We are still trying to decide on a name for the baby. With KB, our choice was very easy. Honestly, we had chosen his name a couple of weeks after we got married, way back in 1999, and we never wavered from that choice. It was the perfect name for him.
We chose his name because we wanted something that would reflect both of our heritages, Indian and Irish (I am 1/4 Irish from my mom's side, 1/4 Lithuanian from my mom's side, and a mixture of English, Irish, German, Scottish, and possibly Welsh on my dad's side).
Shortly before we married, we watched an excellent movie called "This is My Father". We loved the name shared by the father & son main characters. As it turned out, the name (minus one letter) was also an Indian name. We loved (and still love) the name.
With baby #2, however, we have not had a name jump out at us. We again played around with the Irish/Indian names, and came up with this short list:
Sean/Shaan
Rowan/Rohan
Devon/Devan
Thomas/Tamas
Colin/Kalan
Neil/Neal/Neel
But seemingly, we find a strike against each of the Indian names. Some have a negative connotation (Shaan, for example, means "pride" and Tamas means "darkness"). Kalan is apparently the Indian equivalent of a "country bumpkin" name. S doesn't like Devan for whatever reason. And personally, I think Neel and Rohan are way too common.
I've gone through lists of Indian baby names multiple times, and I've decided I like the name
Ketan
It rhymes with "Nathan", though the "th" sound is much softer, barely there, in Ketan.
S likes it as well. KB loves it, and has been referring to the baby by that name since we started kicking it around a couple of months ago.
But no one else in either of our families seems to care for it. Everyone keeps asking us if we've settled on a name yet, despite our telling them that Ketan is the current front-runner.
A big drawback to the name Ketan is that it's probably going to be mis-pronounced as "Keaton" or "Kay-TAHN" by non-Indians.
After Ketan, Sean is the #2 name on our list.
I would like Thomas as the middle name, because it means "twin", and in my own small way, I want to remember and to honor the fact that this baby started his journey with a twin sibling.
So, opinions please. I've set up a poll, but feel free to add comments. And if you can think of an Irish/Indian name pair that we haven't thought of, please feel free to tell me.
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4 comments:
Wow, I would have never imagined you could come up with so many Irish/Indian names-- I'm impressed! I like them all. I especially like Ketan, but you're so right that Americans (including me-- I'm already guilty of this with Indian friends) won't get the soft t right. Sean is great too and sounds nice with Kiran.
I guess that I'm not help since I like them all...
I think that 'Kiran' and 'Ketan' sound too cutesy together.
'Kiran' and 'Sean' sound like a couple of Irish fellas. I like the sound of those names together.
Here's my short term memory loss: I just voted and forgot what I chose! Well, I will say that I like them all. I am leaning towards Sean, but that was also on my list of names I liked for us too. Go with your gut!
I like Ketan. Sean would be good, too, but I really like Ketan. No matter what name you choose it'll be pronounced wrong. I grew up with a Sean and he dealt with being called "seen" when ever a new teacher came across his name. Mine is rarely spelled right. It's just part of the name game.
As for family, not much they'll say once they are head over heals in love with a baby. We gave lots of not so supportive comments about the name Zoe for my niece and once she was here we couldn't think of a prettier name for her.
Do what YOU want.
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