Cannot find a single name we like

[123456Abcde123456]

I'm British/Greek/Scandinavian
My partner is Middle Eastern / North African
We would love a name that honours at least one of these traditions. However, we also want something really unusual, both our names are unusual from their respective countries and we would like that in a child's name too.

I'm not expecting much response here, but if anyone has any suggestions, because we can't find a single name at this point! Lots of nice names, but non we really love.

Wait until the baby arrives, then choose a name that suits the baby. It will come to you.

Girl or boy?

What about Xanthe for a girl?

Ariadne? One of my fave unusual names.

Zohra

I really like xanthe, but I know quite a few.

We don't know if it's a boy or girl but I suspect boy.

Zohra I really like, but DP says it's too much like Zara - which he hates unfortunately

How do you pronounce Ariadne?

Don't get caught up in trying to find something unusual. It nearly always backfires.

You and dp sit down separately and write down 20 boys names and 20 girls names that you quite like. Is there any overlap?

Soraya
Caliana

How about Zilpha - you can pronounce it with a "p" sound in the middle or as Zil fa .

Amira
Farah
Nour
Zena
Melina

Omar
Nabil
Axel
Kaspar
Zenon

No idea of how current they are, just liked the sound of them!

Arvid for a boy?

Idris for a boy? It's both Welsh and Arabic.

Your confusion is because you haven't come across Algernon, Horatio, Augustus, Valentine and Emmanuel for a boy, OP (disclaimer: one of mine has one or two of these names).

That aside, I suggest you (as you are the one who has to give birth) write a list of the names you like for boys and girls. Your partner gets to pick one from that list. This is what we did with all our DC (the others were girls). I had to say goodbye to lots of names I liked, but it worked ok, as we both felt reasonably satisfied that we had some say and that our choices were respected.

One of the names that XH rejected was Beau Boodle (evidently a pregnancy fad), so this is possibly a good thing.

Further, and less wordy, thought: Arpad? No idea of its provenance, but it's a nice name.

Love Ariadne - I say it arry-add-knee

Lina
Linus
Conrad

I'd forget "really unusual" as well. Why?

For Greek girls’ names I like Ioulia (Yoo-LEE-a) and Iro (Eero), short for Argyro.

Girls’ names I like from ME/N Africa are Nura/Noura, Alaa, Nojoud, Amal, Aziza, Tuleen.

Leila, Mena, Trianthe.... (I'll keep thinking)

Rather rare Greek names
Girl
Alkistis
Theologia
Adriani
Nafsika

Boy
Frixos
Ionas
Menelaos
Archimedis
Aristofanis

Omg, I have honestly been looking for months and you guys have come up with more interesting names than I'd managed to find in all that time.

I think you're right about the lists
And we have just always liked something a bit different, given that both our names are quite unusual too, I'm not sure really, have never thought about 'why' it's just always been fairly important to us that it's quite distinctive.

Priscilla LOVE that you managed to get a minimum of one of those names in if that's one of your DC though I can't imagine how you've paired that for any others!

OP, that is so sweet of you. If you have a girl, I can supply equally bananas interesting names!

OP, XH also vetoed Henning and Sacheverell for DS. It's all coming back to me now.

Alva
Freja/Freya/Frey
Kari
Astrid
Kaira
Lina/Lena/Line
Rae
Vivianna

Lief
Halden
Axel
Boden
Espen
Rudy
Kellen/Kellan sorry not sure on spelling

Hi,
If you’re looking for a bilingual baby name that works in both cultures please check out:

www.arabicenglishbabynames.com

Good luck!

Thalia
Evdokia (evdakeeya )
Antonia
Rayaan
Sahara

Felix
Ezekiel
Asa
Ira
Isiah