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....

[quote Hollyhobbi]@Luckyelephant1 Kian isn't an Irish name as there is no letter K in the Irish alphabet. Cian is Irish as the letter C is instead of the K. It means ancient.[/quote]
I think you could say that Kian is a modern version of an Irish name.

It is a modern version of an Irish name, and Irish people use it, e.g. Kian Egan in Westlife.

How about Jeevan?

Is the meaning as important as the sound, perhaps, in this culture's naming traditions? I've known Indian families where the meaning counted for at least as much as the sound of the name.
How about:
Keshav
Narad
Nirmal
Rudra
Tarun

@IHateCoronavirus

How about Aryaan?

Please, nothing with association with Aryan.

Jatin - "The Auspicious one"

I also agree. Ravi is nice.

I love the name Kirat!

Aadi?

I haven’t read the full thread, so this may have been discussed already, but is there any your DH’s refusal to budge is related to your parents’ insistence the baby be called William or George....?

I work with Rohan, Ravi, Keran and Anwaar. Like all of those names.

*any chance

Dhillon?

I totally get you, my only condition to name my kid was that both families needed to be able to pronounce the name and easily spelled in both languages.
That made for some long conversations.
Also she has both our surnames

[quote Hollyhobbi]@Luckyelephant1 Kian isn't an Irish name as there is no letter K in the Irish alphabet. Cian is Irish as the letter C is instead of the K. It means ancient.[/quote]
Oh right forgive my ignorance... I only assumed it was Irish due to Kian from Westlife!

Either way it's a lovely name.

@TheLastLotus, I agree with you, having seen many, many threads featuring Irish name and responses to them that are crass in the extreme.

However, there are names - Shlok for instance - that have different meanings in English.

Maybe if the DH were to provide a really long list of names he was comfortable with - not necessarily his favourite names since he was eight, just names he could live with -, there would be something on it the OP would like.

Cliodhna is not pronounced 'cleaner'.

Sachin is a great name. I had a very handsome and charming friend called Sachin when I was a teenager !

Are there any names you can lengthen /complicate for him? My.mum wanted to call me a short name, like 'Anna' for example. Dad thought it was too short and settled for 'Anastasia' . So my birth certificate name is long but people hardly call me that.

WeBuiltThisBuffet, it is Soham in this case. His dad explained the meaning to me and I felt like I had received a most beautiful, profound and life-affirming sermon; along the lines of it being an acknowledgement of the divine in all beings, and a statement that "I am that", also apparently used as a mantra. Gorgeous name for a lovely boy.

[quote mathanxiety]@TheLastLotus, I agree with you, having seen many, many threads featuring Irish name and responses to them that are crass in the extreme.

However, there are names - Shlok for instance - that have different meanings in English.

Maybe if the DH were to provide a really long list of names he was comfortable with - not necessarily his favourite names since he was eight, just names he could live with -, there would be something on it the OP would like.

[/quote]
'Shlok' isn't pronounced 'shlock'. The 'sh' part is lighter than an English 'sh', and the vowel is long, like 'slow'. Admittedly 'Sloak' isn't much more appealing for primarily English speakers.

Everyone is suggesting really old fashion Indian names. I’m not familiar with Marathi names. If you google you’ll get a long list of Marathi boy names so it’s worth a look. Just some suggestions that could work:
Dhillon
Hari
Dhian
Devan
Arun
Neel
Sunny
Krishna
Kian
Rohan
Dhruv
Varun
Siddarth

I quite like siddarth (nickname sid?)

But someone reading Shlok for the first time is going to have a bash.

I don't think any names are going to sound the same with an English accent - Irish names don't sound the same with the non-rhotic R, and certainly those of my relatives who were given French names which were popular in the 60s and 70s (Julie, Therese, Marie, etc) would make the French raise an eyebrow at the pronunciation.

How about a name which can change slightly depending on the native language of the person saying it? I'm thinking of something like Rahul/Raoul.

Rishi is lovely
Anwar

@Beeeeeeeeeeeeeep

He's being a dick I agreed my DS would have a name from XH's culture but the non negotiables were that it was pronounced phonetically and didn't sound silly to English ears. It's not culturally insensitive to say that some names sound odd in other languages! One name my XH suggested was anas which was rejected for sounding like anus for example

I’m not sure that your choice of phrase is great.

‘Doesn’t sound silly to English ears’

This absolutely is ‘culturally insensitive’! Otherwise knows as racist.

Shafi comes up on a list of Marathi names on Baby Names Direct.