How would you pronounce Aryan?

[Icloud54]

Thank you

[FlowerPot1234]

Icloud54
Oh my gosh! Did not no it had a link with the nazis. Oops!

Did not know about Hitler's view of the Aryan race? I cannot begin to comprehend how anyone could not know that. If you are saying you don't, of course I have to believe you, but I almost weep to think about the lack of general knowledge that exists nowadays.

[ZaphodBeeblerox]

Tbf in school (in India) we learnt all the major events of the world war, and about the holocaust, but not in detail about what the Nazis believed. Not defending it, but it's not as widely taught in places where it's much less relevant esp 20 years ago pre internet etc.

[sinceyouask]

It's not bollocks Step. Ignoring the connotations would be insane.

[ChardonnaysPrettySister]

How is something associated with one of the worst ideologies bollocks?

Surely you realise this might come across as minimising?

[takingsmallsteps]

Wow, people are rude. Aaryan is a Sanskrit word for leader/noble. Hindus haven't stopped using the swastika either if you want to be rude about that. I don't see why we should have to let go of our heritage because a madman adopted it.

Go for it OP, it's a lovely name. Aarav and Aadi are beautiful as well. Aarav means peace and Aadi means first and foremost.

[HaHaHmm]

If you are saying you don't, of course I have to believe you, but I almost weep to think about the lack of general knowledge that exists nowadays.

I wonder what the general level of knowledge of the details of colonial rule and the British Raj, Indian independence, or partition is for the average Briton or European.

[takingsmallsteps]

I also like Nayan which has the same feel as Aaryan.

[takingsmallsteps]

Don't be silly HaHa, only western history is supreme.

Aaryan is a really popular Indian name OP, even in the UK, and nobody apart from mumsnet take any offence to it.

[ChardonnaysPrettySister]

Not quite Haha.

Nazism was big part of WW2. World War2, so it's not something associated with only one country or even a continent.

Also, OP is asking on an UK forum.

[Fekko]

No - I have family in the states who considered the name for a nanosecond (traditional name) before choosing another name for their child.

It makes sense not to select a name fir a child who is born and live in a country where 99% of the population will think 'wtf? Nazis??'. Why would you?

[FlowerPot1234]

HaHaHmm
I wonder what the general level of knowledge of the details of colonial rule and the British Raj, Indian independence, or partition is for the average Briton or European.

Do you wonder that? Why? Do you think the details of colonial rule is comparable to the overarching belief behind the world's biggest genocide?

[RidingWindhorses]

The Nazis rotated the swastika on its side.

While I wasn't aware Aaryan was in use as an Indian name, the origin of the use of the word Aryan in the west isn't quite how it's represented here.

The theosophists (Mme Blavatsky et al) used the term for the whole human race since Atlantis (!) which they claim was about 100,000 years ago. At that point there was no colour or individual race associated with the term, it was all human beings on earth since x time.

Through whacky, racist, supremacist, esoteric theories in Germany and Austria at the time, it developed into denoting white humans specifically. Which is how the Nazis used it. (Some of the top Nazis including Hitler and Himmler were very much into weird dark occult stuff). The familiar upshot being that the term is inextricably linked to Nazi ideology.

[Fekko]

The Sanskrit term comes from proto-Indo-Iranian arya- or aryo-, the name used by the Indo-Iranians to designate themselves. ... In Iranian languages, the original self-identifier lives on in ethnic names like "Alans" and "Iron". Similarly, the name of Iran is the Persian word for land/place of the Aryans. (Thanks wiki)

So it is Persian but most people know that the word was pinched by the national socialists and is therefore now generally known by that association. Nowt to do with colonialism, the raj, Indian independence, etc.

Quite a lot of names in India and Pakistan have Persian roots. It wasn't all that long ago that kids were taught Persian in Indian schools and there are still elderly Indians you bump into that speak it.

[HaHaHmm]

It’s a perfectly valid thing to wonder within the context of the thread. Of course everyone’s general historical knowledge should include a good understanding of the Holocaust and I’m also a bit nonplussed at someone having no idea whatsoever about the Nazi connotations of ‘Aryan.’

But it is not a zero sum game and I do think that the level of general ignorance about the realities of the Empire in recent history amongst the British population is pretty desultory. How many know that more than 10 million people were uprooted because of partition? How many know that an estimated 1 million were killed in the sectarian violence which followed? How many Britons know about the 2.1 million people who died in the Bengal Famine, also in the 1940s? If we’re going to wring our hands about general ignorance, that is.

You only have to read this thread to see that many people don’t know that both the term Aryan and the swastika symbol had significance before they were appropriated by the Nazis.

[StepAwayFromCake]

I'm Jewish and the daughter and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. Calling your child Aryan/Arian/Aaryan or any other variant would not make me think that you were a white supremacist/neo-Nazi/ignorant/whatever.

[takingsmallsteps]

I'm not sure anyone would look at an Asian family and think "wtf Nazis".

[takingsmallsteps]

Anyway when properly pronounced it's AAH-ree-an so nothing like the Aryan race. Even when people mispronounce it they say A as in cat so still not Air-ree-an.

[Fekko]

You get pale, blue eyed, fair Iranians - so yes, you might think little aryan's mum and dad were white supremacists. Although I did have a social media post pop up by a young woman in Asia with the middle name 'swastika,

[RidingWindhorses]

To be fair it wasn't clear intially that OP was from an Asian background. So British imperial history wasn't relevant, although I do agree that many British are surprsingly ignorant of it.

Asian heritage puts the name in a different context.

Despite not being Jewish I still wouldn't use the name in a Caucasian family. Not really to do with current neo-Nazism and white supremacism, so much as it's indelibly linked with Nazi Germany and the holocaust. I wouldn't feel comfortable using that name around Jewish friends, and why would I want to?

[Loveisthelaw]

Jewish here and I would assume Asian rather than Nazi. Still probably would advise against using the name I'm western Europe as although it's clearly a proper name with history the associations are bad.

Curious about the post stating that the Nazis turned the swastika on its side. How does that work? Doesn't it have radial symmetry so would look the same?

[DumbledoresApprentice]

The swastika is rotated 45 degrees, LITL.

[CoolCarrie]

It's an Indian name, nothing to do with the Nazis at all!
Air Re Ann (DS friends name)

[Bonez]

arr-yan

[TheHeraldOfAndraste]

What about Naryan or Arjun instead OP?