Our girls shortlist, your opinions please?

[muhajaba]

DH and I have really different taste in names, and he's vetoed almost everything I like and changes his mind all the time, so this has been really difficult!
We don't live in the U.K right now but will again in the future so I'm particularly interested in getting a British perspective.

Amatullah - my favourite
Mouna
Lamees
Hirah
Maysoon
Iman
Kenza - DH's favourite

I haven't heard of any of these names before.... the only one I remotely like is Kenza....

caffe They are all Arabic names and not especially unusual amongst Muslims and Arabs.

Ok, but you did specifically ask for the British perspective...

Yes, I am not Muslim/Arabic and I am not 100% sure but I really do think that most British people would not be familiar with any of these names you are shortlisting...

but I really think you should choose something related to your own culture and heritage, of course that's very important..

Caffe I would have thought most people would know the name Iman because of the model who was also David Bowie's wife but if people haven't heard of the names I don't mind, I just don't want anything people would find hard to pronounce or anything that has a negative or funny association in English that I'm not aware of. I went to high school in Scotland for a couple of years and there was a fellow immigrant kid in my class called Maboob. I don't want my daughter to be the Maboob of her class!

I like Kenza the best and i don't think Ken would be a bad nickname for a young woman. Kinda trendy infact. Like Blake lively calling her daughter James.

Amatullah sounds nice but would almost certainly get shortened in the UK so if you wouldn't like that then maybe avoid.

Mouna is maybe too much like the sound a cow makes "moo"

Maysoon sounds like it should be Mason.

Hirah and Iman I like.

Sorry.... I've just seen that you asked me why Kenza sounds chavvy to me. I think it's because it reminds me of the names of trashy reality TV stars. Girls with fake boobs who are obsessed with boys!
I'm trying to remember if there's an American girl with a similar name but can't think!
I seem to be the only one that thinks it though so ignore me!

I also really like Iman by the way (along with Hirah and Mouna).

Kenza gets my vote.

I've decided to cross Amatullah off the list because of the nickname aspect. I've gone off Mouna now after I pointed out the moo sound to a poster. I think little children could pick up on that, maybe in a mean way.
I love Iman and Maysoon so much but DH says he knows too many of them. I dont, he's so fussy! I think the name will be Kenza. Maybe I should wait to see how she looks like when she's born though

RuthB4 So it's just the sound? I think I can live with that, DD will have Arabic surname too so her name will obviously be foreign. Are you thinking of Kendra Wilkinson maybe? My sister like trashy reality TV I sometimes end up watching along with my ironing

Thanks to everyone for your views, it's been very helpful

I like Amatullah best followed by Mouna and Hirah. I'm afraid I also dislike Kenza.

I think I like Kenza best, easy to say and pronounce. My dd has a friend called Kenzie and I don't think anyone shortens it to anything.

Amatullah - It's not one I've heard of, I'm assuming it's Arabic and it's obviously foreign so people would take the time to ask spelling (a good thing). Ama is a sweet abbreviation.
Mouna- very, very likely to be misspelt but if that doesn't bother you, it's nice enough
Lamees- Sorry but reads a bit unclassy here due to the double ee. Might be spelt with a z here.
Hirah- Quite nice
Maysoon- horrible. It sounds like Mason (a tradesman who makes houses) spelt wrong. Sorry but it could seem like a bad spelling of a common and not very classy male name here.
Iman- It's a nice classic name, very elegant.
Kenza - really pretty- my favourite by far. It's highly unusual here but easy to spell and say

golden thanks for your input. As I said up thread Amatullah shouldn't be shortened because of the meaning. The abbreviation Ama means servant or slave, depending on your preferred translation so not great on it's own.
I don't think Lamees could really be spelt any better because Lamis could be pronounced like 'miss' at the end which would be wrong. I don't think people would spell with Z though as it's not got a Z sound. Its a soft S sound like in Jessica or Tessa.
Is the name/word Mason pronounced the same as Maysoon? I didn't think it was. The 'may' part is short and the 'soon' part is long, like with bassoon. I thought Mason rhymes with Jason?

I think as first and middle names Kenza Iman Maysoon sounds beautiful.

Kenza is lovely OP. I love Iman and like Maysoon, but if your DH has vetoed those, then Kenza is a really nice choice too.

If you're having middle names, then I really like choc's suggestion.

Choccy I think I'm going to use one as a middle name and keep the other for if I have another daughter as the country I'm living in only allows babies to be registered with one middle name. And if I dont have another daughter it could be a kitten or goldfish

Reading your list I was immediately drawn the Kenya, I love it.

Auto correct. Kenza

You could have problems with maysoon as two English words put together. I maysoon do something.

I disagree that kenza sounds tacky, I think it's lovely!

I like iman as well, but you won't get away from the association with David Bowles wife. Depends if you're bothered by that.

I absolutely love Kenza it's gorgeous. And I think Kenni is cute!

Kenza reminds me of kenzie (nickname of mckenzie). But thats just me. I dont like it.

Iman and Maysoon are lovely.