Me: I like the name Zayn. Its not too middle eastern. You know our kids could turn out white right?
My Love: How about Ali?
Me: How is that NOT Middle eastern?
ML: Hamza?
Me: No
ML: Musa
Me: No
ML: Jaf'r.
Me: Definitely no. That makes me think of Jafar from Aladdin.
ML: Yes how about Aladdin! (he is actually serious).
Me: We are not naming our future child Aladdin.
ML: But...
Me: No. How about Jasmine?
ML: I don't like it.
Men are strange.........
Posts
lol Zayn is really nice.
ReplyDeleteI have a (white) cousin named Zane :-P
THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I HAVE EVER COMMENTED ON A POST BY LK BEFORE ANNE!!!
ReplyDeletelol, love you both
ROTFL NeverEver
ReplyDeleteYeah so does my best friend. It was just such a silly conversation....men are weird. Aladdin?! Please LOL How is that muslim?! LOL
Aladdin sounds nothing like the Arabic pronunciation in English but it's ala' id-deen (deen like religion) so it's definitely a good Islsmic name. The movie has made it unusable though I think.
ReplyDeleteBoys names are so hard! I also want a name that doesn't sound only Arabic and it's hard! Husband wants nothing else than Muhammad.
How funny! My Syrian friend and I were discussing names one time just for fun. I was joking with him that if he married a western woman, she may not like Arabic names so be prepared for that possibility. So we were trying to figure out some names that would sound better than others to western, non-Muslim ears. :) Like Muhammad screams "I am Muslim" whereas a few other names do not. Also I do not care for names here like Fatima that American kids could use for teasing purposes. Fatima screams "fat ma -- laugh at my expense."
ReplyDeleteGood thing for you and your love, you are not looking to dismiss Muslim-sounding names as the field is not so narrowed. Zayn is rather nice. A Zayn from Morocco just added me as a friend on Facebook last week so it's weird timing to read this today.
Loved the conversation. Yeah, Aladdin would not be a good name for a child growing up in the US. "They named you after a cartoon?" :)
Nooo, I lost my distinction to NeverEver!! :)
ReplyDeleteI like Zayn, too. Jasmine is also very pretty, and because there are so many people with that name it won't seem like you named her after the movie.
I think a lot about names myself (I find name etymology and naming trends fascinating). I'm fine with naming my children Islamic names (i.e names from the Qur'an and Islamic history), but not necessarily mere Arabic names. For girls I like Sarah (it's both a family name and the wife of Ibrahim (as)), Maryam (I love the story of Maryam (as), it's not too hard to pronounce, and lots of girls have similar sounding names), and Khadijah (again, not too difficult to pronounce, and I really admire Khadijah (ra)). I also really love Amatullah, the feminine equivalent of "Abdullah", or "slave of ALLAH". I would consider naming one of my boys Muhammad. I also like Adam and Ibrahim. I really love the name John (a family name, and the name of a prophet (as)), but I kind of don't want to give him the Arabic equivalent, Yahya, because I could see kids making fun of him for it.
For middle names, I would like to give my boys Abd+a name of ALLAH (e.g. Abdul Rahman, Abdul Ghafir, Abdul Hafiz), and my girls Amat+a name of ALLAH (e.g. Amatul Wali, Amatul Wadud, Amatul Salaam).
Candice: yes it sounds better in Arabic but still...its a no LOL
ReplyDeleteSusanne: Oh that is funny. Yeah you need a blend. I don't want my child to be ONLY Middle Eastern and not know the rest of his heritage. We agreed on American/ my family type names for middle names. Like Lynn or George. I like Zayn because it is after Zayn Ul Abedeen one of the Imams and writer of the Pslams of Islam which truly taught me the meaning of the religion and its beauty. Those prayers changed my life so I would definitely name a child after him.
I originally wanted Gabriel but I got vetoed big time!
Anne: Girls are harder. I like Sukena or Sakaina...she is one of the daughters of Imam Hussein I think. Alana is pretty too but ML thinks it might actually be Russian LOL.
hey there, sweet post!!
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking about Zayn since I read the post this morning... A really decent name in both languages! I might tell it to my husband to see.
ReplyDeleteGirls are so much easier for us since my husband is not as opinionated and there are so many more names that work in all three languages than for boys. My daughter was Nora pretty much since before I got pregnant!
Rabbi: Welcome!
ReplyDeleteCandice: Nora is a pretty name...I seem to be partical to S, A, and L names LOL
Aww, Zayn is such a nice name! I'm sure you know what names I want considering I can't stop posting about them LOL but for a boy, M and I are tossing up between Mahdi, Abbas, Jassim and Sajjad. For a girl, I've wanted Areej (means like a nice fragrance) for ages now... but I love the name Zainab.
ReplyDeleteAhhh... this post has brought me back to the name game lol!
I love the name Ismael and it is easily prononced in arabic,english and french, for a girl I like Safa or Sara for the same reasons.
ReplyDeleteIn my culture, the child's middle name is his father's first name, boy or girl.
Ellen: AW I like Mahdi too is cute...but I think kids might call him Matty...cause it sounds similar >_<
ReplyDeleteMunir: Welcome :) Safa is cute! Yeah some people have that tradition. In my family its usually the grandparent's names or a name that is passed down through a couple of men. The women its sort of random but mine is my grandmother's.
I was JUST thinking about this and I wanted to name my son (had a dream it was a son) a Spanish Muslim name like Omar or Benjamin. However I also got a dream later on and it was a baby boy in a white crib and right above the crib was his name. So I went with it. It actually fits him perfectly.
ReplyDeleteMy son looks white which is weird because my hubs is tanned but I KNOW he wasn't switched at birth because he was born at home. lol.
Tuttie: Benjamin is nice, I didn't even think of that one! But it seems your dream steered you in the right direction :)
ReplyDeleteI looked that up a long time ago. Apparently, the gene that gives us the color of our skin is the same regardless of what color the person is. There isn't a tan gene, or white gene etc its all the same. Which symbolicly is really quite nice :) I remember one of those TLC shows where they showed a family who had a very white, very blonde mother and an African father who was quite dark. The daughter came out white, blonde, and blue eyed. Now that is not very likely bc brown eyes and hair are dominate traits but its a cool science thing!
I think it'd be cool to have a girl who had medium skin and dark curly hair but my blue eyes. But of course I would be happy with any healthy baby God gave me.
So you want a girl first LK? I think I'd prefer a girl first, and then a boy. I only want two children, maybe three, but no more; I come from a relatively small family, and I'm afraid that having a lot of children would be too chaotic (and I wouldn't be able to give all of them the attention they deserve). I would also like to (Islamically) adopt a child, either from the USA or abroad (preferably an infant so I can breastfeed it and there wouldn't be the issue of mahrams). But, of course, ALLAHu Alim, whatever happens I will be satisfied with Insha'Allah.
ReplyDeleteAnne: I think Id rather have a boy first, Im afraid of having a girl. Life is so much harder for a girl, especially as a muslim in the US.
ReplyDeleteI can here her now "You didn't have to wear this stuff or dress like this when you were my age. You don't know what I'm going through!"
That's true, I didn't think of that. And if she said that, she'd be totally right. Although I always dressed pretty modestly even before becoming Muslim; my mom actually hated (and still hates) my clothes because she says they're too modest, and how I ought to dress more "skanky". :P
ReplyDeleteI am the palest of the pale and my husband is fairly dark. Our son is somewhere in between, but more on the white side. He does have dark, dark brown eyes, though. His father has black hair, I have brown hair, and our son has DARK brown hair. It's fun to see how the genes get all mixed up and distributed, lol.
ReplyDeleteI don't want anything too "arab" because 1.) my family will think it's weird, and 2.) we live in the U.S. and noone will ever pronounce it correctly.
Our son is Noah, although his Arab family calls him Nuh. Hubby is fine being done with children, but I keep hinting, or demanding, lol,a second child. I HAVE to at least try for a girl...
For girls I did like Nora, but with a Noah already that's been tossed out. I think Layla is a lovely name, but my name starts with an L so I'd like something different, I think. Right now I keep toying with Anisa and Amina. I figure if the American side of the family has trouble they can always fall back on "Annie" or "Amy" as a nickname. I also thought about Halima, and calling her "Hallie."
Watch me end up with all boys, lol. Arabic boy names are not as appealing to me. :/
Anne: My mom does that too!!! I drove her crazy in high school with my "hippie clothes" I think now she is just use to the fact that its not changing lol
ReplyDeleteNikki: OH Layla, I forgot about Layla. I like that. Your reasons are two of the reasons why I don't want Arab only names either. My mom would hate it, she'd feel like I was "becoming arab" and forgetting my culture. And yeah no one says them right. I cringe every time someone says My Love's name or if I have to pronounce it with an American accent so they know who Im talking about LOL
Aw so considerate that you thought of american nicknames in case your family doesnt like it. Yeah the boy names aren't nearly as appealing but Im pretty settled on Zayn haha
Not that Im having a baby! Dont want you all to get the wrong idea LOL
Oh, I forgot to mention another name (in case you haven't noticed, I'm kind of obsessed with names :) ). I really love the girl's name "Wasila", which means "drawing close to ALLAH". I think that is the most beautiful meaning and something that I hope my children (and everyone on Earth) strives for.
ReplyDeleteOnly issue with that name is that it's also the name of the town where Sarah Palin lives.
Cute!
ReplyDeleteAnne: ROTFL @ Sarah Palin comment
ReplyDeletelloooolll sarah palin
ReplyDeleteI have a friend whose brother's name is Muhammad (mashaAllah) and his friends call him Moody. Or Mo, lol.
His family is half Palestinian and half irish, and the Irish half decided that "Hamoody" still sounded too Arab, so they picked Moody instead.
I have a bad habit of calling every small child named Muhammad "Hamoody" it is just such a cute nickname!!! :-P
Also Bilal is good for boys
ReplyDeletecan shorten to Billy for western families :-)
Plus mashaAllah Bilal is a really great name
You can even give your kid two names - so, for example, William Bilal - and there you have Billy :D Or... Richard Dhakir (sounds kinda sorta like 'Dick' and means 'one who remembers God' - like dhikr). Or Margaret Pakeezah (sounds kind of like Peggy and means 'pure'). Edward Taj (like Ted?). Ellen Halima.
ReplyDeleteBut my favorites among these are William Bilal and Margaret Pakeezah.