Is Keani a Boys name or Girls?

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: Is Keani a Boys name or Girls?

It also depends where you are planning to raise the baby. If in Hawai'i, it would probably be a cool first name. If on the mainland, and if Keani is to be the boy's first name, he might run into trouble with some ignorant people. There are all kinds of ways to massacre a name like "Keani" in some parts of the world! ("Is that Keyayknee? Keyaynigh? Keyahnoo?")

Note that this is a guy whose niece is named Nyasia. I doubt that pronunciation difficulties are high on his list of worries.

[Miulang]

Re: Is Keani a Boys name or Girls?

Note that this is a guy whose niece is named Nyasia. I doubt that pronunciation difficulties are high on his list of worries.

Seems to me that girls can get away with being given strange sounding names (Apple???) better than boys can (it's a male competitive kinda thing). I suppose if he aspired to be a CEO someday he could just abbreviate Keani into "K". As in "K. David Smith". But it's not the parents I'm worried about. It's the kid when he becomes an adolescent and has to endure teasing from his peers about his name.

Miulang

[er095]

Re: Is Keani a Boys name or Girls?

I live and plan on raising my son in NYC. It’s a very diverse city. Typical common names like John, Kevin and Jane are not that common in NY as it once was. With all the different races and cultures u find most kids from all nationalities with not so common names. Kids will always be kids, but being that this city is so diverse many kids are taught to be respectful and accepting towards classmates of different ethnicities and background at an early age. I don’t believe my niece ever had a problem with people mispronouncing her name or making fun of it. I remember kids playing around with my nephew Robert saying (ROB, ROB, ROB, ROB, the ROBER watch out for that bank) I guess it was catchy to kids. I don’t think it ever really bothered him. If I lived in Oklahoma or Kansas maybe I would worry more about the pronunciation and the type of name I use.

[Miulang]

Re: Is Keani a Boys name or Girls?

You might be interested in this little study about success for kids with unusual names.

Or this little study:
"The unusual name game

We know it's tough being a boy named Sue. Now it turns out it's also a problem to be a classmate of a boy named Sue, according to University of Florida economist David Figlio.

Figlio found that boys with first names typically given to girls were more likely to misbehave in junior high school than students with less distinctive monikers. And boys in classes with boys who have feminine-sounding names were more likely to have discipline problems and lower standardized test scores, Figlio reports in a new working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Two months ago, Figlio found that children with unusual names don't fare as well in class. In his latest analysis, he used detailed data collected on more than 76,000 students in the late 1990s from a large school district in Florida. In exchange for access to student records, including names and disciplinary histories, Figlio promised not to reveal the school district or otherwise identify individual students.

Overall Figlio found that nearly 2 percent of all boys in his sample had names that were overwhelmingly given to girls. That means the typical Florida middle-schooler will share about one out of every three classes with a boy named Sue ... or Ashley, Courtney or Shannon...."

And here's another article about the same researcher...


Miulang

[Miulang]

Re: Is Keani a Boys name or Girls?

What about making Keani his middle name instead of his surname? Then when he's older, he can decide for himself which name he likes better.

Miulang

[er095]

Re: Is Keani a Boys name or Girls?

I grew up in West 4th street in NYC to Greek Parents my wife is mixed Black and Italian. We live on the Upper East Side we both work in midtown. I guess it’s a different world out here. I remember like 15 years ago a black guy with dredlocs would only get a job as a bike messenger in NY. Now not only do blacks with dredlocs have jobs in the NYPD, FDNY, school teacher, corporate America ECT, but You got white guy with dredlocs (my cousin) who is a vice President at Morgan Stanly. I wonder where those studies were done. Virginia? Send me a study like that in NY. I’m not denying that a name like Dayquan wouldn’t be a problem for a kid in Arkansas but that just not the case in NY. That’s just the way it is out here now. Still ignorance still racism but not like the rest of the country. Eventually Arkansas will one day catch on. Miulang I’m not sure if im going to use it yet or if it is gona be a middle name. What I won’t do is give him a name like Joe or Tony. I just think it’s to typical not creative or special. I do like few common names like Aden and Eben. My parents named me Rich I don’t think they gave it much thought. There were proud to be in America so they gave me a common name used in America instead of a Greek name. Anyway, I got the info I needed. Thanks all for the help.

[BABYGIRL]

Re: Is Keani a Boys name or Girls?

I agree with er095 in a place like NYC you have more diversity and much more acceptance. I have lived all over and currently reside in Kansas City, MO
and I know the people here are very close minded and are very set in thier ideas and thinking when it comes to different cultures and ethnic backround so it would be more of a problem in a place like this than in NYC. I lived in Hawaii for a few years and then moved to Guam for 16 years, I have a great appreciation for different people and cultures but not everyone on the Mmainland is as welcoming to anything different. My children have not so common names and they don't get picked on so much as people a
just don't pronounce their names correctly. I think you should know what a name means before you use it but I got no beef with nobody. congrats and good luck I wish your family the best.

[btwnc2c]

Re: Is Keani a Boys name or Girls?

,. If I lived in Oklahoma or Kansas maybe I would worry more about the pronunciation and the type of name I use.

Hey, why you picking on Kansas! I lived there for a long time (suburb of KC on the State Line) and trust me, a name like that there wouldn't raise an eyebrow. But maybe that's because that's where I lived and people there were sophisticated. Why do people equate Kansas to "OZ"? Anyway, tell you the truth, I'd worry about them butchering the name here in Texas, and I live in Big D (Dallas) which is cosmopolitan and by no means a small city. Not ragging on you, so don't get huhu okay, just had to defend my last home state.

[BABYGIRL]

Re: Is Keani a Boys name or Girls?

Sorry about it Kansas nothing wrong with it I do believe not everyone is close minded out here. But there are alot of them that are out here. Texas is not my favorite sorry guy, i feel for ya. I do feel like I'm in OZ out here being that I'm only 20 min from Kansas it's not to bad

[kimohalliway]

Re: Is Keani a Boys name or Girls?

I am a 27 yr old Male married to a woman named Keani.

[TIANA]

Re: Is Keani a Boys name or Girls?

To ER095,
My fiance and I are trying to have a baby and we already picked our favorite names. Girl will be Inara Keilana. Inara means "heaven sent" in Arabic and Keilana in Hawaiian means "adored one" or "gift". I have a condition that might make it very difficult to have a baby (if I can have one at all) so those two names will have a very special meaning to us. If we have a boy his first name will be Keanu which means sea breeze or breeze because I'm from southern Europe and I love everything that reminds me of our Adriatic coast. My fiance and I have two different religions and nationalities-he is Bosnian and Muslim. I am part Serbian, Croatian and Hungarian and Christian. Because of the war majority of population in our country is against "mixed" relationships like ours. Names are very sensitive issue so we decided to go with foreign names so we do not offend his or my family. I know that you would not name your son Keani if it meant something bad and I think that Keani is a great name. What you name your child is your decision. People who are offended when somebody uses their culture's name are racist. A lot of African American females in St Louis where I live give their children Slavic names like mine Tiana, Tatyana, Tanya etc. I am happy when they do it because it means they like it. Also, I traveled a lot and have very diverse friends and have never heard of a name with an awful meaning like "toilet bowl". Besides, Hawaiian boy name KEONA means god's gracious gift, and in IRISH culture name KEON is a form of name EWAN. Should we argue whose culture is older Celtic or Hawaiian? That is the most stupid thing I ever heard. Congratulations on your baby boy, I hope he will be healthy and proud of his name and his open minded parents.

[TIANA]

Re: Is Keani a Boys name or Girls?

To Miulang,
That study about children with unusual names is ridiculous. I came to US nine years ago when I was 19 years old. In Europe, I was the only one in my city with name Tiana. My GPA was 4.0 in elementary school and high school. My major in US was chemistry and my GPA 3.7. My parents taught me that it is good to be different. If we were all the same race with same names this would be the most boring place to live. I will not give my child name John and pretend he is Anglo-Saxon American just so he can "fit in". Should America be all white then? Are African American and Asian kids more stupid and have lower grades because they are different? My friend is japanese, she has a "strange" name and she is Asian. She is also one of the best medical students we have. Most Asians in our city are doctors, chemists, engineers etc. Very, very smart. They are different from majority white population and still very very educated. That was the most stupid study I have ever heard about. Maybe only whites with common names have good grades. We should teach our children that there will always be racist peple who will hate and tease them because of color of their skin, hair, eyes, name etc.. but they do not matter because this world is also full of great, open minded people.

[TIANA]

Re: Is Keani a Boys name or Girls?

To BTWNC2C,
I live in St. Louis, Missouri now and I agree that this is very close minded comunity. I have been all over US and this is one of the worst places when it comes to racism and prejudice. Of course, you are right, there are nice people everywhere but majority dislikes or hates foreigners. I have olive skin, blk hair, dark eyes, full lips etc. and foreign accent. I have seen pure hatred while talking to some people. My parents could not rent a condo in a "nice" neighborhood 9 years ago when we arrived to US. I even heard "we all look alike" even though I am European but from southern Europe. I cannot even imagine what African Americans, Asians, Native Americans and others go thru when they hate other Europeans as much. New York, Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles etc ARE very different and a lot more open minded. There is a good movie name CRASH that everybody should watch. It shows that every nation has racist people and a lot of prejudice. Also in every country I visited or lived small town people are the worst. Reasons are mostly no education, no exposure to other cultures while growing up, poverty... Most people in Missoouri have never been outside of US and many have never left their state. They don't even eat in Indian, Japanese, Arabic or other restaurants. I do not want to offend anyone and I realize we have open minded people in Midwest too but not many. Most people in St Louis don't even know how many continents we have in the world. That is one of the major reasons my fiance and I are moving to Miami next year.