Jiya, Maya, Siya or Ruhi? Indian baby girl living in the UK

[meera454]

We have scrapped most of our previous list and are leaning more towards simpler names. What are your thoughts on Jiya, Maya, Siya and Ruhi? Be as brutally honest as you like :)

Really love the name Ruhi in particular but written down it looks a bit incomplete to me? Maybe we could use this as a nickname for Rohini or Ruhani? Ruhi has a beautiful meaning in Hindi.

Adore Maya 🥰 It’s so warm sounding!

Right, so after discussing with DH, we have decided to rule out Siya, because as many of you have pointed out, it does sound a bit too similar to 'see ya' and 'sear' which could lead to potential teasing.

Ruhi, Jiya, Maya are still on the list... Maya is starting to grow on me more (even though it is so popular), I like how international the name is whereas Ruhi and Jiya are very Indian, I do love the nod to the culture but Maya has both Indian roots and will also travel well... so there are lots of points going towards Maya at the moment. Jiya is another favourite in the family, and my best friend loves the name Ruhi.

In terms of middle name options...

Maya Rohini/ Ruhi
Maya Shreya
Maya Leela

Jiya Rohini / Ruhi
Jiya Shreya (too similar?)
Jiya Leela

Ruhi Shreya
Ruhi Jiya
Ruhi Maya

What do you think and can you think of any other ideas? :)

Just a tip, unless you need to have a baby named as soon as he/she is born we found it really helpful to just have a shortlist of 4 or 5 , then wait until the arrival.

Once we had a few days to get to know our little arrival the names became far easier to decide upon.
Some of the names we had liked before our babies were born just didn't seem to fit the personality- it was far easier to finally decide when the baby was here.
Whether your baby is mellow and chilled, or active, bright eyed, very snuggly, energetic- all babies are different even in the very early days.

Although it was hard to choose an exact name before our babies were born it became super easy after delivery.

I am Indian, OP I would love to hear your longer name options.
I think it will be nice for her to have a traditionally Indian name. Maya is too Anglised imo.
I'm not keen on Siya/Jiya/Diya etc names they are very very popular in the Indian community.
Ruhi is my fave.

I know a few Mayas.
I do like Ruhi. What's it mean?

@speakout that is a great tip, i have heard of people waiting until the baby is born to decide but that makes me slightly anxious! If we decide that we like all of them and can't reach a conclusion, we will probably just wait until dd is here.

@Winterplant I totally agree. I love beautiful long sanskrit names and we were thinking of either using them as a first name or a middle name, my only concern is pronunciation issues. Longer name options include: Rohini, Ruhani, Lavanya, Shanaya, Ahana, Avanika, Anuskha, Anika, Anya, Ananya, Mihira, Mallika, Shreya, Avani

@IdblowJonSnow Ruhi means spiritual

[quote meera454]@speakout that is a great tip, i have heard of people waiting until the baby is born to decide but that makes me slightly anxious! If we decide that we like all of them and can't reach a conclusion, we will probably just wait until dd is here.

@Winterplant I totally agree. I love beautiful long sanskrit names and we were thinking of either using them as a first name or a middle name, my only concern is pronunciation issues. Longer name options include: Rohini, Ruhani, Lavanya, Shanaya, Ahana, Avanika, Anuskha, Anika, Anya, Ananya, Mihira, Mallika, Shreya, Avani

@IdblowJonSnow Ruhi means spiritual[/quote]
We considered Ananya We went for English names in the end but that was our choice if we'd have gone with an Indian name, its very pretty in my opinion.

Maya is good for an indian international person..its good in both worlds... easy to spell
.. she will love finding her name in kids shops when they sell magnets or toys with henry george sarah maya will be there but an unusual name will be very frustrating.

I really like Ruhi (just on its own, I don't think it needs to be short for anything) and Jiya.

I'm less keen on Siya (but I like Sita), and Mayas are ten a penny where I am so it feels a bit overdone.

I know a Jaya and have always liked the name.

What do you guys think of the name Pari or Parina? I just saw it on a baby name list.

I really like Rohini and Anya out of the other names you just said and quite little chance of them being mispronounced. Also I think Anya is a name from quite a few cultures.

@Luckyelephant1 Anya looks really pretty but then it sounds a bit harsh without the long “Aaanya” pronunciation

I’m starting to like Shanaya a lot as an option and it’s also DH’s favourite. Wonder if it sounds a bit OTT though ?

Ruhi is lovely!!

It does depend where you live. I am in one of the whitest parts of the UK, and here Maya Rohini/ Ruhi would be a great choice. Teeny white kids can pronounce and spell Maya and Maya is an obviously female name if that is important to you. Lovely choices!

Rohini, Avanika, Anuskha, Anika, Mihira, Shreya, Avani are my faves.

How do you pronounce Avanika? Is it Uv-ah-nika?

I think it would be helpful to know what type of Indian you are e.g. Gujarati, Punjabi, etc, there are some really lovely names used mainly in particular Indian cultures

Thank you everyone for your suggestions!

@Winterplant we are a North Indian family, parents/ in laws are from Delhi & Hyderabad. It doesn't really matter to us which part of India the names are from, as long as they are easy to pronounce in the UK and have good meanings. I think Avanika is pronounced A-vun-ika, or it might even be Avni-ka (because there is a similar name, Avni, which i have heard a few times).

@GeorgiaGirl52

I ave always loved Anjuli (pronouced "Ann - Julie") and could be Anglicized to Julie).

Why would she want to have it anglicised?

Maya

OP I live in an Indian majority area and the number of Mayas or variations of the same (Amaya, Anaya, Shenaya, etc.) can be a bit much in baby groups. I'm personally one for Jiya- nice and simple.

Posted before reading the whole thread and your updates @OP- please be proud of your heritage and choose a name you like from your culture without worrying about its length and/or how others might pronounce it! I chose very neutral names that were easy/okay for Caucasian people to spell/pronounce but in hindsight, they're so bland. I wish I'd gone fully into a name that sang about who we are and where we're from and if it was a difficult name to say then having an easier nickname for our DC. Stay true to yourself.

Ps. Ananya and Anushka are lovely 💕💕

@duckinatruckwithmuck I agree, sometimes I look at the shorter names and feel like they are a bit bland and boring. I do love the longer names but I don't feel brave enough to use them at the moment and DH is okay either way. The longer names we like so far are Anushka, (love Ananya, but sounds a but like "A Nun" in English?) and Shanaya and maybe Ahana is still an option.. I really liked Aria until I realised that it can also be a masculine name which has really put me off! We like softer sounding names that just roll off the tongue easily. Liked Lavanya for a while and then DH mentioned it sounded like lasagne!! So that one has been scratched off the list for good... :(