help guys with the two above names. We are having a baby boy and like these two names. I wanted to know the opinion of non Muslims (Muslims too ) of what you think of them. I'm swaying towards one but my DH is swaying to another

Yahya is the Arabic for John and Eesa is Arabic for Jesus.

[GoshAnneGorilla]

I read an Irish baby name thread recently and someone said "I'm sure no one would be so rude on a Muslim baby name thread"-it would appear that they would.

Op, I like Eesa best, although I do prefer the Isa spelling.

Not sure if you're looking for additional names, but I love Hamza and Sufyan too

[SootikinAndSweep]

Ooh, I love Sufjan Stevens! And I like the 'j' spelling.

[rubyslippers7788]

Hi,

I teach a Yahya, many English people pronounce the name as yaryar as they have difficulty in sounding out the H. I personally wouldn't go for this name as he will constantly be correcting people when he is older.
How about Amir / Musa / Adaam?

[PiratePanda]

I wasn't saying it needed to be English or look English or sound English. The whole point is that Isa is an Arabic name that can be transliterated any way you like into Roman script, and Isa looks better and is more obvious in pronunciation to Eesa. If you want to be precise, it's actually written

???

I'm fluent in two languages spoken predominantly by Muslims and written in Arabic script, and my DS has a Muslim name despite being C of E. But thanks for assuming I'm a xenophobe/racist/Islamophobe.

[PiratePanda]

Sigh, fat thumbs...

????

[MaeveBehave]

working9while5, calm down, the OP wanted the perspectives of other people. I get where she's coming from. To be Clodagh was a normal name, I ran it past an MN jury and posters said 'like the claddagh ring?'. I hadn't thought that people would think that. So that perspective of others was valuable. The OP isn't upset, she asked for opinions because she wanted them!

[working9while5]

I'm not agitated, no need to tell me to calm down. More fool you if you went with what others thought, Clodagh is a 'normal' name. Like it or not, the reactions to Muslim, Irish and to a lesser extent Welsh names on MN tend to be pretty insular and often quite rude. We live in a multicultural society in a global economy and people who don't take the time and make the effort to learn how to pronounce names are generally letting themselves down.

OP said she didn't want an Anglo Muslim name so while saying 'I prefer Yahya' or 'I find Eesa easier to say' is fine, describing it as a toddler word or scrabble tiles thrown up in the air is unnecessary.

[lljkk]

... unless OP wants an HONEST reaction to her suggestions. God forbid any of us should give an HONEST opinion when asked for it. How rude, eh?!

[working9while5]

It just never seems to happen with French names...

[Minnieisthedevilmouse]

Honestly? Made me sing eesa good eesa good ebeneezer good! But is better of the two. Agree yahya will end up yah yah. Yuk.

[itsjustplayingonmymind]

Both names are a wonderful names of prophets I like both of them.

[RightInTheKisser]

But MINNIE it's not pronounced EeZa it's pronounced EeSa.

[Minnieisthedevilmouse]

Still sounds like e's are good to me I'm afraid. Might be the accent I've got.

[IntegrateExpectations]

Minnie, how do you pronounce 'easy', and how do you pronounce 'seaside'? It's the second one.

[Minnieisthedevilmouse]

My pronunciation is quite eastenders. I get the name is soft ee-sa. Rather than ee-za. Then it just sounds whispered.

It's a nice name still. Still prefer to the other.

[SirChenjin]

Eesa looks easier to pronounce - but I'm sure I could get to grips with Yahya once you'd told me how it was pronounced. Having a very difficult to pronounce surname I know it's a PITA to go through your whole life having to explain how it's pronounced, which is why we gave the DCs very 'easy' names - so maybe worth thinking about?

[EirikurNoromaour]

Eyes a has a nicer sound, yahya really won't work in the uk. Eesa does look a little strange to English eyes with the double E but that's not really a problem.

[AntoinetteCosway]

Eesa has a lovely sound.

[AGoodPirate]

I really like Eesa. :)

[defuse]

The first response on this thread is rude.

As already stated upthread, i love the name Eesa and also prefer the spelling as Isa, but would probably go with Eesa in the end.

[manicinsomniac]

Agree that many of these responses are rude. Thousands of people give their children names that are from their own culture rather than the culture of the country they happen to live in - so what? Britain doesn't even have just one culture any more anyway. I don't think a name should be required to be easily recognisable or pronouncable in English - people will learn.

I've personally never come across either name and, on reading them, assumed them to be female names. But that wouldn't matter. Once I met the child I'd know he was a boy, end of problem.

I like both but like Eesa better.

[cafecito]

I know a wonderful Yahya so I associate the name with him. Eesa would probably work better throughout most of the UK though I guess it is more similar to many more en masse familiar names. Both are nice.

[GoshAnneGorilla]

Reflecting on a comment upthread, depending where you are in the UK, these names are mainstream. In DD's class, about 50% of the class have Muslim/Arabic names and a third have Sikh/Punjabi names and everyone copes quite happily with it.

Sootikin - I do like the Sufjan spelling too, but considering some of the reactions on here to names which aren't apparently instantly phonetically clear, I thought I'd play it safe .

I am a frequent lurker on baby name threads. If I see a name I am unsure how to pronounce due to unfamiliarity, I read until someone explains how it's pronounced. It wouldn't occur to me to dislike a name because of my own ignorance, hence why I find "scrabble" comments baffling.

Working - Interesting point about the differing reaction to French names. I think like so many things on MN it boils down to perceptions of class. French names are somehow "classic" and "aspirational", whereas Irish, Welsh and Arabic names don't seem to have quite the same cachet round these parts...

[2blessed]

I think.both names are lovely. Go with your heart op.

[fuzzywuzzy]

Both names are easy to pronounce correctly Yahya is pronounced with the h sound and Eesa is pronounced how it's spelled.

I like Yahya as it's less popular than Eesa but both are lovely and I went to school with boys with those names they were in different years to me.

If I ever have sons I'll call one Yahya (clearly the UK will benefit from more Yahya's, to eliminate this fear and derision of a foreign name!).

In the Quran it is written that no man was called Yahya before the son of Zachariya.

For what it's worth I have a blatantly non English name but it's pronounced exactly as it's spelled, which is what I say whenever asked. Only once in my life I was told by a rude man he'd call me something else as it was difficult to pronounce I told him sure go ahead I'll call you Fred as I don't much like yours either. My name is very easy to pronounce as are both Yahya and Eesa.