r/armenia • u/peachyquokka8872 • 1d ago
Girl names?
Hello! My husband and I are expecting a baby girl. I am part Armenian and would love to have some of our family identity passed down, since her middle and last name will not be. What are your thoughts on easy to pronounce Armenian girl names for Americans?
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u/Formal-Custard5571 1d ago
Arev … Ah Rev. also Ahrevik for a child. Means sun. Sunny is a cute nickname in my opinion for the non Armenian family.
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u/jessk4w4ii 1d ago
Lusine (loo-seen-eh), Nare (na-reh), Naira, Nara, Nane (na-neh), Nune (Noo-neh), Gaia (short form of Gayane), Ani
The first ones that come to mind. Unfortunately most of the Armenian names are inconvenient for English.
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u/supplyBlock111 1d ago
Mane
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u/slowamigo 1d ago
Though it should be spelt Mané or Maneh. "Mane" by itself looks like the English word "mane", which rhymes with "gain"
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u/peachyquokka8872 1d ago
I was curious about pronunciation. Adding the h definitely helps. Love that
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u/slowamigo 1d ago
you also see Iranian feminine names spelled with a final h. The h itself isn't pronounced, but it ensures the final e is pronounced separately, rather than lengthening the pronunciation of the previous vowel (as would happen in English).
Mane -> Maneh\ Nare -> Nareh\ Arsine -> Arsineh\ Lucine -> Lucineh
etc
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u/SweetWittyWild41 23h ago
Naira luciné sevanna talin if you want pretty and easy to pronounce names
I genuinely don't understand some of the suggestions in the comments here
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u/Weak-Transition8162 1d ago
so what i found funny was that my american friends think some very old school armenian names sound really nice. I have a friend who loves Araxi, Lucine, and Zabelle.
I think Naira, Areni, and Sosi are really pretty.
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u/LotsOfRaffi 1d ago
Go with Maral. It’s unique, pretty and works in several languages
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u/Decent_Protection693 12h ago
Ah no, do not go with Maral if you want to pass down your Armenian identity. Maral is of Turkic/Azarbaijani origin.
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u/sameagaron 1d ago
My nieces are Anoush and Ani. Pretty popular. My great grandmother was Ripsime, we called her Seema. My aunt is Susananna but in Armenian it's Shushan which I think is very cute. My great great grandmas were named Sofia and Salbi/Salpi. Excited to see what name you choose! :)
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u/peachyquokka8872 1d ago
Is Ani pronounced AH-nee?
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u/aj1805 1d ago
Anoush, Talin, Ani
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u/Scared-Wind3944 1d ago
Speaking from experience with relatives, it is optimal to spell it Taleen rather than Talin. Americans always mis pronounce my relatives with the spelling Talin but the one with Taleen don't get mis pronounced
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u/finewalecorduroy 1d ago
I would agree with this, also speaking from experience with relatives. Taline = tay-leen, tuh-leen, tay-line. I would assume that Talin also gets "talon".
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u/Scared-Wind3944 1d ago
The most horrible thing I heard was someone pronounced Ani as Ay-nye. But 99.9% of the time Ani gets pronounced correctly.
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u/finewalecorduroy 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yes, I have heard that too. I disagree that Ani is pronounced correctly most of the time, it is almost always “Annie” on first try.
In Chris Bohjalian’s novel The Flight Attendant, there is an Armenian character named Ani. In the HBO adaptation, they pronounce it Annie. Chris Bohjalian said at a talk I saw recently that the producers/directors didn’t bother asking him how it was pronounced so they filmed almost the whole thing with Ani pronounced “Annie.” Then they found out from him that they were pronouncing it wrong, but it was too late to change it, so they threw in a scene with the character saying she didn’t correct people when they pronounced it wrong and she regrets not standing up for her name.
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u/finewalecorduroy 1d ago
Just as an FYI, every Armenian name is going to get mispronounced. Except maybe Lori, since English also has that name.
I assume you are in the United States. Here is my list:
Ani, Taline/Taleen/Talene, Aline/Aleen, Arpi, Zabelle (this is an old lady name but if you aren't in a bigger Armenian community no one will know, you can also spell it Zabel, but Americans will 100% mispronounce this to rhyme with Mabel), Shushan (this means Lily), Anahid, Lucine, Lori. Anoush, Arax, Talar, Lilit (pronounced lee-LEET), Maral, Sona.
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u/peachyquokka8872 1d ago
So true!! Our family female name is Mariam, but there are so many in our family already with that (myself included) I wanted to explore others. Is Nareh a popular one? That’s come up a few times, and I am pretty sure I’m pronouncing it correctly! LOL
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u/finewalecorduroy 1d ago
Nareh is a nice name! I know a little girl at church with that name, and one young adult as well. Not super super common but you do hear it.
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u/rsxrwscjpzdzwpxaujrr Yerevan 🏳️⚧️ 1d ago
There's a good article on Wikipedia with the list of Armenian names, but it's not in English unfortunately https://hy.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D5%80%D5%A1%D5%B5%D5%AF%D5%A1%D5%AF%D5%A1%D5%B6_%D5%AE%D5%A1%D5%A3%D5%B8%D6%82%D5%B4_%D5%B8%D6%82%D5%B6%D5%A5%D6%81%D5%B8%D5%B2_%D5%A1%D5%B6%D5%B1%D5%B6%D5%A1%D5%B6%D5%B8%D6%82%D5%B6%D5%B6%D5%A5%D6%80%D5%AB_%D6%81%D5%A1%D5%B6%D5%AF
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u/OwlAdditional84 1d ago
Those are nice Armenian names, but the question is about names that are easy to pronounce for Americans.
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u/rsxrwscjpzdzwpxaujrr Yerevan 🏳️⚧️ 1d ago
It's the list of all the names so they can pick the one that is easy to pronounce for them.
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u/peachyquokka8872 1d ago
Unfortunately I can’t read it 😂
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u/followthevenoms 1d ago
You can open Russian version of this article and translate it to English (ofc you can translate Armenian version, but I suspect that a direct translation of names like "The eldest" or "New Year" is incorrect)
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u/useawishrightnow Gyumri 1d ago
Nranee (pomegranate girl)
Araz- river Aras Nehri
Arshalooys- Dawn
Naneh- goddess of War
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u/WarriorDaveTheory 1d ago
Anahit, lusine, Gayane, narine, , Arpi, Hripsime, vartuhi, Liana , rubina
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u/MediocreCharacter828 21h ago
You can name her cilicia. Its what I want to name my future child if I ever have one
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u/heytarajane 19h ago
Lousaper was my friends moms name, she was so kind and it means bringer of light
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u/Fluid_Rutabaga5176 1d ago
pronounced like they're spelled:
Zabel
Inessa
Silva
not exactly phonetic but close // easy to pronounce:
Lusine
Lilit
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u/finewalecorduroy 1d ago
In the US, Zabel will be pronounced ZAY-bull probably 98% of the time (rhymes with Mabel), so I would spell it Zabelle. (I assume OP is in the US). My friend Lilit would always get her name pronounced LILL-it . You just have to come to terms with the fact that you're going to be correcting people all the time no matter what you pick. It's fine, I've grown up doing that pretty aggressively, but it's just the way things go.
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u/ElevatorConsistent65 21h ago
Australian here, my wife’s Lilit, so she’s pretty much Lily for her coffee order or anything else where she has to give her name for an order or any other one-time interaction. No one expects the t on the end! It’s a lovely name though and at least it does have that sort of English equivalent. Many Armenian names don’t and I think would be harder in day to day life, Gayane or Hripsime for example
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u/Fluid_Rutabaga5176 1d ago
Funny, the first time I saw Zabel printed, I figured it was pronounced like Isabel.
Hear hear on Lilit. Still gorgeous, though!
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u/ilovemaygf 1d ago
Arous, Lianna (Lia/Lea for short), Mari/Mary, Zabel (armenian version of isabelle), Milena (although maybe not so traditionally Armenian but very popular in Armenia nonetheless), Ellen, Seda
if you do happen to have a boy at some point Daron/Taron, Ruben, Martin are fairly popular in Armenia and wouldn’t be mispronounced in the US
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u/gregaved 1d ago
I have an Ani, and believe it or not, living in the Western US, people still struggle to say it correctly. She gets called Annie a lot.
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u/tickled_your_pickle 23h ago
My friend just had twins: Sevana and Sirena. Both are easy to pronounce.
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u/According_Body_5784 1d ago
Lilit
Marianna
Liana
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u/ShahVahan United States 1d ago
Not Armenian names
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u/anooshka 21h ago
Not Armenian? We have a very famous Armenian singer called Lilit, also my friend who was born and raised in Armenia is called Liana
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u/Zealousideal_Hall120 19h ago
Extremely common but not Armenian. Locals love using American names now, and before that is was a ton of Spanish names. So you see Mark among the top boy name, alongside Leo, Robert, Michael, etc. Female names are often non Armenian, though the new generation falls into hyper patriotic vs couldn't care less. So we have kids like mine with names like Aram, Araks, Vani, and those who are Jennifer, Jessica, Lilliana, Monica, Daniella, Michelle, etc.
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u/ShahVahan United States 13h ago
It’s not an Armenian name. Just used but not from the Armenian culture or language. It’s like calling someone jack. It’s not Armenian lol
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20h ago
[deleted]
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u/_dCoder 19h ago
how is Masis a girls name?
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u/heytarajane 19h ago
i know that’s what i meant, my sister has a traditionally male name and i just think it’s cool
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u/Longjumping-Run5071 1d ago
don't recommend it if they don't speak
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u/peachyquokka8872 6h ago
I disagree. I don’t speak Armenian, but we are very proud of our culture.
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u/Longjumping-Run5071 3h ago
because having an ethnic name means being expected to speak and know the culture. i recommend you make it middle name if you really want.
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u/Srslyredit2 Gyumretsi 1d ago
Ani is the most common one