names that work in both English and Indian cultures

[frangipani13]

I'm of Indian heritage and my husband is white British. We are trying to think of a list of girls and boys names that would work easily in both cultures and be easy to pronounce and spell. I have trawled the Internet for ideas and bought a book but there's not much that works for both...

So far we have:

Anoushka
Jasmine
Asha
Anya

Dhillon
Sunny

Would be great to hear any suggestions or ideas! Thank you

Love your girls names for boys hows-

Zach or Zayne

Arun is lovely for a boy

Zaid for a boy?

Ach, don't worry about it. Give them the name you choose. If you live in a city like London they'll be in a class of kids with all sorts of names anyway.

(My parents gave both me and my sister Indian names. Much nicer. We had English middle-names but I dropped mine years ago as it was horrible.)

I know several people who have this mixture. They have a Zaki, a Sanam, a Uma, a Mira, a Sanam and an Anna.

I love Sunny and Anoushka from your list!

I agree with motherinferior but being an inveterate fence-sitter, here are some suggestions as well!

Maya
Anisha
Sara

Ash for a boy (or full names for which Ash could be NN)

Are you from a mixed heritage background motherinferior? I completely get your point, and probably I'm placing too much importance on a name....

But any name like Minakshi or Mohan or Nalini or Renuka or Enayet would be fine!

Possibly if you wanted to call them Venkatesh Balasubramaniam a small number of people would find it difficult, but that's their problem.

Yep, Tamil mother British/Scandinavian father. (To make matters more confusing I am very, very white so nobody ever believes I have an Indian mother.) My partner is half Bengali half English - they all got one Euro one Asian name too. As did our kids (well, actually they got Jewish first names, for no particular reason at all, and then one got a Muslim and one got a Hindu middle name).

Give them the name you find beautiful; that you want for your child; with which you feel happy sending them into the world.

OP, I am in your exact position and we considered -

Zaara
Rhea
Tia
Shree
Aakshi

For boys

Ambar
Adee
Wrishi
Ohm
Krit
Krish

My Indian colleague has a daughter called Sarah and a niece called Norah, so clearly those names work!

Anjali is also good, as are Hana/Hannah and Adam.

Tara for girls and kiran which is for a boy and girl.

Kiran
Dylan/Dilan
Milan
Uma
Tara
Tanya
Taran
Ashwin
Jay
Ananya

Forgot to add Leela, Leila, Ruby and Amber to the above list

Though I agree with motherinferior - pick a name for your child that you love. I'm hindu, DH is English - our older two boys have jewish first names and our youngest has a traditional English name, all 3 have hindu middle names and we love love love all their names.

Rohan & Kiran for boys and Maia/Maya etc for a girl.

Tara
Nina
Anita
Monica
Anjana
Urmi
Uma
Maya
India
Jasmine

Neil
Kamran/Cameron
Kiran/Keiron
Robindra (Robin)
Harinder (Harry)
Harvinder (Harvey)
Rohan
Dhillon/Dylan
Arun/Aaron

Some great suggestions thank you so much...

I work with an Archana (Archie) which I think is nice.

Priya?

All the names you've listed would work though. Very much like your girls list.

Jiya
Ria/Riya
Diya
Ruby
Lona
Huda

We have an Archi, an Indira and current shortlist for dc3 includes Jasmine, Ravi, Sidarth, Maya (MIL's name though!)

Some fab suggestions here. We have gone with indian/hindu first names, western/English middle names to go with DH's Mauritian surname

English/Indian girls I know-
Serena
Ella
Alina
Lila
Sofia
Nisha
Priya
Seems like simple names with -a endings work, even if they're not known in both cultures.

boys-

Jay
Sacha
Albie
Harry