Oh help! English sounding muslim boys names

[difficultdecision]

We have a lovely DS (Adam) and am now 15 weeks pregnant with what is probably another little boy according to the most recent scan.

Obviously we are delighted either way but a girl would have been easier as we have a handful of girls names that we love already.

The complicating factor is that we are an english muslim family, with both muslim and non muslim grandparents to bear in mind and a few german speaking relatives thrown in (just don't ask!)

Names we quite like,

Noah
Sami
Daniyal
Isaac

erm, that's it and we already have a daniyal and an isaac in our circle (although not that close).

can anyone suggest any more?

Omar is a lovely name that most people have heard of and know how to spell.

I don't have any experience of the Muslim aspect of this question but I do have experience of interfering PiL - which I believe this has strayed into the territory of.

When I was expecting our DS (now 18months) my MiL caused an absolute mare with our choice of first name AND last name (I won't bore you with the details re the surname but suffice to say it wasn't a typical case of my DS or I taking DH's name.) We could partially understand her reservations with the surname but ultimately we believed it was still our (DH and my) choice. With regards to her comments about the first name I thought she had a blooming cheek and took no notice at all.

My/our way of dealing with this isn't for everyone and there's certainly some bad blood remaining over it, e.g. even now, she refuses to write my son's full name on cards etc that she posts to him. Ultimately though I think we did the right thing, as I know I would be very cross and resentful if I chose a name to please someone else just because it was to their taste.

In your case, you have done your best to choose a name that is acceptable to your PiL from a religious standpoint, why should you also have to choose a name they personally like? They've had their chance to choose names with their own DC, it's time for them to stand back and let you and your DH do your own thing now.

My English/Muslim son is also Adam.
We liked Sami, Zaki and Zain as well.
Good luck with your decision!

1stmonkey - Are you specifically looking for Muslim names? If so, "Aydin" in your list has no relation to Islam at all. It's a Turkish name meaning 'bright, illuminated' (in a culture/education sense).

Welshy - Shaving a baby's head is not part of Islam. I have lived in a Muslim country for 28 years and have several very religious relatives (including a Hajji grandparent) and this is the first time I have ever heard of it.

My advice to you is to start reading the Quran and some choice Hadith, so you can fight off similar nonsense in the future.

i really wanted to call my son Suleiman. not very english sounding though.

I don't know if they are muslim, but I also like Selim and Sinan.

Ali is a great name, but would generally point to a Shiite boy. Might piss off deeply Sunni relatives, for example.

Selim and Sinan are Turkish names. Several Ottoman emperors were called "Selim" and Sinan was the architect who converted the Hagia Sophia into the mosque that it is today.

I doubt if either name has a religious significance, though.

Similar situation here to many posters - I'm english, husband british born pakistani muslim, very traditional in-laws. DS called Aydin, didnt realise it wasnt a muslim name CotedAzur, I knnow ILs protested when we wanted to spell in Aiden but were (reasonably) happy with Aydin and now dh's cousin has called son Aydin too.

We also liked Sami/Samir, Noah/Nuh, Eshan, Zac. Though, (and please correct me f this is wrong, I am not Muslim) I thought the most important thing for a name being muslim was that it had a 'good' meaning ie. does not mean anything pagan etc. Although ILs would not have bought this arguement.

We did not do head shave, but had family aquiqa (?sp) with meal at mosque so everyone was happy (ish). Also DS not circumsized which is a BIG issue, but he is 4 now and the issue seems to have died down a bit.

IMO you can always find support for and against doing all things (head shave, Arabic names, circumcision etc) if you look hard enough, but I gues you have to decide which are the ones that are REALLY important to you and that you are willing to fight for IYKWIM.

Ali is ok for Sunni Muslims too, I have several friends called Ali who are Gulf Sunni Arabs.

Wow some great names posted!

I am English, dh Pakistani, our ds is Kamran (shortened to Kam / Kami). We love it.

However I am now pregnant with no2 who looks like he might be another boy, and we can't think of a single other name we like, hence reading this thread...

@ Welshy1 I am confused by your objecting to having the baby's head shaved but not to circumcision. The first is painless and the hair continues to grow, the second is unbelievably painful and irreversible. May I ask what your reasoning is behind this decision? Is not shaving the child's head really worth such a major clash with the inlaws?

Cheers

dear welshy1, my cousin recently got married to a christian man and she is muslim. they now have a 1 year old boy called Noah. at first, her family was a bit judgmental over the name and preferred it if they called him nuh(the islamic way). but it was the name in which they both decide, so since there the parents, the named him Noah. eventually after a couple of months the got over it, it noah is a name of a prophet, but its just translated into english. so if you still want to call your child noah, i think you should.

Some other names that fit both cultures
Boys names

Adam : same spelling in both Arabic and English
Haris : Arabic name meaning guardian it's also an old Scottish name.
Daniyal: Arabic spelling of Daniel pronounced the same.
Aydin/Aiden: Quranic Arabic meaning meaning strength and Irish name.
Zayn: Arabic name and popular English name at the moment.
Kamran : Arabic version of Cameron which is Scottish, pronounced the same.
Tobias : Both cultures in Arabic it means born with a Star
Zakariya: Quranic,Biblical,and Jewish name.
Jari: Arabic name meaning powerful and brave also Finnish/scandinavian
Jaul : Arabic name meaning choice and it's a diamond in English.
Jawdan: Jordan in English in Arabic it means Goodness. Sometimes pronounced Jowdan in Malaysia and Indonesia but spelt Jawdan.

Ramzi

Hassan
Imran
Juda
Karim / Kareem
Malik
Raheem
Taj
Yusuf
Zia

Gabriel

I like Kamran

A work colleague had a Samir, Sharif and Suliman. OK they don't sound too English, Samir was shortened to Sam. Sharif - well mum likes Omar Sharif.

Other people I have known/worked with Sammad - can again become Sam and Yousef.

Mika'il/Michael? Usain?

I know this thread is old but I have been wanting to post on it for ages, so glad it's back!

I think Morgan is a good one, though in arabic the emphasis is on the second syllable.

I also love Idris but DH said no.

I have never heard a Muslim called Daniyal though it is an Arabic name. Here it would point to being a Christian.

don't think anyone has mentioned my favourite cross cultural Muslim name which is Idris. Though that might be seen as a welsh cuture cross rather than english...

oops didn't see last message!

We have Zac, Sami, and an Adam but to be honest, that side of the family have always gone for classical names from their own (ME) country and heritage and not muslim names.

In fact great grandpa almost wet himself laughing at the thought of giving our little one a 'foreign' name (we toyed with the idea of naming him after him). He said 'what's wrong with Alexander? It works all over the world!' (we ended up going with another name).

Gabriel is lovely. What about Reuben?

Reuben sounds more jewish to my ears, although I've worked with a couple of christian german ones.

Gabriel - although I love Gabrielle/a for a girl, I'm not so keen on it for a boy.