Arami - have I just made this up?

[EatsFartsAndLeaves]

I like the name Arami. I think I met someone with this name a few years ago, not sure I'm remembering it correctly and can't remember which country she was from, probably somewhere in Africa.

Anyone else come across it? Do you like it?

I used to know someone from Sri Lanka called 'Arani'.

And one of the Three Musketeers was called 'Aramis'.

I think it probably is a real name, but not one I'm familiar with. Are you considering it?

Maybe, yeah. I'd quite like something as unusual as this but not too outlandish sounding and with a simple spelling that's just like it sounds - I don't think there's much potential for mispronunciation, is there?

I quite like the fact that it's so unusual it might be made up, but if it's made up it does sound like it should be a real name, IYKWIM.

Arami appears in US census records as a surname; people with that name give birthplaces as Italy, Argentina, Brazil.

There are Japanese restaurants called Arami in Chicago. According to one website, the name means 'over there', but Japanese names have layers of meaning; you'd need to ask an expert. Confusingly, this website says it means 'rough sea' japanese.reader.bz/arami I don't know.

As you say in your original post, there is a similar name from Afria, as well. This site reports a hip-hop star who has renamed himself Arami; he says it means 'teacher' in his language (he's from Eritrea): www.hiphopcanada.com/2013/08/words-with-arami-the-corrector-africa-to-canada-interview/

Africa, obviously - sorry!

How would u prn? To rhyme with carry me or tsunami?

Amari, Amerie, Armani or Imani are lots better.

Armani is not better.
understates

Oh dear god no, not Armani. Amari is a clothes shop, I have some of their dresses, they're quite nice...

To rhyme with Tsunami.

I actually have a Japanese relative who could check it out for me, but that'll have to wait until I can tell 'em at 12 weeks! But Eritrea is highly likely to have been where the woman I met came from, given the context. We have no family connection to Eritrea, would it be weird to pick an Eritrean name?

You can't have a name that's "from Africa" any more than you can have a name that's "from Europe"

I like the name Eritrea....

really needs to stop reading baby name threads

Hackluyt - the hip-hop star is from Eritrea, in the link he says that his new name is in his native language.

Hakluyt sorry I don't understand what you mean, could you explain?

ClashCityRocker yes, me too!

Dos nobody think that there is something a little bit tasteless in naming a well fed middle class white child after a country which has been devastated by famine and war?

And wheni said a name can't be "from Africa" I mean that Sfrica has so many different languages and cultures that it would be like saying that a name was "from Europe" when that could mean Reginald, Solange, Mario or Oleg.

Dos nobody think that there is something a little bit tasteless in naming a well fed middle class white child after a country which has been devastated by famine and war?

I was being slightly tongue in cheek - I think it's a nice sounding name, and playing on the fact that after reading the baby name threads on here, the most unusual and possibly not appropriate names start sounding like 'nice' things to call your child.

I'm sure one poster once suggested that fellatio would be a nice name for a boy if it didn't mean what it meant. It has a nice sound to it...but of course no one would use it for an actual child.

You're also making assumptions about people's heritage - how do you know I'm white and middle class?

Errrrr... You can name your kid what you want! I think it shows we are now living in a global village and to choose a name from another culture is to partake!

I am not white and love Sanskrit names. I am not Indian either.

OP, according to wiki, Arami was a planet colonised by the Hutts in Star Wars.

I like it.

Hakluyt
I don't want to be confrontational and I certainly don't want to put words into the OP's mouth, but she was simply recalling a vague memory of a name she'd once heard and liked. She believed the name was African - a very general term, as opposed to European or Asian or American. As it turned out, it was. With a specific provenance. A bit of simple Googling showed that.

If you meet a person of African heritage, do you really think it's polite to ask them "where they are from"? Very likely, they've been born in your home town, but their parents have upheld their own heritage and given their baby a traditional name. If they have come from a very sadly war-torn place like Eritrea, it's surely even more important not to demand details? If details are offered, then that's completely different.

I'm all for cultural sensitivity, but I really don't think the OP was being improper in this case.

However, I do rather agree with your general point, which is, I think: 'don't use a 'foreign' name as a first name unless you have reasons to do so'. If you like it as a middle name - because you love the sound/you once met a great person with that name/ you've visted there or worked there/ etc etc then that is, I think, different.

Hackluyt I'm not naming a child after a country, that bit was a joke, calm down. Of course a name can be from Africa, this one seems to be from Eritrea which is in Africa, so how could it not be from Africa? Saying it's from Eritrea is just more specific. A French name could also correctly be described as European.

ClashCityRocker I already have Luke shortlisted for a boy because of Star Wars! I think Daddy will like...

sorry - should read 'if their parents'

florascotia yes that's my only possible problem with it, we have no real connection with Eritrea. Arami was the name of one of the refugees I was working with a few years ago, not someone I knew very well. However lots of Eritreans are living in my home town, and cultures mingling here as they will, which I think is great. I can't decide if I think it'd be ok to just use a name from another culture because I like the sound of it...

I'll have to also ask as many Eritreans as I can about any possible bad/weird associations there may be, which as someone outside the culture I may have missed e.g. certain names can sometimes indicate a religious or political allegiance which I'd want to avoid.

Be funny if she ends up being one of six Aramis in her class because all the Eritrean parents like it too .

"Oh, ours is named after the planet colonised by the Hutts in Star Wars..."

I like the sound of Emarley!

I knew an Arami W. from university. She was half English (her surname is very British) and I'm not sure where her mother was from as she wasn't a good friend but she was studying a course at the same uni as me and I knew her from first year. It's a pretty name and if you like it, go for it.