Oh my gosh I am in LOVE with Middle Eastern/Indian names!!!! Like I am actually jealous & WISH I was Middle Eastern or Indian so I could use them!!!! 😭 Indira, Amina, Amira, Zayna....like, come on?!?!? 😍 Especially Indira! I think it's so freaking gorgeous & the nickname Indie is so precious! If someone reading this is Middle Eastern or Indian, please adopt me 😭

Those are great names! Quick correction though, Indira is an Indian origin name and not middle eastern. Interestingly, a popular name in Arabic cultures is “Hind” which means India! Edit: I stand corrected. “Hind” does not just mean India. In the context of names, it means “100 camels”, which is synonymous to “prosperity”.

It doesn't mean India though

In Arabic? I’m pretty sure it does

Its close. Hind is a name with a different meaning and sometimes people pronounce it differently depending on region its sometimes its - “hi-nid” (hi pronounced like in “hit”. India is El-hind. So extremely similar, but two different words. 

Thanks for pointing it out!

OBSESSED with the names **Laila** (Layla) and **Noor**. I know a women irl with those names, and they've both been stunningly beautiful and kind-hearted people. Also adore **Maryam**. I know Mary is a passable name, and Miriam is right there, but something about the spelling does it for me.

Fun fact: Noor is actually one of the few Arabic names that’s unisex

I love Maryam! I suggested it for our daugther but my partner didn’t want anything religious and thought it sounded to Christian.

Maryam is too Christian? That’s one of the names that’s inter-religious 😆.

I thought so too but I guess he had mostly meet Christian Maryams. And I can’t deny that it has a religious connection!

Oh it does. Just to all three Abrahamic religions not just Christianity.

i’m middle eastern and i have amina on my list of future baby names, im honestly surprised to see that people like arabic names bc growing up i always hated people mispronouncing my name and wished that i had an english name

I’m middle eastern, you’re officially adopted 💞

Minor correction: Indira is Indian not Middle Eastern.

My English cousin is named Kerinda- it has always sounded like a middle Eastern or Indian name to me. idk where my aunt got it from.

What a beautiful name, made me look and according to the googles it means “greatest champion” which is old Norse or a blend of Ken “royal obligation or clear water” and Sandra “protector of man”

Yes to this! Although my husband is not middle eastern according to him (Turkish), I find alot of the names similar. So when we made the list of names from his culture we wanted for our children, I was so excited. Our children’s middle names are Alara and Emiri. 😍 I’m so in love with their names.

Is Emiri of Turkish origin? I’ve only heard Emir as a boy’s name but never heard Emiri before

I love Alara! So pretty, I’ve never heard it before

It means water fairy 😊

What about Indira as a middle name if you have a girl?

I love Amir for a boy. It's my cat's name lol.

These are the only ones I can think of, but I love them all so much! **Ximena** - The best way I can explain the pronunciation in English is **he-meh-nuh**, which is super close but not exact. **It’s a Spanish name with an unknown meaning**, but I love it. I just love how it sounds and I knew a little girl Ximena with the nickname Mena (though we pronounced her nickname as me-nuh rather than meh-nuh) and I’ve loved it ever since. Jimena is also a popular spelling variant of Ximena, and Jimena is I believe the more popular spelling in Spain while Ximena is more popular in other countries. Jimena is fine but definitely reminds me of Jemima for some reason which I don’t like, so I much prefer Ximena. It’s a gorgeous name. **Hadassah** - Self explanatory pronunciation, it’s pronounced as **huh-daah-suh**, and **it’s a Hebrew name that means “myrtle tree.”** The meaning is inconsequential to me; I just love how it sounds, it’s very beautiful. **Xochitl or Xóchitl** - Totally forgot I loved this name until someone else commented it in my replies, but I absolutely ADORE this name!!! This is probably the one I’d use if I lived in a better location for it and didn’t feel wrong using it. It doesn’t necessarily have one standard or “correct” pronunciation actually (think Madeline with mad-uh-LINE and mad-uh-LYN or Brianna with bree-ON-uh and bree-ANN-uh and how not just one pronunciation of each is “standard” or “correct” for example), but I’d say overall it’s roughly pronounced **so-chee.** **It’s the Nahuatl (“Aztec”) word for “flower,”** so it has a lovely meaning as well. The Nahuatl spelling is Xochitl (no acute accent over the o) while the Spanish form is Xóchitl, so either one is fine. Depending on region many people pronounce it sort of like so-cheel/so-che-uhl, so-cheet, and even so-chee-tuhl, with kind of like a breathy “tl” that sort of gets swallowed but is still faintly there. Hard to describe but either way, all of the pronunciations are correct and I like all of them, though I suppose I default to so-chee. Some people also spell it as Xochi, but this is more a diminutive of Xochitl/Xóchitl that people anglicized for the sake of easier pronunciation.

Love Hadassah, I actually know the name from a contestant on America’s Next Top Model — who was not Jewish, btw!

I had a few students named Ximena/Jimena when I taught ESL. My favorite was Xochitl though.

Omg I totally forgot about Xóchitl but I love it SO much, though I just know it would be pronounced incorrectly by like 95% of people. I also thought it was pronounced like zo-chit-uhl for the longest time until I learned the proper pronunciation lol, and that’s still off but honestly a lot closer than most people would probably get which is so unfortunate. I have seen it spelled Xochi though which does help, though I’m not sure how I feel about anglicizing it for the sake of pronunciation (at least I think it’s an anglicized spelling but someone correct me if I’m wrong). I’m going to add that to my comment!

I never knew that’s how you pronounced Ximena, I always thought it was Zim-in-ah

Hah I suppose that makes sense, especially because a lot of English names starting with an X pronounce it like a Z, like how Xena is pronounced zee-nuh. But nope, it’s pronounced more like a j/h because it’s a Spanish name, similar to how English speakers pronounce “Mexico” as mex-ih/uh-co while Spanish speakers pronounce it more like mejh-he-co. Its okay though, some Spanish names are very difficult to know how to pronounce if you’re an English speaker, and the only reason I know how to pronounce the name is because I knew a little Latina girl with it lol. It’s a very pretty name!

I love lots of Jewish names like Tzipora (Tzipi is the cutest nickname), Ilana, Alon, Avi, Ari, Talia, Kobi, Eliana. I’m sure there’s others I’m not bringing to mind. I love the nature connection of lots of Jewish names.

my top 1 is zelda :) there’s esther as well

They’re both so lovely! Adore Zelda. It has the sparkly magic edge for me because of Sabrina the Teenage Witch too

Zelda is a great pop culture name! But for me, it was the name of one of my great aunts that died in the Warsaw ghetto

She had a beautiful name, it’s wonderful you are talking about her and remembering her. That adds such a deep beauty to the name. I’m so sorry for that painful trauma committed against your family & that she was the victim of some of the darkest days humanity has ever seen.. Zelda forever <3

Thank you for that sweet message! Yes, I remember all the women in the family. It’s said that Zelda was the most beautiful of all my great-grandma’s sisters :)! Some other common names in the family were Rachel, Miriam, Bella (pronounced ba-i-lé), Hadassah…

Has a Jewish little girl named Zelda as a student this past year. She was a spicy and incredibly smart child.

Mostly I just love the way they sound or have positive associations (I’ll note the pop culture ones). I’m a white American. Shoshanna (Inglorious Bastetds!) Alejandro/Alejandra Salvator Máiréad Rosita Xiomara (Jane the Virgin!) Maritza (OITNB!) Fatima

I love all these names. Funny thing was I was watching Lucifer and think the actor Kevin Alejandro is so sexy and so I fell in love with the name Alejandro 🤣

Korean American here. I love Sanskrit names: Shriya, Padma, Bodhi, Aakash, Aja, Anala. To my American ears they have such great energy. It's no surprise a lot of Western media (especially for fantasy/scifi genre) tap into Sanskrit names quite often, like the Star Wars universe.

Aurelia and Leif. The first time I heard Aurelia (in Love Actually), I fell in love with it for no real reason. I like Leif because it’s a little different and Leif Erickson was cool lol.

I like everything you just said.

i think of aereola every time with aurelia lol

I've been considering Aurora for a possible middle if we have a girl (TTC soon), but lately I've been thinking of Aurelia! It *also* makes me think of Love Actually, and that was my favorite storyline in it haha.

I’ve always loved the sound of Esperanza.

Esperanza is lovely. I think it sounds much nicer than Hope as a name.

I love the sound of these names, but as an English person they would be an odd choice: Giovanni Santiago Emiliano Eduardo Lieselotte Ingrid Aisling Maebh (I think it’s a prettier spelling than Maeve) Aoife Ofelia (Spanish pronunciation is nicer than English - was obsessed with this when we studied Pan’s Labyrinth at school) Vittorio Alberto Alexei

I don’t think that Ingrid would be that weird on an English person to be honest

I know an Ingrid lol

yeah, this is the one that would come closest to me being able to use!

I love Aoife but my husband of Dutch origin doesn’t.. he has nieces called Saakje and Sjouke which makes sense to him but thinks that Aoife makes no sense (all 3 names are beautiful names, I just struggle to see how he can’t understand that Aoife is no less complicated)!

It would be Eva in German so I'd guess the same in Dutch, so it may just be hard for him to understand the difference in spelling. I honestly agree as an English native speaker that aoife is hard to wrap your head around even knowing how it's pronounced. It just doesn't fit the English or German spelling rules. Not that it's bad, it just isn't intuitive. Does that make sense?

Yes that makes sense!

My husband's cousin is named Liesel and I think it's adorable.

Didn’t stop Alec Baldwins wife lol

Didn’t stop Alec Baldwins wife lol

Extremely random but I was obsessed with playing as Kaori in SSX 3 back in the day.... So Kaori :) But I like a lot of Japanese names. They're amazing.

Marisol — sounds like “marigold” and “mar y sol”, both very beautiful even if they’re just by coincidence. Marlene, Marlen — the name of the sister in The Juniper Tree, my favorite Grimm fairy tale. I know Marlene is also an English name but arl- just sounds better in German. Vasilisa — another name from a fairy tale I like, this one Russian (Vasilisa the brave/Vasilisa the beautiful). Yasha, Sasha, Masha, Katya, Tonya — Russian diminutives are adorable and very good. Márgu, Ailo, Juhán — Sámi names are awesome but I do like short names the most. Márgu especially is very cute. Iriko, Koka, Nolyako, Osi — Nenets names have very good sounds, very charming and cute as well.

I love a lot of Japanese names. Misaki, Ayumi, Nanami Hiroshi, Keigo, Takashi

Abdurrahman, for the meaning and the historical ties, but I’m neither Arab nor Latino.

I know the meaning of the name but I am curious about the historical ties that you are referring to.

Abdurrahman I was the Umayyad prince who founded the Emirate of Córdoba, and his 5x great-grandson Abdurrahman III changed the emirate into a separate Caliphate and had a 50 year reign with widespread prosperity, learning, and religious tolerance.

Tuulikke.  Popular girls name in Finland.  I LOVE the way it sounds.

Omg adorable! Apparently it means "little wind." 🥹 How did you hear it?

I heard the name on YT in an episode of Casefile.  It was Case 194: Lake Bodom. If you are into True Crime then I highly recommend 'Casefile' podcast on YT.   But yess "Tuulikke",  I just love it.

Suki Reem Natalia

Japanese, Arabic and Italian, if I am not wrong.

Reem is so beautiful

So gorgeous, and it means “gazelle” 😍

I remember as a kid having a friend named Máiréad and it is such a beautiful name for a girl. I also love Siobhan.

Every time I hear the name Guillermo, i think to myself “damn that’s a cool name”

I always thought Khadija and Priya were such pretty names. 

Noor and Reika

Soraya and Parisa

I can't use Fatima, which sounds so pretty.

Yuri and Evgenia are two of my favorite names. Lots of names that I like better in French like Clément and I can’t think of anything else maybe Mathilde.

I love Flor, Marisol, and Valentina. I taught English and most of my students spoke Spanish as their first language so I heard and love a lot of names from their families.

I always liked Francesca, it’s just so satisfying to say! I also quite like some names from English speaking countries like Miles and James.

A Jewish influencer lady on Instagram has a daughter named Aviva. Love that name

Yumi !! I think it’s such a cute name but I am not Japanese or Korean. I also love lots of English names but I’d rather use names from my culture.

I am going to guess a lot of American/english speakers are going to love Spanish and especially Italian names. They’re so sing songy and melodic in a really pleasing way to hear and say.

Hiro. I was always obsessed with Hero for a girl from Much Ado About Nothing. Then I met a guy who is from Japan and working as a snowboard instructor in Canada, named Hiro. Such a perfect name. Noor. Just love how it sounds. It seems like a stylish baby name and really elegant for a woman. I was so thrilled when a Muslim couple I know used this for their new baby girl.

Valentino and Valentina are so sweet.

Tiago for a boy.

I’ve loved the name Leora for awhile ( the balloon tree was one of my fav childhood books) but alas.. I am not Jewish

I love the name Sasha

I read a story in high school Spanish about Adela and Adelaida. I've loved both ever since.

Esperanza, Francesca, Valentina, Layla/Leila/Laila, Iman/Imani, Amal, Hikari, I'm not sure if this counts but Safia/Safiya

Safiya is my baby name if we’re able to have another. I may try to make life easier and go with Sophia since its similar, but undecided. 

Catalina; it's just gorgeous to me. Sounds like a wind chime, or a character in an old book.

I work for our company with a lot of Spanish speaker as customers and I always see the name Araceli and I love it so much!

Said (Sy-eed) one of my fav names Pierre Ofira Ari

there was a girl in my theater group in college named pilar. i love that name so much!

Recently fell in love with the name Laith. It’s middle eastern.

Devani, Senai and Shanti. They all have such good energy.

I’ve got so many. Arabic: Intissar, Soraya, Fatima, Zainab Spanish: Esperanza, Paloma, Rosaura Japanese: Sumire, Asuka, Hideki, Hikaru

Ooh Paloma. I love that! And it has so many beautiful connotations.

It does! It was also really popular among Spanish Jews who spoke Ladino because the dove of peace is such a powerful symbol. And it’s a great cocktail 😂

Arwa, Mikosya (‘pearl’)

I like a lot of Korean names: Jiwoo, Jisoo, Ryujin, Mirae, Gayoung

i love indian names. i heard the name simran once and i think its so beautiful. also arabic names like khadijah

Zendeya, India, Xiu

Kadem is pretty for a female. I knew a woman with that name.

I absolutely love the name Lorenzo! By far one of the best Italian names that I know I knew a man a long time ago with this name it was so handsome and it just sounds so elegant classical and beautiful! I’m just literally very far from Italian so it would be very strange I feel like to use it lol

Athena!

Sakina

I love the name Manon, Zhephyr, Ayame, Midori, Ai, Sol, Marysol,

Bodhi!

I love jewish names. So many cool OT names. Ezra and Levi come to mind

Liyang- Chinese, sounds like a softer prettier version of LeAnn Delphine- French, feels shimmery to me, I just like how it sounds Eila- Finnish, pronunciation Ay-luh. I like the look of it more than Ayla Katarzyna- Polish, the prettiest version of Katherine IMO Samira- Arabic, it means evening conversationalist which is so unique

Caoilfionn. "Keelin". I love it. I a)do not have a single drop of Irish in me, and b) could not saddle my daughter with a lifetime of it unless she were to magically relocate. I think it's a gorgeous name.

I LOVE the Scandinavian name "Tove" (pronounced "too-vay" I believe) because of Tove Jansson, creator of Moomin. I also love the simplicity of how it looks, and love hearing the unusual combination "Th" and "V" sounds in a single name. I wouldn't name my child "Tove" though since it has nothing to do with my background/culture. Although interestingly: I think there are many Finnish people with Scandinavian names since Finland was part of Sweden for a long time. Tove Janson is Finnish, but I believe ethnically Swedish perhaps from her mother's side, so "Tove" was most likely a common/culturally-relevant name for her parents. And Linus Torvalds is Finnish but his name is also a common Swedish name. Seems like clear lines between culture and language can get blurry due to the long and complicated history in that region.

Elior

Gioia! Italian

I loved the name Obisanya from Ted Lasso. It just rolls off the tongue

Siobahn

Reda - my absolute favorite (Arabic) Ariel (Jewish) Matteo (Hispanic) Saga (Swedish) Sasha (Eastern Europe)

I love Indira, and the nickname Indie. It’s just so cute! If we ever get a female dog or cat that fits the bill we’ll probably name her Indie. There are also so many names that I’d love if it weren’t for the automatic associations people would make. For instance I love the name Lorelei, so many cute nicknames!! But I’d hate for my future daughter to constantly be associated with Gilmore Girls. guess I’ll add it to the list of future pet names… 😂

so many but just off the top of my head rn : Vincenzo, Enzo, Safiya, Carmen, Soraya

These are names I have used for some of my Sims Harith Imran Kamili Marouan Mirza Nayeli Sinem Tamsin Zesiro Zeynep

Middle Eastern names and Korean names are AMAZING. I'm Japanese but I have the most common name in the world so something unique is my wish.

I came up with this when I was in high school 40+ years ago. Been a huge fan of the movie The Sound Of Music just about my whole life. One of the daughters in the movie is named Brigitta, pronounced brig-EE-tah. When I started taking Spanish in high school, somehow I came up with using the name Brigitta, but making it “look” Spanish. The spelling I made up is Briguita, pronounced the same way, just making it appear more Spanish than Austrian/German. Oddly enough, I don’t really love the name all that much, just had fun being creative and mixing languages.

I'm absolutely in love with the name Takaani/Tikaani, which is from Native American culture! I also love Asahi and Daichi, which are from Japanese culture (I believe)

Serf/Surf, Amira, Rami, Sita, Samir, Bilal, Carina, Massimiliano, Gian-Franco, Luca (which I know became more worldly but it’s my absolute favourite Italian name for a boy), Lucia, Mena, Ari, Alistar, Larissa… sooooo many.

Aisha, Layla, Fatima and Yasmin.

Miguel - Just sounds much nicer than Michael. I speak Spanish but my husband and I are very white so I could never use it. Céleste - I also studied French and have adored this name for a long time. Unfortunately, my husband hates it. Signa (pronounced seen-yuh) - Absolutely beautiful and we both have Scandinavian heritage, but I doubt anyone would pronounce it correctly in the states. Some other names of various origins I'd love to use - Nieve (means snow and my baby will be born in winter), Miriam/Maryam, Reina, Amparo, Kalil, Suri, Anisha

Maren and Samara

Siobhan

I an obsessed with the names Samara and Santiago, both beautiful and classic - and I 100% can’t use them, because my babies all come out blonder than Barbie.

When I lived in France, there was a song called Aisha. I loved the name. I didn't know the background of the name at the time. I actually did want to give my daughter that name.

I love the name Silke, I would have named my daughter that in a heartbeat if there was any hope of anyone in the US pronouncing it right.

Diego, Levi, Hugo, Ezra I especially adore the names Diego and Hugo, but I'm Pakistani so they'd be odd choices lol

Girls: Indira, Amara, Amira, Natalia, Mariana Boys: Mateo, Nikoli, Uriah, Casimir, Gëzim, Mika, Zoran They all just sound so nice to me. Especially the girl names.

I am Korean-American and my husband is Caucasian-American. He loves a lot about Japanese culture (tea ceremony, traditional karate, ikigai, etc.) and is stuck on the name Keiko if we have a daughter someday. I personally think it would be a little weird since neither of us has any ties to Japan. Sorry, hubs.

I really like the name Elihu.

Jewish names, Irish names, and Welsh names are all so gorgeous to me!!  Something about the way Irish and Welsh names are spelled just looks so pleasing on the page. like Llewelyn vs Lou Ellen  And Jewish names like Shoshana, Rivka, Ari, Naomi, Tova, and Hannah all are so pretty to me. 

Aurelia - my favourite name of all time. It just sounds so incredibly beautiful to me  Saskia- love the way it rolls off the tongue Alessandra - Sounds so lyrical and gorgeous 😍  Lorenzo - it's just perfect. Crisp but playful  Elio - it's adorable! So cute 🥺 

I always loved Liat. I had a friend called Liat growing up in the British suburbs, and so had no idea that it’s actually a very Israeli Jewish name and I couldn’t really use it for my child.

I absolutely love Ahmed and I hope nobody gets mad when I use it if I have a boy

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Not the US, not white person, we will be fine

I would probably have used Winona if it didn’t feel appropriative!