Favourite Indian Names?

[MaraW]

We are a mixed race couple living in England and would like to give our child an Indian (Hindu) name. It doesn’t have to be a short, easy to pronounce name, but we’d like to take into account the fact that we’d be raising the child here. So I’d appreciate any suggestions of names you’ve heard and loved.

We don’t know the gender yet and I’m especially struggling with boy’s names. The ones I like seem to end in “n” which is problematic because of our last name (think Johnson or Wilson).

Thanks in advance!

Vivek? Means wisdom/knowledge

Tulsi

@DulciUke I love the name Vivek! Unfortunately we are related to someone with this name so it might be a little odd as a choice. Same with Vikram, so we will probably stay away from anything resembling that.

If we get desperate though, anything goes!

Hmm... I teach at a school with a large Asian population but it’s a girl’s school, so not sure how helpful I’ll be!

Some of these names may be Sri Lankan/Bangladeshi rather than Indian - I’m sure you’ll know better than me!

Several of the girls I’ve taught have Indian names that can shorten to an English sounding nickname, which I think works well:

E.g. Anandita ==> Annie
Abbienaya ==> Abbie

Other girls’ names that I really like are Shivani, Roshni, Aditi, Rohini and Pavani.

@Rainbowrebs girls’ names are useful too! We are starting from scratch so appreciate any and all suggestions. I love some of the ones you’ve listed.

Are you not planning to have a Namkaran? Surely you can't choose a name until you know what initial the baby is given? I had a friend who really struggled to find a name she loved with the initial her baby boy was given.

Karishma is a lovely name for a girl.

Indira for a girl.

Lacshmi and Visharli ... not sure if spelling is correct!

There are several baby books to choose from for Indian names. Also Indian names is slightly misleading because people from different parts of India tend to have different names/variations of the name. So Raghav in the North is Raghavan in the South.
When we named our sons (I can PM you what their names are if you want), we thought of the meaning of the name and then asked several non Indian people to pronounce it to see how close they got to the Indian pronunciation of the name.

Btw common boys’ names in the UK include: Ishaan, Nikhil, Rohan, Aarav, Abhishek, Varun. Just going off names I have heard.

Thanks for the responses! I do love Indira and Lakshmi for a girl.

@Choccywoccyhooha no, we will not have a Namkaran. We can choose any name that we like.

@KoshaMangsho I realize that, but wanted to leave it open so as to get more responses. I just wanted to know what names other people here liked.

I spent some time in Delhi when I was younger & made a lovely friend (male) called Ejaz.
Masum is Bangladeshi but lovely.
Rahul also translates well.

Love Indira for a girl

Not sure if it's the right origin but I love Ashwin for a boy.

DH is Hindu and his gran is called Tara. I always liked that.

There are other less obviously Indian/Hindu names for girls like Sana, Sania and Zara. Actually a good friend in Delhi has a daughter called Zara.

Girls name

Seema
Anjli
Reshma
anaiya
Akira
Roshni
Nisha
Maya
Chandani
Priya
Shruti

Boys
Jay
Sunny
Kishen
Akash
Tej

Can't think of others lol

Rima (f)
Narayan (m)

@AliCanTea I like that, thanks!

@Whifty I like Tara as well but not sure how it would be pronounced here. Sounds daft because it's such a simple name, I know.

@Unicornandbows another for Roshni, I do like that a lot. Also Reshma and Reema so maybe I have a thing for names with "R"? Akashi is very nice too.

@DonDrapersOldFashioned I like both of those (and associate them with nice people), thanks for the suggestions.

@KoshaMangsho I am Bengali by the way, so open to any Bengali names!

Dharini (girl)
Dhani (boy)

Theres some lovely names in bollywood at the moment

Anoushka
Priyanka
Payal
Karisma
Sonam

Ah Bengali names work badly, my friend. I mean my own actual name is UNPRONOUNCEABLE the Bengali way to any non Bengali.
My Dad wanted to name DS1 ‘Proshit’ with the soft T which means like a sharp arrow and I was like: PRO SHIT?! Really?! No thanks.
Of my Bengali friends Ishaan is the commonest ‘foreign’ Bengali boy name of this generation. I like Shayon/Shayan or Nayan/Nayon.
I prefer Nayantara to Tara and she can be called Tara for short.
Other girls names I like are Anushka and Annika. Although someone pointed out that the first bit of Anushka spells ‘anus’...

And if you are Bengali I hope you are thinking of nicknames with due consideration. Both of mine have the requisite semi comical Bengali nickname and amusingly are known more commonly by those than their actual names, even in London.

Oh my favourite Bengali girls’ name is Shahana. And super easy to pronounce.

I love the name Rishi.

I like Vivek for a boy and Kali for a girl.