A childhood friend of mine is currently around 7 and half months pregnant with her first baby.
She’s of Caribbean heritage, Muslim, and lived in Iran for 16 years so speaks Persian, and is a Canadian citizen with perfect English. So she’s got a lovely range of names to tap into.
She’s pretty sure it’s a boy, based on an undesired comment by her doctor during an ultrasound, but we’re still looking for girls names. She’s designated me as the resident name searcher, so I come to you for assistance.
She hadn’t starting looking at all really until now, but I do know names she’d thought of were [name]Aaliyah[/name] (prn the Arabic way Ahh-liyah), and [name]Jasmine[/name]. I like [name]Jasmine[/name], but it’s sooo overdone.
And she’d like to use an African name in the middle, she has no interest in it being day specific though, as in “born on [name]Sunday[/name]” type of names.
I’d greatly appreciate some name suggestion of Arabic, Persian, and African backgrounds.
That’s funny because my friend’s name is [name]Zahra[/name]. Thanks for the suggestions! I think she’d like Pareesa, [name]Sahar[/name], [name]Samar[/name], [name]Isra[/name].
I like [name]Aaliyah[/name] but it is very popular. I feel the same way about [name]Leila[/name]. Not sure the popularity would keep me from using them though.
[name]Qiturah[/name] - The Q pretty much assures it’s not going to go popular but I’ve seen [name]Keturah[/name] bandied around on Nameberry as very pretty and [name]Qiturah[/name] deserves a shot too.
Rahimah - Merciful, compassionate (I think possibly related to Biblical Ruchama)
Takiyah - Pious, righteous
[name]Zella[/name] - Nameberry has it listed as a Bobangi name. I admit I was just mining for Z names when I found it but I think it’s really pretty.
Zakiya - “Pure,” and I think [name]Zak[/name] as a girl’s NN is ultra-spunky. But because I’ve seen a number of spellings I looked it up just now and found:
Zakiya, Zakia, Zakiyya or Zakieh may represent two different female given names of Muslim origin, namely Arabic: زكية , meaning “pure”, corresponding the male name Zaki, and Arabic: ذكيه , meaning “intelligent”.[1][2]
Firstly, how fascinating for a Caribbean person to move to Iran.
@stripedsocks-- exactly, [name]Zaki[/name] has two meanings, so it’s a nice double-etymology (“zaki” is an everyday word in Arabic, “Shu [name]Zaki[/name]!” “[name]How[/name] clever,” etc).
Many of my favorites were covered on ottilie’s list, but I did want to give you the website I’ve found to be extremely reliable and comprehensive for Arabic baby names. It’s muslimbabynames dot net, but it appears to currently be down. Hmm.
Anyway, I also like:
[name]Soraya[/name] (very elegant Persian name related to the Pleiades)
[name]Qamar[/name] (moon)
Aqila / [name]Akilah[/name] “clever, wise”
Almas “diamond”
[name]Anisa[/name] “friendly”
Basima “smiling” or Basma “smile”
Fairouz “tuquoise,” one of the most popular singers in the Arab world
Ghada “graceful” [pronounced with the Arabic gh, difficult for most]
Hadjara variant of [name]Hagar[/name], mother of [name]Ishmael[/name], Muslim devotional name
[name]Hanan[/name] “mercy”
Ibtihaj “joy”
Ikraam “honor”
[name]Janan[/name] “soul”
Jawahir “jewels”
[name]Karam[/name] “generosity”
Lamis “soft to the touch” [pr la-[name]MEES[/name]]
[name]Nadira[/name] “most rare”
Najwa “secret” (another extremely popular singer)
[name]Najia[/name] “saved, safe”
Nawaal “gift”
[name]Raja[/name] “hope”
Reem “wild antelope” [pre-Islam Arabic name]
Ruqayyah “rise, ascend”
[name]Sabah[/name] “morning” [popular singer]
Sakina “tranquility”
Shafiqa “compassionate, merciful”
Tabassum “she who is smiling”
[name]Yasmin[/name] versus tired [name]Jasmine[/name]
Zaahira “shining, radiant”
[name]Zayna[/name] “beautiful”
[name]Zuleika[/name] “brilliant beauty;” historical connection as a ravishingly beautiful woman
I don’t speak Farsi but do find so many Persian names lovely. I do think the -oo sound is tough here. It’s especially common to compare a girl to the moon, and I like many of those names (Mahsa, Mahine, Mahtab). I really like Nasrin but it’s kind of a middle-aged name in the Middle [name]East[/name] currently. [name]Shirin[/name] is perenially popular and is very pretty.
None of these are the strong, hard-core devotional Muslim names ([name]Aisha[/name], [name]Khadijah[/name], [name]Fatima[/name], etc) so if she is particularly devout these might be too modern for her.
Indeed, her parents are Caribbean-Canadian (her father became friends with my mother during university) converts to Islam. Here, many Muslims travel to Iran to study religion and philosophy at this university there, that’s how the family ended up relocating, then always meant to return after a few years, but never did. Finally, my friend and her older brother moved back to [name]Canada[/name] and stayed with relatives, and the rest of her sisters and parents are in [name]England[/name].
It’s really quite fascinating how international they are, to me at least.
[name]Zaki[/name] is also a nickname for [name]Zachariah[/name] ( prn [name]Zack[/name]-ah-ree-ah) the Arabic version of [name]Zachariah[/name]. I’m adding this one to the list.
Aw, that’s unfortunate the site’s down, it would’ve been a great help. Of the names you suggested, I love love [name]Soraya[/name]! [name]Nadira[/name], Reem, Ruqayyah, [name]Yasmin[/name], [name]Zuleika[/name], Mahsa are great suggestions. Thank you!
Funny your mention of Nasrin, we know a middle aged Nasreen and a middleaged [name]Shirin[/name].
She’s pretty modern, so I think that your suggestions are well suited.
African Middles Names (as per behindthename.com) that I like:
Abeni - “we asked for her, and behold, we got her” in Yoruba
Adaeze - “king’s daughter” in Igbo
Adanna - “father’s daughter” in Igbo
Ayodele - “joy has come home” in Yoruba
[name]Ebele[/name] - “mercy, kindness” in Igbo
[name]Nia[/name] - “purpose” in Swahili
[name]Zuri[/name] - “beautiful” in Swahili
Ekene - “praise” in Igbo
My favourite Persian names are:
Setareh - star
Arezoo - wish
Niloufar - water lily
Nastaran - flower like a wild rose
Mahtab - moonlight
Azadeh - freedom
Kimiya - alchemy
Negar - sweetheart
Assal - honey
[name]Parisa[/name] - like a fairy
Uh, I want to suggest [name]Amira[/name] [name]Behati[/name]. [name]Amira[/name] means princess and [name]Behati[/name] is the african variant of [name]Beatrice[/name], meaning blessed.
Also your friend might want to pay attention to soelling, particular the eeee sound. In the Middle [name]East[/name] that sound is always written as I ([name]Amir[/name], [name]Nadim[/name], Nasrin, etc). African-Americans, when they began converting to Islam, nearly always chose to write it ee ([name]Kareem[/name], [name]Jameela[/name]). Since your friend can claim both traditions it would be interesting to see which spellings she favors.
Lastly, [name]Behati[/name] is Afrikaans. Very few black people would chose Afrikaans names because of the racial history of southern [name]Africa[/name].
Aluna
[name]Amara[/name]
[name]Amani[/name]
[name]Amina[/name]
[name]Amira[/name]
[name]Astera[/name]
[name]Ayanna[/name] [name]Asha[/name] [name]Baha[/name] Desta
[name]Esta[/name] [name]Farah[/name]
[name]Farida[/name]
[name]Fatima[/name]
[name]Iesha[/name] - I like this one when it is pronounced like [name]Isha[/name] not Eye-ee-sha [name]Iman[/name]
[name]Lala[/name]
Lale [name]Magda[/name]
Magdelena and [name]Magdalene[/name] don’t fit these categories, but are really pretty <3 Maha Nabila
Nadira Nadia
Nahla
Nya
Pari
Parveen
Roshan
Sabra
Sabeen/Sabine
Safa
Safia - might get confused with Sofia, but it is really pretty
Salma Salwa Samar or Samara
Soraya - beautiful!
Yara Yseult - it doesn’t fit the category, but I met an Arabic woman with this name
Zada
I have always thought that Noor was a beautiful name! Why not Yasmine instead of Jasmine?
Um, the biblical story of [name]Esther[/name] takes place in [name]Persia[/name]. It’s the same name whether you’re inspired by the biblical personage or the meaning.
Good points. It depends on how much she cares for mispronunciations, many people I’ve known do the i —> ee change so the name is said correctly more often.
As for the Afrikaans, I’ll have to check in with her. The black South-Africans I know all have English names, [name]Alice[/name] for example.
Thanks for the suggestions! I think she’d like Pareesa, [name]Sahar[/name], [name]Samar[/name], [name]Isra[/name].