Which of these Indian names would you consider to be secular?

[Babyonthewaysoon]

Baby girl will be of mixed Indian & Pakistani heritage and from Hindu and Muslim backgrounds. We won’t raise her to follow either faith because we’re not religious. We want an Indian name, not an Arab or Persian one!
Some that we have considered but aren’t sure if they are appropriate or not for a Muslim/ Hindu background but non-religious child? Honest opinions please!
Anjali
Deepika
Diya
Tara
Sima
Avani
Nisha
Disha
Vidya
Vaani
Anjana
Rohini
Aditi
Jaya
Shreya
Vaishali
Ambika
Shaila
Ankita
Ananya

Suggestions are more than welcome!! :)

Maya is a secular name.

I am a Hindu ( tho maybe not a very fervent one) and I don't mind what you call your daughter. I have bigger things to be offended by:)

Thanks for replying, Babyonthewaysoon, it does sound tough.

I see that a couple of posters from a mixed Asian backgrounds seem to think that any name would be OK. That that sounds encouraging.

In your shoes - which of course it's not really possible to be! - I'd go along with any name you like. Especially if both your families are OK with it, no need to worry about strangers' opinions at all. Therein lies the madness! Your daughter will be herself, she is of mixed background and has a right to any name from any of those backgrounds - or ineed any others, but hopefully you see what I mean.

Also, the more people stop worrying about that kind of thing, the sooner everybody else will stop too. You've considered the implications and that's all you can be expected to do.

I’m more worried about other people outside of the family getting offended that the name has religious connotations because our daughter will be from a mixed background. Are we allowed to call DD Anjali, or Shreya or Rohini for example if she is not fully a Hindu by birth? Are other Hindus going to get annoyed... These are the sort of questions that are haunting me and keeping me up at night! A part of me wants to not worry about it but deep down I am quite anxious about it.

You are allowed to name your daughter whatever Hindu name you desire. Even names of gods/ goddesses. I am secular myself but have a religious hindu family and I can assure you...The only reaction to a Hindu name (even religious hindu name) for a person who is half Hindu or has no Hindu background is almost always absolute delight and at worse indifference. So go ahead and name your daughter whatever you desire...I can assure there will not be any negative reaction to the name

I know quite a few of Muslim girls/women called Tara and I think it would work with Hindus too. So that gets my vote.

Also it's a very international name too which helps if you don't want to link to a particular religion.

Tara is lovely, multicultural and unisex too.
Anjali is also a lovely name, don’t westernise it though, it’s beautiful as it is.
And Jaya, though I’m biased as it was the name of a dear friend, who we lost last year. Her nickname was Jaz.

From your list, I think Nisha is really lovely. I know a girl called Daanya and I think that's a very pretty name - her family are Muslim but I don't know if her name has any specific meaning - actually, I've just looked it up and it means gift from god, but is usually an urdu/hindi name, so while there's a religious meaning, there's good crossover too.

I had a friend called Angeli. She was mixed and wasn’t a Hindu. But pronounced the same as how westerns would say anjali.

How about Anita, Nadia, Aanya, Suhana, Aniyah, Layla or Sharan?

We could spell Anjali like Angelie for the western version but I think that would look odd and kind of ruin the beauty of the original Sanskrit name. Angelie looks like a totally different name

It doesn't seem a different name...it IS a different name, it doesn't sound or look the same at all.

As far as I know (my family are Indian Hindus) they're all Hindu names, not secular at all. I actually think I prefer Muslim girl names to Hindu girl names, I think a lot of them are gorgeous and classy - do you have any from a more Muslim background you'd consider? (Not that your list isn't lovely! I just mean that you seem to have considered only Hindu names).

I liked Niva for my daughter. It means the moon, if I recall correctly, and didn't seem too obvious where it was from. I also like Anjali and Vaani from your list (although with both I'd assume you were from an Indian Hindu background, I don't know if that might bother you if you are specifically looking for a Hindu name).

As for Hindus being offended, I don't think you need to be a practicing member of a religion to use a name from your own culture/heritage. To be honest, I can't speak for all Hindus of course, but my own family would he delighted to come across even a non-Indian with an Indian/Hindu name. They'd consider it a compliment.

Do you think Anjali could offend others in the Hindu community? The meaning of the name doesn’t seem too religious in itself to me but I know that the word Anjali is used in the context of anjali mantras for puja etc. I think it’s beautiful. Used in dance & yoga too. I know we have to stay away from any specific goddess names - I think Anjali is quite safe to use but I don’t know whether others in the Hindu community will be ok with it.

Honestly I don't know because I'm not Hindu...but I also think that people will come up with any reason to dislike a name. Looking at it from an Irish perspective, I'm never bothered by non-Irish people using Irish names as long as they spell and pronounce them right. There's a contingent of non-Irish who'll get offended on behalf of the Irish though. Pay them no mind. Maybe it's a situation like that?

I see people from Hindu backgrounds here saying something similar

Zara
Farah

@FrancesFlute Those names have been borrowed by South Asians from Arabian language/ culture. We want a Hindi name to reflect our ancestry.

Thank you everyone for the amazing support and suggestions! I feel very reassured! :)

Many of you seem to like Tara and Anjali! Those are high up on our list at the moment as well as a few others like Avni x

I'm in an Indian/Irish, Hindu/Catholic relationship, and our son is named for Hindu God. No one's offended! On the contrary, my relatives in India love his name.

Give your dd the name you like best and screw what others think. She has as much right to those names as any "born Hindu".

By the way, I love Vaishali, Diya, Anjali and Anjana.

@DalPalak That’s reassuring & thanks for the support! :) Love those as well, Vaishali is so pretty.

Amani

In Hindi it means the one that comes first

Meaning of Amani in Arabic
Amani is a direct Quranic name for girls that means hope, wish, fancy.

Apart from Tara, all the others are very Hindu sounding to me. I don't think anyone will mind you keeping the name YOU want for YOUR child so go easy on yourself. One name that I think works in both cultures/religions is Maya. Meera is lovely too. I live in an Indian/Hindu majority area and all the other names you've listed are sadly very common. If that isn't an issue for you, go for your favourite Anjali (will forever be associated with KKHH for me- favourite film of all time 🙈).

I think all of your names are very Hindu sounding so guessing you are Hindu OP. My suggestions are:

Alana
Anaya
Maya
Shaan
Samar
Natasha
Sana
Sara
Leena
Amaya
Arya

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions! I am purposefully sticking to Sanskrit names because we both love them - the spiritual meanings behind them and the stories & historical/ cultural context. I don’t feel comfortable highlighting a particular religious belief on here - for safety reasons. Leaving a particular religion and embracing another one can be a very dangerous concept for the individual involved, depending on which religion they were from.

I have taught a lot of these but although I taught a Tara from Indian heritage, I'd always assumed it was an Irish name so you learn something everyday! I think Anjali is lovely. I teach a fabulous Diya. Aditi too. There are hundreds of Mayas and Laylas so I personally would avoid those.

I can't comment on the religious connotations but I like Anjana and Anjali. I went to school with a very nice Anjana!

@LostArcher Thanks! Love Aditi , all time favourite name!
@VanillaAndOrange Thanks! :)

@Babyonthewaysoon I don't think you will be offending any Hindu by calling your daughter Anjali or any other names from the list. I am a Hindu. I absolutely love Tara from your list. I like it above all the name.