[charlotteo]

Hi

Is anyone Japanese? Do you know what the name Zara means in Japanese?
Is the sound harsh?

The reason that I ask is that I have just had a baby and my husband and I were planning to call her Zara. However my Japanese mother in law is saying that Zara sounds harsh in Japanese and that she will not allow us to use her mothers name as a second name if we have the firts name as Zara.
This has cause much disctress as I think it is very important that my hubands granmothers name is the babies middle name. A the same time I am outraged that his mother is trying to control what we name our baby. This all started we we would not agree to call the baby Sache - the name that my mother in law wanted to call the baby.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Lisa

[Bluey]

I don't think the actual issue is the pronounciation of the intended name of your child but the level of control your in-law has managed to exert on you and the emotional blackmail you've been held to.

Simply name your child Zara with the middle name of your mother-in-law's mother if you wish (it's not up to her) - it's not like it's patented or anything.

You should name the child anything you like and not seek your in-laws input or permission.

And where's your husband in all this? Cowering under his mother's orders? Why are you seeking the answer on a public forum - where is he on this matter.

Tell him to find his backbone - remind him it's an honour on the part of the children to use a relative's name for their own child, not a privilege of the grand-mother to bestow it. Tell him if he doesn't put the matter straight, you are happy to accord this honour to your own family by using your own grand-mothers name - his mother has no role to play in your own present family's decisions.

If she gets her way with a strictly private and personal choice that belongs to just you and your husband now, imagine how unmanageable she'll be in the future over larger issues?

[jap.ann]

I know it's really late but I just thought i tell you that Zara means Yugoslavia in Japanese.. romaji = Zaara. '.'