Naming our children: A cultural challenge

General Name Discussion
1

Hello all.

I feel we are in need of constructive, neutral advise to pick our children’s names (my husband couldn’t care less). I didn’t anticipate the naming process to be this intimidating, but then again I never imagined myself as a mom and here I am! Age 32 and scared like I’ve never been.

Our little expriment called family is half Japanese (husband), half Persian (me) and full USA (our kids). We are not going to be bothered with cross-cultural pronounciations and spellings/kanji. Our relatives back in the old continents can struggle with that. Since we imagine our kids will spend their fomartive years in the US, we feel it is more important to name them something that transitions nicely into English, without exactly naming them [name_m]Tom[/name_m], [name_m]Dick[/name_m] or [name_m]Harry[/name_m].

My husband has settled on two names, almost off the top of his head: [name_m]Raiden[/name_m] for a boy, [name_f]Emi[/name_f] for a girl, done! So baby A will be one or the other.

I have the task of naming baby b. Poor baby b! I will try to go down the Persian name road and I created a complicated list of possibilities that might look less threatening to the Western ear than names like [name_m]Amir[/name_m] or Habibeh.

So I humbly present to you my list and categories:

  • Basically English but Persian-friendly:
    [name_m]Cyrus[/name_m]
    [name_m]Darius[/name_m]
    [name_m]Caspar[/name_m]

[name_f]Yazmin[/name_f]
[name_f]Roxana[/name_f]
[name_f]Darya[/name_f]
[name_f]Mariam[/name_f]
Susanah
[name_f]Zarah[/name_f]
[name_f]Ava[/name_f]
[name_f]Lilah[/name_f]

  • Very Persian but could blend in:
    Hyder (means lion)
    Ehsan (means good)
    Shayan/Shaya (means worthy)
    Surin (means war-like)
    [name_u]Nima[/name_u] (means famous)

Neda (means voice, kind of ties in with my name, which means song)
[name_f]Zoya[/name_f] (means life)
[name_f]Tala[/name_f] (means golden)

  • Persian and Arabic names with no hope of blending in, but I like them.

Faris (means horseman)
[name_m]Hamzah[/name_m] (means lion)
[name_m]Naveed[/name_m] (means bringer of good wishes)
Roshan (actually Sanskrit, but it is included on an epic Persian story. It means bright/shinning)
Shahin (means peregrin falcon)

[name_f]Azar[/name_f] (means flame)
Zareen (means made of gold)

So, after reading this long, long post, what would you advise? Which way should we go?

2

[name_m]Cyrus[/name_m] and [name_f]Miriam[/name_f] are both super cute and would go well with the other baby’s name!

3

I like:

[name_m]Cyrus[/name_m]
[name_m]Caspar[/name_m]
Roshan
Shahin - I know a guy with this name, and he doesn’t have an issue with it.
[name_m]Naveed[/name_m] - This would be on my list if I had the heritage to back it up. I love it.

[name_f]Roxana[/name_f]
[name_f]Mariam[/name_f]
[name_f]Zarah[/name_f]
[name_f]Zoya[/name_f] - will feel familiar because of [name_f]Zoe[/name_f]'s popularity
Zareen - I love this and think it’s extremely usable in the US

4

[name_m]Cyrus[/name_m]
[name_m]Caspar[/name_m]
[name_f]Darya[/name_f] (I prefer the [name_f]Daria[/name_f] spelling)
[name_f]Zarah[/name_f]
[name_f]Ava[/name_f]
[name_f]Lilah[/name_f]
[name_m]Naveed[/name_m]

5

I am in a similar situation with a middle eastern husband. Unfortunately for me he is picky. Haidar was on my list and I do quite like it, but have moved it to the bottom bc I just keep thinking “hider” as in one who is hiding. Ehsan was also on my list. Sounds similar to [name_u]Easton[/name_u] which is a known name, so I felt it wouldn’t be too strange for others. I disagree that Faris would not blend in at all. This is one of my husband’s favorites, but I cannot get the [name_m]Ferris[/name_m] [name_m]Bueller[/name_m] association out of my head. Nimah and [name_f]Lilah[/name_f] are in the running for girls. I also really like [name_f]Zoya[/name_f] from your list. The girl names seem so much easier. Some others from my list you might consider:

[name_m]Ramsey[/name_m]
Haris
Ilham
Ayman
Feran
Eyad
[name_u]Rohan[/name_u] – this is [name_f]Indian[/name_f] I believe, but was still familiar to my husband and similar to [name_u]Rowan[/name_u]
[name_u]Aydin[/name_u] – Turkish, but familiar to my husband. Similar to the popular variations of [name_u]Aiden[/name_u] right now, but too close to [name_m]Raiden[/name_m]

[name_f]Lena[/name_f]
[name_f]Lela[/name_f]
Ayra
[name_f]Amila[/name_f]
[name_m]Esra[/name_m]
[name_f]Noor[/name_f]/[name_m]Noori[/name_m]/[name_f]Nora[/name_f]
[name_f]Aida[/name_f]