Vartan is pretty awful. I can see about a billion ways that 9-year-old boys would have a field day with it. Plus, it sounds like a generic villian from a bad SNES RPG.
This would probably be instantly pronounceable in Albania, but as an American, when I see this name 1.) my eyes glaze over for an instant 2.) I sound it out in my mind (not knowing exactly how the accent is supposed to pronounced in this case) and 3.) I pronounce it (probably wrong). Now, if you have a grandfather named Shkëlqim and you want to name a son after him, I can understand that. But giving your son a crazy mess of consonants for a name because it looks cool seems unnecessary.
I figured he’d just go by skeleton.
When our bundle of joy was impending, I was gunning for Frank The Fifth. We had agreed on this for about 15-20 years (HS sweethearts). But when the ultrasound showed that we’d be having a masculine child, the truth came out… she didn’t want another Frank around. Tricked, manipulated, lied to, bamboozled, charade… just some of the words that crossed my mind before I uttered the phrase that changed the world - “You know you’ll never win another argument, right?”
So our kid’s name is Graham, and I still get told how I “always” get my way.
Other suggestions… once I gave up on Frank, I was circling the drain with these names:
[ul]
[li]Grant[/li][li]Graham[/li][li]Gray (note: my elder child is “Grace E.”, and I was unable to slip “Gray C.” under the radar)[/li][li]Carter (ultimately chosen as the middle name)[/li][li]Quinn (as a possible nickname if we decided to go with Frankie 5)[/li][li]Leo, Don, Mike, and Ralph - but only if only if we had quadtupletes and I could have them trained in martial arts and dress them in blue, purple, orange, and red, respectively… she actually agreed to this on the basis of a low probability of having 4 male kids in one pregnancy.[/li][/ul]
See, that’s what I thought. It’s not my personal taste in names (the ones on my list were: Joseph, Thomas, Joshua, Matthew, you get the idea). But it’s pretty badass.
So should no minorities give their children ethnic names, or just minorities who are part of a mixed-race couple?
My parents are the same race, minorities, raised me in the States and gave me an ethnic name. As a child I hated it, but now I love it and would never want to change it to something generic. It’s part of my background and who I am.
Thanks, I totally needed to flash back to the Nam tonight.
Are you my wife? You sound just like her. 
Seems there are more unusual baby names than ever: http://www.gnn.com/article/trend-of-unusual-baby-names-continues/931181
Oooh, I like Carter and Quinn.
I like Vartan too, but the nickname possibility is unfortunate.
I’ve never met a Daniel that I didn’t like.
Just take your favorite Howard Hawks movie set after the 18th century, and pick either the name from either the first or middle name of one of the leads, or whatever name would explain the NICKNAME of one of the leads. Can’t fail.
Vartan - I can already hear someone calling him Fartin’ Vartan the first time he passes gas in the playground. And then he’ll be called that until he’s an old man, when it will begin all over again.
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
Our boys are Spencer and Colin. Certainly more Rotary Club than quarterback.