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!

@KoshaMangsho I know! I looked at a name for a minute, thinking it was quite nice, until realizing it had “shit” in the name and I could never use it here. 😂

We probably won’t give a daaknaam because my parents never did with us. All my relatives have them but we never did! And yes, adults are still known by them, however embarrassing they may be.

It was a difficult concept to explain to my husband, how each relative is known by so many names, none of them sounding like their proper name.

@DulciUke thank you, I hadn’t considered those!

@TakeMe2Insanity I like Payal a lot but was worried people in the UK would just here “pile” and it would be a bad connotation. I love Priyanka though, I think it could be a serious contender if we had a girl.

@YouSetTheTone I had forgotten about that one, thanks!

@WhatTheWatersShowedMe I love Vivek but think it might be an odd choice because of a relative with this name.

Here is the list we had for DD

Akshara
Sindhu
Dyuti
Dhwani
Kaavya
Sanjana
Laasya
Swechcha
Spandana
Aditi
Laya
Haarika

Priya for a girl, I love it
Eshan for a boy

I like Aarti and Hari for a boy. Hema for a girl

I love Shabnur

Poor you with the n problem! Similar family here and both our boys end with n. How about

Ayush
Aarav
Amit
Kabir
Sameer
Nikesh
Prem

Priti
Tulsi
Anjali
Amita
Annika
Uma
Anya
Arya
Padma

And if you think you could get past the n thing
Arun
Taran
Vivaan
Arjun
Rian
Rohin
Sachin

Just to add Anya and Arya seem
To really popular now as is Ria. We have 3 of each. Name in DDs year group of 45ish girls. DD is 7

I like Archana. Archie is a sweet nickname, Archie Panjabi is an example of someone famous with the name!

Just so you know, some of the names above are not names, they’re just Hindi-sounding sounds 😂

You could do a lot worse than follow the old custom of asking your mother and/or grandmother for final approval just in case you pick a howler.

You should be fine with any name that doesn’t have a d or a t (sorry I don’t have a Hindi keyboard to show you the characters)

Shailesh
Shivan
Rajan
Ashwin
Narayan
Anshul
Indranil
Roshan
Saroj
Tarun
Varun
Vir
Samarth
Siddharth
Sunil

Got to give my gang breakfast but will be back with girls’ names

Totally agree with @chumsnet I know a few howlers amongst DDs classmates or ones that aren’t names but just sound “Indian”

Nalin is nice (boys name).

chumsnet you’re right but loads of your list are names of my elderly uncles and aunts!

My childhood best friend was called Preya, her sister was Dinah and her brother Amit.

I've always liked Anjali (Anna/ie nn), and Maya

Kunal
Hari, although people may think you're using a unique spelling of Harry.
Nihal

Anandani