Hello everyone, we have just had our second boy a few days ago!
We named our first boy [name_f]Rumi[/name_f] after the 13th century Persian poet and it is written as “flowing water” in Japanese (my wife is Japanese and I am part middle eastern).
We’ve been struggling to find a suitable name to accompany [name_f]Rumi[/name_f] and in fact sought the advice of this community once before
So here we are again, but getting closer to the name we want. We love the name “[name_f]Sahara[/name_f],” but are a little concerned that it seems far more common for a girl. In Arabic, it is for girls, however in Hindu it is for boys. In Japanese, it can be written as “sandy plain” which would complement [name_f]Rumi[/name_f] (“flowing water”) nicely.
We would love to hear this community’s opinion on [name_f]Sahara[/name_f] for a boy.
Yes or no?
Thanks a lot in advance for helping us decide!
Kind regards,
[name_m]Damon[/name_m]
Congratulations on the safe arrival of your second son!
I really like the idea of [name_f]Sahara[/name_f] for a boy, especially with the sweet connection of the nature-inspired Japanese meaning. I think it works really nicely with [name_f]Rumi[/name_f] too, which also feels quite androgynous.
I do think English speakers would assume a child named [name_f]Sahara[/name_f] was female on paper, based on names like [name_f]Savannah[/name_f], [name_f]Sienna[/name_f] and [name_f]Sarah[/name_f], but that really isn’t the end of the world. It doesn’t seem to bother all the people who give traditionally masculine names to their daughters! You could perhaps give him a clearly gendered middle name to balance it out.
I love how nicely the name meanings would pair, so part of me really hopes you’ll go for it.
I am an English speaker who has lived in the US and [name_f]Canada[/name_f], and if I would 100% assume that [name_f]Sahara[/name_f] was a girl. But it’s not like it’s a common name that’s been firmly established for one gender–I don’t think I’d find it odd to meet a boy named [name_f]Sahara[/name_f].
I don’t think a name of a desert is inherently gendered. However, most people will read the name as feminine because it ends in -a and is similar to [name_f]Sarah[/name_f]. It’s really up to you if you want to challenge people’s preconceptions about gendered names.
A name with a similar sound is [name_m]Sahir[/name_m]. It’s a clearly male name and I think it sounds great (better than [name_f]Sahara[/name_f]) with [name_f]Rumi[/name_f]. It has lovely meanings (friend; wakeful/alert), although I have no idea how it would translate written in Japanese. Good luck with your decision and congratulations!
If you’re spending the majority of your time in an English speaking country I would advise against [name_f]Sahara[/name_f] for a boy. Attractive name, but most will assume girl.
I am usually a fan of boy names ending in a and “softer” boy names, [name_m]Yusha[/name_m], Yuhanna, [name_f]Janis[/name_f] ect that most people would see as “girly”, but I don’t think [name_f]Sahara[/name_f] works for a boy. He will always be mistaken for a girl. However, I do like [name_f]Sahar[/name_f], I know a woman with this name, but think it works well on a boy. [name_f]Sahar[/name_f] and [name_f]Rumi[/name_f] sound great together. @mayday’s suggestion of [name_m]Sahir[/name_m] is also nice.
Thanks very much everyone! Yes, as we expected, typically a girl’s name, and it depends if we want to challenge gender stereotypes or not (that’s not our purpose at all but I guess it may end up being that way and I’m not sure if that’s fair considering it’s not our name…). Anyway, I love the alternatives in [name_m]Sahir[/name_m] and [name_f]Sahar[/name_f], except in order for it to be easily pronounced and translated in Japanese, the name needs to end in a vowel. That’s what makes finding a good name a little difficult.
We will spend most time in Japan, where the name would be rather gender neutral, and in NZ, where it would be more typically for a girl.
I actually quite like [name_f]Sahara[/name_f] for a boy and the idea that should he find [name_f]Sahara[/name_f] to be too feminine for his liking he could just go by [name_m]Harry[/name_m]. As for other names, [name_m]Zohar[/name_m] comes to mind for me and it has a really lovely meaning in Hebrew. Then, keeping in mind the need for the name to end in a vowel, maybe [name_f]Zahari[/name_f]? It’s a Bulgarian form of [name_m]Zachariah[/name_m].
There is an app called sarahah which is used to send anonymous messages that are sometimes really mean, and it sounds very similar to [name_f]Sahara[/name_f]. And [name_f]Sahara[/name_f] sounds very feminine to me.
Thanks very much everyone! We have decided to go with the unconventional and call our boy [name_f]Sahara[/name_f]. We now have two beautiful boys named [name_f]Rumi[/name_f] and [name_f]Sahara[/name_f].
Congratulations! I love the idea of using [name_f]Sahara[/name_f] on a boy and was happy to see you chose it. [name_f]Rumi[/name_f] and [name_f]Sahara[/name_f] are an awesome sibset
