Arabic, Persian, and African name suggestions please!

[east93]

Ilyas is the Arabic form of Elias, and is used exclusively by Christians. It's one of the top 4-5 Christian names.

Hamza is very, very old-fashioned (like the butt of jokes old-fashioned).

Cyrus is awesome but in Farsi it's Khoroush.

Ahh, I'll keep that in mind about Ilyas. As for Hamza, here it's far from old-fashioned, I know three who are under 10.:P

[ottilie]

Ilyas is the Arabic form of Elias, and is used exclusively by Christians. It's one of the top 4-5 Christian names.

I actually know a Muslim Ilyas But I guess it's rare.

[vandychick]

As for Hamza, here it's far from old-fashioned, I know three who are under 10.:P

I am in Canada--and I have seen it on plenty of young kids. I suggested it because my friend gets compliments on her child's name all the time. But I have no real knowledge of how the name is perceived. I just like the sound

[blade]

They might be named in honor of relatives. For first-born sons, it's almost required to name the baby after his paternal grandfather. My son is.

[niteowl13]

Amir
Samir
Oded
Ahmed
Amel
Eyal
Omar
Omari
Farid
Farouk
Jafar
Nabil
Kalil
Jaleel
Jamal
Kadeem
Kareem
Hakim
Rigel
Salem
Cid/Cyd
Idris
Obadias/Obediah
Yousef
Zaid
Caspar/Gaspar
Darius/Dario
Naveed
Naveen
Adwin
Amare
Kofi
Kanye? LOL


I read that Hamza means foul taste. Why is so popular?

[ottilie]

Hamza means strong I believe.

Blade: That would make sense, I need to ask him.

[east93]

They might be named in honor of relatives. For first-born sons, it's almost required to name the baby after his paternal grandfather. My son is.

Maybe in some cases, but here definitely not. The Hamzas I know weren't named after anyone interestingly, as well as in the community I know the children are mostly named after religious historical people not family. Then again the Hamzas I know were Afghani, or Pakistani so perhaps those customs are different.

[blade]

Ooohhhh definitely. I don't know anything about what's chic and fashionable in the non-Arab Muslim world. I'm sure it's entirely different.

[lexiem]

Oh check this out:
There are three sites for great Igbo names and a compiled list of names that show up on all three and have corresponding meanings.
http://nameberry.com/nametalk/group....=15&do=discuss

@southernmaple suggested this one: I haven't had time to find similar sources and make a list like he above yet. (Drat Graduate School). http://www.names4muslims.com/

Also http://www.namepedia.org/ has a cool feature where you can plug in a name and see what it's "translation" is in a different language. So if your friend likes the meaning of the name but isn't completely sold on how it sounds you could look at any of her other ethnic heritage options and see if you can come up with another suggestion. (behindthename.com does this too but I'm not sure they are great on African names).

[east93]

Ooohhhh definitely. I don't know anything about what's chic and fashionable in the non-Arab Muslim world. I'm sure it's entirely different.

In all honesty, it can be rather predictable and boring, lol. Many of the same names from historical/religious figures are just reused over and over and over.