DH and the unpronounceable baby names

[Olinguita]

DH (Indian) and I (white British) have our first baby on the way in September. I suggested that we give the baby an Indian name to reflect their culture. We don't know if we're having a boy or a girl. We have a girl's name shortlist sorted, but boy is proving tricky.

The problem is, the only names that DH has come up with are things that are tricky to say (Atharv, Satyameva), or that sound a bit odd to the British ear - stuff like Shlok, Parth, Sachet, which I worry that a kid could get teased about, or which would be constantly misunderstood/mis-spelt in adulthood. I don't want to be insensitive to his culture or narrow minded BUT I also don't want to give the child a name that is going to cause challenges in daily life as they grow up. The problem is that my normally easy-going DH is getting REALLY defensive about it and is refusing to budge (maybe late pandemic/Dad-to-be jitters, who knows....!)

He has vetoed all of my suggestions of 2-syllable Indian boys' names on the grounds that they are too common, or there are acquaintances of ours that already have those names, or he just doesn't like them.
To give you an example of where I was going, my list included:
Roshan
Pranav
Ishaan
Rohan
Ivaan
Vivek
Niren
Nayan
Varoun

I'm pretty familiar with Indian culture and speak Hindi, and from what I've observed, most of my Indian and British/Indian friends have tended to favour more contemporary, easy-to-pronounce baby names similar to those on my list. So I don't think I'm wildly off-base but I could be wrong.

My questions for you:

1. Has anyone hit an absolute roadblock with their partner about baby names, and how did you deal?
2. Any cool Indian boy name suggestions? (If you hadn't clocked from the names suggested already, DH is Hindu)

On top of all this, my very traditional British family are piling on the pressure to give the child a "proper" English name like William or George and won't drop the issue. The joys of baby-naming....

Millan? It’s my nephew’s name. His dad is white and mum British Asian. I think the name is supposed to reference a meeting of cultures or something like that.

An hour or so after my DD2 was born, my DH unexpectedly announced that I could have the name I loved and that he had vetoed up until then. I hadn’t expected that! Although it turned out that name didn’t suit her, and she ended up with a name that had never even been on the shortlist!

I am of Indian descent and have jokingly had this discussion with my white British DP.
OP have you actually asked your DH the real reason for him refusing to budge? Which part of India is he actually from/descended from?
If you're 'familiar with Indian culture' then you surely know that there's no such thing as an 'Indian' name. India has over 50 different languages depending on state. Hindi is only the lingua franca in North India.
Most of the 'short and sweet' names are North Indian.
The names your DH is suggesting sound South Indian (the languages which while incorporating Sanskrit are mostly Dravidian based. While Hindi is mostly Sanskrit)
I am South Indian and most of of our traditional names while not hugely complicated are not as 'Westernised' as DP would like. But I'll be damned if I'm going to give up my culture that easily just for fear of being teased.
For all of the talk of being against racism on Mumsnet I'm surprised that this is still a big issue...

Pranav is a great name - I know a lovely boy named that, so it gets my vote. I also like Kiran, Aarush and Siddhant from previous experiences

Rohan
Surjan
Vishal
Anand

Since your DH is getting defensive about his suggested names, I'd drop it all for now.

Pick a couple of names yourself, and immediately after the birth announce your chosen name for the baby, pointing out that it's traditional for the mother to make the final choice of name.

Don't get your family involved in choosing the name. You are right about Shlok not being a good choice!

I wouldn’t get hung up on spellings, pronunciation, teasing. We live in a very multicultural society these days with lots of different names. As he or she goes through life they can correct people if need be. People always go on about kids being teased for their names, but how much dose it really happen, especially these days with so many unusual names. The only time I ever saw anyone getting teased was when they had a name the same as someone famous e.g. Brad Pitt, I went to school with an Eddie Murphy, there was lots of Delerious jokes...

If your that worried give the baby an easy middle name or a name that can be shortened to something easy, then if they want as they grow up that can use their middle name of shortened version, I know lots of people who do this. I’ve done this with one of my DDs, her name isn’t English and is difficult for people to say and spell but there is 2 ways it can be shortened. She’s 7 and if people struggle she just says call my x instead.

I know a lovely Hindu guy called Aseem - could that be an option? Nice and easy to spell / pronounce.
We had a similar situation with my DH and I whereby the children will be raised in my country so we gave them names from his. We agreed we shouldn’t go for anything that would give them trouble but something a bit different from the rest of the kids in the class. I definitely think your DH needs to think of the kid more than his own pride in his heritage. It won’t be the only Indian thing about them, and they have to live with it in this country.

This is not from the same cultural perspective but dh was very very adamant about names he wanted and didn't want.
But you need to both love it. Also your dh really needs to be a bit more flexible.

I would just have a break from choosing names for a while. That said Ravi is really lovely.
Would Suresh work?

I knew a Nikhil which I thought was a lovely name

If he likes Sachet how about Sachin? *

*I may be influenced by cricket.

I know these men and boys and think their names are beautiful:
Alok (love this)
Dhyani (love this)
Soham
Mohan
Amrit
Arvind
Rishi
Somesh
Hari
Anand
Amitabh

Aarush(my personal favourite)
Aarav
Divij
Vihaan

I was about to suggest Alok too, since he likes Shlok

Ravi is gorgeous. I also really like Vijay and Krish. Sachin also works well in English.

@TheLastLotus

I am of Indian descent and have jokingly had this discussion with my white British DP. OP have you actually asked your DH the real reason for him refusing to budge? Which part of India is he actually from/descended from? If you're 'familiar with Indian culture' then you surely know that there's no such thing as an 'Indian' name. India has over 50 different languages depending on state. Hindi is only the lingua franca in North India. Most of the 'short and sweet' names are North Indian. The names your DH is suggesting sound South Indian (the languages which while incorporating Sanskrit are mostly Dravidian based. While Hindi is mostly Sanskrit) I am South Indian and most of of our traditional names while not hugely complicated are not as 'Westernised' as DP would like. But I'll be damned if I'm going to give up my culture that easily just for fear of being teased. For all of the talk of being against racism on Mumsnet I'm surprised that this is still a big issue...

He's Marathi. He already panned a lot of the traditional Marathi names (Sachin and Rahul didn't make the cut for example) that would have been obvious choices. No issues from my side with Sanskrit or multisyllabic names but unfortunately certain combinations of consonants can be really tricky for Brits to pronounce I do think that's worth taking into account - for example I love the name Smriti for a baby girl but we were both worried it would sound funny when said in the accent from round where we live.

I don’t know if it fits your criteria but I like the name Ajay.

Ive heard the Indian name , Irfan ,before which I thought was lovely

I know an Indian Hindu called Hari and that works well for both cultures I think. My Indian friend has a son called Kairav which I also really love and can be shortened to Kai which again works well with both cultures.

Rohan, but I also like Ravi....
What about Rafi....

I like Jagan or Tarak

@Insertfunnyname

How will the baby name also reflect your culture tho? Do you have a British surname that the baby will use? Or is the baby also having an Indian surname. In which case I don’t understand why it’s all about your husbands heritage and not yours.

This

Have none of the pp’s ever come across Irish names?
Hard to spell for uk folk and pronounced differently to how they look.
I’ve not known any Naimhs or Siobahns get teased or bullied about their names.