Mixed Indian Baby Names

Posted byNeil ThanedarPosted inNotesTags:,

Note: I’m Indian-American and have two half-Hmong-American boys, Kai and Ajay, so I’ve spent way too much time thinking about this very niche issue, even making two top-10 lists of all the baby boy names we considered. Hope this helps someone!

I had two goals when naming my kids Kai and Ajay:

  1. Easy to pronounce in all languages.
  2. Meaningful in a native language.

Here are my favorite meanings of my boys’ names:

  • Kai:
    • “Victory, triumphant” (凯/凱) [Mandarin]
    • “Lovable” [Swahili]
    • “Ocean” (海) [Japanese]
    • “Fire” [Scottish]
  • Ajay:
    • “Unconquered, invincible” (अजय) [Sanskrit]

Here are the Indian-American baby boy names we considered:

Common Western-Sounding Names:

  1. Ajay (AJ)
  2. Jay
  3. Krish (Chris)
  4. Neil
  5. Nikhil (Nick)
  6. Om
  7. Samir (Sam)
  8. Shaan (Shawn)
  9. Vikram (Vic)
  10. Zayn

Unique Modern Indian Names:

  1. Avi
  2. Dev
  3. Kal
  4. Nitin
  5. Raj
  6. Sahil
  7. Sai
  8. Tej
  9. Veer
  10. Yash

(I usually write about important stuff like the World’s Biggest Problems.)

Published by Neil Thanedar

Neil Thanedar is an entrepreneur, investor, scientist, activist, and author. He is currently the founder & chairman of Labdoor (YC W15), a consumer watchdog with $7M+ in funding and 20M+ users, and Air to All, a 501(c)3 nonprofit medical device startup. He previously co-founded Avomeen Analytical Services, a product development and testing lab acquired for $30M+ in 2016. Neil has also served as Executive Director of The Detroit Partnership and Senior Advisor to his father Shri Thanedar in his campaigns for Governor, State Representative, and US Congress in Michigan.