UK Sikhs giving their children western names

[ChardikalaUK]

I was blessed with a baby son a couple of weeks ago and gave him a nice desi name, it's also the name of a historical Sikh figure.

My wife has been going to midwife appointments and she has seen the majority of apne our age (30s) have given their kids western names like Cameron, Jayden, Jordan, Kieran, Sienna, Tiana, Harvey, Cara, Kai, Keira, Emelia, Antonio. My former next door neighbours and my current neighbours have also done this and they both have khande logos on their cars.

It's pathetic! Talk about being confused!  What is the logic? I understand that the apne who grew up in the 60s and 70s had English nicknames as the goreh couldn't pronounce them but it's 2020 and they can now pronounce them.

You will always be a brown Indian, you can never escape that no matter what you call yourself.

Even worse is that some are giving their kids muslim sounding names like Armaan and Anaya.

We really are a pathetic kaum. Sure it's good to take good aspects of Western culture but you should always keep your name! The goreh were in Punjab for 100 years but I never saw one of them named Balwinder Smith!

This has been a big shock to me and I wonder what the future holds for us.

[puzzled]

Congratulations bro 

Yeah iv got a Simon and Jason in my family too! And a few others that I can't remember now 

Just another step in forgetting who you are and your ancestors and assimilating into the local culture.

It's why it's so important to teach your kids Punjabi. Language keeps you tied to your culture and ancestors.

Punjabis are fast becoming like the local people, without any identity, and at a very fast rate too. 

Theres going to be a lot of changes in the coming years. 

Best thing to do is keep close to your sangat as much as you can and raise your kids with sangat.

Future not looking good ... 

[Ranjeet01]

These types of names chosen are by the brown/blond highlight haired and blue eye contact lense brigade. 

It's brown chavness. 

Bit of a strange phenomenon really. When racism was rife, people chose traditional names but now they choose names so that their kids peers can remember them. Weird!

A lot of times you see these kids, the names don't suit them.

I understand people don't like long names because they tend to get shortened. So they will try to pick shorter names. 

People will think they are getting "unique" names so that they think they are standing out but like sheep they follow the crowd. 

I understand people get fed up of all the -suffixed names with endings like:

-inder, -deep, -jit,  -bir,  -dev, -pal etc.

However,  I think there is going to come a period when calling your kid Baldeep is going to be a breath of fresh air. 

[ChardikalaUK]

1 hour ago, Ranjeet01 said:

These types of names chosen are by the brown/blond highlight haired and blue eye contact lense brigade. 

It's brown chavness. 

Bit of a strange phenomenon really. When racism was rife, people chose traditional names but now they choose names so that their kids peers can remember them. Weird!

A lot of times you see these kids, the names don't suit them.

I understand people don't like long names because they tend to get shortened. So they will try to pick shorter names. 

People will think they are getting "unique" names so that they think they are standing out but like sheep they follow the crowd. 

I understand people get fed up of all the -suffixed names with endings like:

-inder, -deep, -jit,  -bir,  -dev, -pal etc.

However,  I think there is going to come a period when calling your kid Baldeep is going to be a breath of fresh air. 

100%. A lot of the names themselves sound pure chavvy as well - Jayden, Harvey, Tiana, Sienna. I don't feel like associating with such parents.

There are plenty of short desi names that are easy to pronounce, I've chosen such a name.

In fact I was worried that the name we chose might be too common but my wife has said his class will be full of Jaydens, Jordans, Camerons not Amars, Arjuns, Harmans!

So giving your kid a western name is going to be very far from being unique.

[Not2Cool2Argue]

On 9/22/2020 at 11:15 PM, Ranjeet01 said:

These types of names chosen are by the brown/blond highlight haired and blue eye contact lense brigade. 

It's brown chavness. 

Bit of a strange phenomenon really. When racism was rife, people chose traditional names but now they choose names so that their kids peers can remember them. Weird!

A lot of times you see these kids, the names don't suit them.

I understand people don't like long names because they tend to get shortened. So they will try to pick shorter names. 

People will think they are getting "unique" names so that they think they are standing out but like sheep they follow the crowd. 

I understand people get fed up of all the -suffixed names with endings like:

-inder, -deep, -jit,  -bir,  -dev, -pal etc.

However,  I think there is going to come a period when calling your kid Baldeep is going to be a breath of fresh air. 

The panjabi names of the last century were very short. The deep preet suffixes is recent. 

Like veer singh. Bir singh. Sobha singh. Gulab kaur, sukha singh etc.

In america the trend is towards shorter, original names. The panjabis r going towards muslim sounding names like Waris. Heeya, Noor, tejnoor, 

While amritdharis are doing the olden names like jassa singh. Sukha singh mehtaab singh for twins. Ishar singh. Akaal kaur. Sujan singh etc

[Redoptics]

Whats in a name? Think a lot of people are making a mountain out of mole hill, you could have a kid with a good old name who is not into Sikhi, then you could have a Paul who is into Sikhi. So what's in a name?

[puzzled]

44 minutes ago, Redoptics said:

Whats in a name? Think a lot of people are making a mountain out of mole hill, you could have a kid with a good old name who is not into Sikhi, then you could have a Paul who is into Sikhi. So what's in a name?

Theres a sakhi about a sinner, think he was called Ajamaal. He was a kaami man and left his wife for a dancing girl. He had a son and named him Hari/Narain. As he got old his sins started catching up with him and he got really sick. In pain he used to call out for his son "Hari"  again and again. Repeating Hari, being another name for God washed his sins away and he went to heaven. 

Other than that, why would you want to forget the names of your ancestors and forefathers and give your kids White people names?

[Redoptics]

Just now, puzzled said:

Theres a sakhi about a sinner, think he was called Ajamaal. He was a kaami man and left his wife for a dancing girl. He had a son and named him Hari/Narain. As he got old his sins started catching up with him and he got really sick. In pain he used to call out for his son "Hari"  again and again. Repeating Hari, being another name for God washed his sins away and he went to heaven. 

Other than that, why would you want to forget the names of your ancestors and forefathers and give your kids White people names?

I'm not saying forget them, all I'm saying a name isn't end all and be all, as I said a name is a label it does not change the soul within.

 

[Ranjeet01]

1 hour ago, Not2Cool2Argue said:

The panjabi names of the last century were very short. The deep preet suffixes is recent. 

Like veer singh. Bir singh. Sobha singh. Gulab kaur, sukha singh etc.

In america the trend is towards shorter, original names. The panjabis r going towards muslim sounding names like Waris. Heeya, Noor, tejnoor, 

While amritdharis are doing the olden names like jassa singh. Sukha singh mehtaab singh for twins. Ishar singh. Akaal kaur. Sujan singh etc

Even with short names they get shortened further. 

Also, with traditional names (if they are 2 syllable ), whitey does not struggle with them as much as our people think. 

[ChardikalaUK]

1 hour ago, Redoptics said:

Whats in a name? Think a lot of people are making a mountain out of mole hill, you could have a kid with a good old name who is not into Sikhi, then you could have a Paul who is into Sikhi. So what's in a name?

A name is important, it is a constant reminder of your background and culture. It's a big part of your identity. This is something even more important when you are a minority.

Why do you think Goreh Sikhs change their names when they convert?

There are plenty of short Indian names out there. At my school there was a girl called Kulwinderjit and the teachers could say it without much hassle. 

If people can say Tchaikovsky, they can say Kuljeet.