Baby Name Ideas - North Indian/White British

[coffeeforone]

My DH is North Indian (Hindu), I’m White British (Christian). We are currently expecting DC2 and don’t know the sex. We are struggling to think of ideas for names and our list is currently blank!

We’d like a name that sounds both British and Indian that both families can pronounce easily. Our surname is Indian and begins with K (2 syllables). We won’t have a middle name.

Any ideas would be much appreciated!

congrats on dc2 :)

we're a similar combo (irish, me, south indian DH) we don't know what we're having (very soon!!) but thinking names like Arun if it's a boy, or maybe Maya if a girl. I wanted Anjali but my friend pronounced it "Angela" and it put me off even though it was on the shortlist! DH likes Nisha, but I remain quietly unconvinced.

I wanted something that would work both ways, but wasn't going to mispronounced all the time.

What did you go for last time? Might help to think of things that would go well with siblings name too?

Since your children will have an Indian surname, I’d go for something which is more mixed/international as a first name to reflect the mixed heritage rather than an obvious Indian first name.

So maybe Aran/Arran rather than Arun.

Dylan/Dillon would work for both sides of the family. “Dil” means heart in Hindi.

Kieran for a boy should work on both sides too although you may not want the double K!

For a girl, Seren, Serena, Jaya, Jasmin, Jenna, Jemma.

Congrats and all the best!

I'm white British and DH is Indian heritage. We named our son Jayesh so that if he / his friends ever wanted to anglicise his name they could shorten it to Jay. Despite living in a very un multi cultural / rural area that has never happened and he's very much stayed as Jayesh. Good to have had that option though. Second choice names were Zakhil but DH said not suitable as more Muslim sounding name. And Nikhil (So Zak or Nik for short) ☺

Thanks @Dotty342kids - our DS1 has a very similar name to Jayesh! I don’t want to spell it as it’s quite unique so may be outing by can also be shortened to Jay!

We are thinking of a name for expected DC2, that would go along with DS1s name!

Great minds think alike! We also have a daughter who has a non Indian name (as always wanted to name a girl after my grandmother) but they kind of work togetger which is nice. I remember there being lots of beautiful Indian girls names though. Thinking about my in laws family... there are Ritas and Monicas so they must be Indian names as well as English

Hari, Shay, Rohan for boys.

Girls are much easier - anya, anoushka, maya are favourites of mine

Think there’s a version of Sophia that’s pretty Indian.

Interesting as me and dh being both British Asian (grandparents are North Indian) we have still gone for more western names and not worrying about them sounding Asian.

Go for what you like instead of it having to sound a certain way, names like Eva Ava Sophia Layla Mia Dylan Ruben suit anyone

Go for what you like instead of it having to sound a certain way, names like Eva Ava Sophia Layla Mia Dylan Ruben suit anyone

In the end we did do exactly this and went for a western name. We love it, the only downside is that a few of DH's friends and family cannot pronounce it properly including the grandparents, they've been trying for months but the letters don't exist in Hindi, so what they say sounds different. Think along the lines of our DS is called "Zach" but they pronounce it "Jack", but a bit more extreme.

In hindsight we should have checked this before registering the birth.