Our first son’s name is Rayhan [name]Rees[/name] (he’s about 2.5 years old now), and we’re hoping our choice for our second kid matches the first one well, but has a different background origin.
Rayhan = ‘the dawning of a good sign’ in Chinese (瑞 晗), ‘favored by God’ in Arabic, ‘heavenly flower; wise’ in Persian, and ‘little prince’ in Sanskrit (and is sometimes considered a variant for an Old English name ([name]Rayan[/name]) meaning ‘brilliant’, [name]Rayan[/name] is also the long version of the name [name]Ian[/name] (the Irish variation of [name]John[/name] = “God is gracious”)
[name]Rees[/name]= a variant spelling of [name]Rhys[/name] (Welsh = ardor), spelled this way due to several generations of use in family history with this spelling
What names come to mind that sound good together with Rayhan (pronounced: [name]RAY[/name]-hawn)? A name with a good meaning (or multiple meanings) from any originating language (preferably something with ancient origins), that sounds good next to Rayhan.
[name]Hari[/name] = lion in Sanskrit, close to “hare!” (hail, honor), the English name [name]Harry[/name] (from [name]Henry[/name] or [name]Harald[/name]); somewhat similar to [name]Hadi[/name] (“to rightfully guide” in Arabic)
Imran = Arabic form of Amram, “exalted father”; close to [name]Iman[/name], ‘faith,’ and [name]Zimran[/name], “holy” in Hebrew
[name]Janan[/name] = derived from Latin [name]Janus[/name], meaning ‘gateway, crossroads.’ very close to Arabic for ‘garden, paradise’ and the Hindi word for ‘the world.’
[name]Kamal[/name] = perfection in Arabic. Close to kamala, the lotus flower, in Sanskrit, which has great religious importance.
Mirza= Persian for prince; close to Slavic Mircea (as in Eliade)
[name]Miran[/name] = beautiful Slavic name meaning peace; Clse to Greek [name]Miron[/name] (myrrh, worth more than gold in the ancient world) and Welsh Meirion, manly.
Thanks for the ideas [name]Blade[/name]! There are some nice names there.
[name]Miran[/name] is a very beautiful name, but if I’m pronouncing it correctly it sounds pretty feminine (like [name]Mira[/name] with an N). [name]Miron[/name]/[name]Myron[/name] is a decent name that we have considered, but there’s something about it that feels like it’s not quite hitting the spot. I’m curious, is Meirion is pronounced the same as [name]Miron[/name]/[name]Myron[/name]?
Mircea is also quite a nice name, but maybe sounds a bit to similar to ‘mercy’ to work.
[name]Janus[/name]/[name]Janan[/name] are two others I quite like too, but again feels too feminine ([name]Janus[/name] sounds like [name]Jannice[/name]-- and [name]Janan[/name] feels like a longer version of [name]Jan[/name])
This time around we’re trying to move away from Persian/Arabic/Sanskrit names (we like name diversity in the family— and have a lot of it in my extended family, hitting every corner of the globe), so a few of those ([name]Kamal[/name], Imran, [name]Hari[/name], Mirza, [name]Janan[/name]) aren’t quite what we’re looking for, though there are some nice names in the mix.
For example, two Welsh names we like, [name]Emrys[/name] and Caian, I feel like their sound works well next to Rayhan. They’re definitely distinctly different origins, but we want different origins that still feel nice next to each other.
Rayhan and [name]Emrys[/name]
or
Rayhan and Caian
[name]Miran[/name] is emphasized on the second syllable-- mih-[name]RAHN[/name]. The first syllable, Mir, means ‘peace’ like the international space station Mir.
Meirion has three syllable-- [name]May[/name]-ree-on.
[name]Janan[/name] is pronounced similarly – zha-NAHN. The two names rhyme.
Ok, something with Western European roots:
[name]Ivor[/name]-- multiple etymologies, mostly related to the yew tree (which has enormous pre-[name]Christian[/name] significance throughout Europe), also Welsh for ‘lord.’
[name]Giles[/name]-- originally the Greek Aegidius, imported via [name]Norman[/name] French [name]Gilles[/name]. Patron saint of the disabled
[name]Aldo[/name]-- on-trend variant of ancient Germanic [name]Adal[/name], meaning ‘noble.’ the royal prefix for the Anglo-Saxons, aethel, is related. [name]Aldous[/name] is another variant.
Thanks for the response [name]Lori[/name]! I thought this thread died long ago.
I do like the name [name]Samir[/name] that you mentioned above, but I think for this kid we’re shying away from an Arabic name (our first son’s name is more Chinese (瑞晗) to us than Arabic— he’s 1/2 Chinese and we live in [name]China[/name]), especially since we have no Arabic roots or anything and don’t want to overdo the Arabic thing (especially since my own name also has Arabic/Persian/Sanskrit roots). Saying this, if we do decide to go with a name with Arabic roots (unlikely but don’t wanna completely rule it out), I think we’d go for either [name]Zamir[/name], [name]Amin[/name], Adib, [name]Aza[/name], Riaz, [name]Salman[/name] or [name]Altair[/name].
But this time around we seem to be leaning more towards Latin, Greek, Aramaic, Welsh, Gaelic, Celtic, or Germanic names.