In 2014 I featured a series of blog posts introducing you to 2,014 names. For the most part they were names that were brand new to me as well. Some names may be more familiar but I found the meaning or origin or some other aspect of the name made it worthy of inclusion here. You may love some of the names, you may hate some, but hopefully you enjoy learning about all of them.

Sunday, November 30, 2014

30 More New Names

GIRLS

Azalaïs - Occitan form of Adelaide.

Charletta - feminine variant of Charles.


Chione - "snow white"

Dafnis - Spanish variant of the Greek name Daphne.

Diandrea - Modern American invented name based on, possibly, Diane and Andrea. Diane is Latin and the name of the goddess of the hunt, a moon goddess. Andrea is the feminine form of Andrew, a Greek name meaning "manly".

Eletta -

Eutaxia - "she who decently arranges her garments".

Fernetta- A variant of Fern.

Herewynn - Germanic, from 'here' meaning "army" and 'wynn' meaning joy'.

Hippothoe - "swift as a horse".

Lagretta- this could derive from Lagertha or Lathgertha, which comes from the Old Norse name Hlathgerth. Wikipedia also lists Lagertha and Ladgertha as variants in English.

Legretta is the name given to a judicial committee of Old Norway. As Hlathgerth was a Viking ruler, I wonder if there is any connection in the origin of the names.

Mei - Chinese, meaning "plum".

Shequoyia - modern American invented name. It seems to be a combination of sequoia, meaning 'redwood tree' and added sounds for creativity but with no particular meaning.

Ugolina - German




BOYS

Awley - "tall as a willow".

Dovi - Occitan nickname for Ludovi, a variant of Ludovick.

Elizahom - I'm not sure if this is a typo. It can be found in the book Personal and Family Names by Harry Alfred Long. But the reference is to the son of Parnach and other references to the son of Parnach list Elizaphan. Maybe it is an alternate transcription of the name? I'm not sure. Parnach was from the tribe of Zebulon (in the Bible). biblehub.com lists the meaning of Parnach as "bull striking" or "struck" or as "gifted" (parnakh). Elizaphan means "whom God protects" (same source). I don't know if Elizahom was ever used as a name or if it just appears in Long's book.

Exie-

Fricis - Latvian form of Frederick.

Frithawulf- Anglo-Saxon, meaning "peace wolf"

Galentine - a earlier form of Valentine, meaning "happy through good health".

Gebbie - Nickname for the Hebrew name Gabriel, meaning "strength of God" or "very strong man of God."

Leosthenes - Greek, meaning "strong as a lion" indicating an 'active strength'.

Macaulay - Scottish, meaning "son of Awley", from "mac" meaning "son of" and "Awley" meaning "tall as a willow".

Nobah - "loud voiced"

Petifer - a form of Potiphar, meaning "iron-footed" or "a hard kicker".

Talhiran- name of a Pictish king, meaning "iron forehead".

Tremfear - "strong man"

Zillai - meaning "iron of Jehovah".

Zhimatvande - Sogdian, meaning "servant of Demeter". A name that points to the heritage left behind by Alexander the Great when he visited Central Asia.

Friday, November 28, 2014

Smorgasbord of New Names!

GIRLS


Alexandrie - French feminine form of the Greek masculine name Alexander, meaning "defender of mankind" or "protector of mankind".

Bethari - Javanese form of the Indonesian name "Batari" which means "goddess".

Capucine - French, meaning "nasturtium".

Cateline - French form of Catherine, which may come from the Greek Aikaterini, meaning unknown.

Dvosye - Yiddish nickname for Dvoire, which is derived from the Hebrew name Deborah, which means "bee".

Edrie

Iskra - Bulgarian, from a Slavic word meaning "spark".

Laurence - French, from the Latin masculine name Laurentius, derived from "laurel".




BOYS


Alfbern - Germanic, from "alf" meaning "elf" and "bern" meaning "bear".

Ananiel - Hebrew, meaning "rain of God".

Archelochus - Greek

Cyprian-

Caecilianus - Latin, from "caecus" meaning "blind". This is the name of an early Christian, bishop of Carthage in the 4th century.

Fredegund - Frankish, meaning "peacebattle".

Radegund - counselbattle.

Sigibert - Frankish, meaning "victoryshining".

Sjang - Limburgish nickname for Johannes (Limburgish derives from Dutch, German, and French).

Thascius - I also saw this spelled Thaschus.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Some Mongolian Names and a few others

GIRLS NAMES

Azalyn

Enkhtuyaa- Mongolian, meaning 'ray of peace'.

Erdenetungalag - Mongolian, meaning "jewel-clear".

Narantuyaa - Mongolian, meaning "sun-beam". Names reflecting more pleasant things are more the fashion nowadays than names like Sorqaqtani were in the past.

Sarangerel -Mongolian, meaning "moon-light".

Sorqaqtani - Mongolian, meaning "pox girl". A name with a meaning like this was used to fool evil spirits and thus protect a child from misfortune. This sort of name was used in the middle ages.

Zayaa - Mongolian, a nickname for Delgerzayaa, or other names with the element 'zayaa'.


BOYS NAMES

Askaa - Mongolian, a nickname for Arslandorj. Parts of the name are taken and the suffix ka is added to form a nickname.

Batsaikhan - Mongolian, meaning "strong-nice". I love this concept!




EITHER GENDER

Idree - Mongolian nickname for names with the element Ider, such as Idertuyaa (girl name) or Iderbayaa (boy name). Often a brother and sister might have such matching names (though I'm guessing they'd wind up with different nicknames).

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Sunday's 14 Names

GIRLS

Janith

Jushoda - Sanskrit, from Jashas, meaning "fame" and da, meaning "to give". 

Lisarda

Lucilina

Urraca - Basque, "magpie" from "urra" meaning "nut". See An Etymological Dictionary of the Romance Languages by Friedrich Dietz and T.C. Donkin, 1864, pg 448

Zula


BOYS

Elimelech - Hebrew, meaning "God is judge" or "God has judged".

Jaquan

Jocky

Lindall - English, from "lin" meaning "brook" and "dale" meaning "valley".

Live

Othal

Rajan

Steen

Saturday, November 22, 2014

1298

Counted up all the names I've introduced you through this year's 2014 New Names in 2014 post series. 1298 names learned so far. I still need to introduce you to 716 more names. 126 a week or 18 a day. Here's some to keep us on schedule.


GIRLS


Enza

Lonia

Lulabelle - I saw this name on a tombstone today in Mt. Hebron Cemetery here in Winchester.

Amarilla

Sosie



BOYS


Alanson

Alpheus

Azel

Dennon

Plimpton



NOT SURE OF GENDER


Givie

Tollie

25 Names

GIRLS


Arbutus

Arvella

Breelynn

Clavel -Spanish, meaning 'carnation'. 



Condoleeza

Donnabell

Ellender

Evadean

Floremie

Florestine

Gerilene

Gladystina

Rosilla



BOYS


Abiathar

Adetokunbo

Selleck

Shamash

Thayer

Théoden

Verdon

Wattie

Wilberforce

Woolsey

Zephon

Zilbel



Thursday, November 20, 2014

1189 New Names Learned So Far This Year

Here are some more to get us to our goal of learning 2014 new names in 2014. We have 825 more to learn by December 31st. I found these on a fabulous name blog called Legitimate Baby Names.

GIRLS

Adelgjejda- Belarusian form of the German name Adelheid, which comes from the roots "adel" meaning "noble" and "heid" meaning "kind" or "sort" or "type". I have no idea how to pronounce this name but here is how it is written in Belarusian: Адэльгейда.

Burian - Cornish, the name of a saint.

Llora - Catalan form of Laura pronounced "YOH ruh". Laura, first used in Spain, derives from the Latin 'laurel'


BOYS

Akamu - Hawaiian form of the Hebrew name Adam, meaning "man". It could come from the Hebrew "adam" meaning "red" or from an Akkadian word 'adamu' meaning "to make".

Eirikur- Faroese form of the Norse name Eric, meaning "ever ruler" or "always ruler". It comes from the elements "ei" meaning "ever" or "always" or "only" or "one" and "rikr" meaning "ruler". Rikr seems to come from a common Indo-European root as Latin, Celtic, and Sanskrit all have words for ruler which are very similar (rex, rix, and raja). Faroese is a North Germanic language spoken on the Faroe islands in the North Atlantic oceans between Norway and Iceland and belongs to the Kingdom of Denmark.

Foma - Azeri form of the Aramaic name T’oma (Thomas is the more familiar variant in English), meaning "twin". Azeri is a Turkic language spoken in Azerbaijan.

Kurush - Persian, it's equivalent in English is Cyrus, but Kurush is the original name. It may come from "khor" meaning "sun" and "vash" meaning "likeness". There is an argument though, that it has an Indo-European origin with the meaning "to humiliate"

Uzajr - Chechen, Bosnian, and Russian form of the Hebrew name Ezra which means "God helps". Ezra may derive from the Hebrew "Azaryahu". I have no idea at all how to pronouce Uzajr, or Azariyahu either, for that matter.

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Hand over new names, and no one gets hurt!

GIRLS

Virdžinėjė - Saimogaitian form of Virginia, which comes from the Roman family name Virginius, which probably comes from the Latin "virgo" meaning "virgin" or "maiden".


 BOYS

Alford - English, meaning "old river ford", a place to cross a river. This name would apply to someone who lived at such a place. It is a variant of Alfred, also, which comes from Old English meaning 'elf' 'counsel' or perhaps 'inspired' 'peace'. (thanks to babynamespedia.com for this information).

Josip - Croatian form of Joseph, from Hebrew, meaning "he shall add".

Titoan - Occitanian form of Anthony, which comes from a Roman family name "Antonius". It may have derived from Etruscan.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Cuddle up with some new names

GIRLS

Bethena


BOYS

Chilion
Eliel
Hane
Larman

Monday, November 17, 2014

Some Names the Wind Blew In

GIRLS

Cherry Jo

Derhusucay

Edorta- Basque feminine form of Edward.

Emma Belle

Leworthy

Lisabel

Meada

Netherdy

Selvesty

Tishy


BOYS

Beasley

Mattaniah - Hebrew, meaning "gift of the Lord". The Latin name Matthias comes from Mattaniah.

Rollie

Sunday, November 16, 2014

855

That's how many names I need to introduce you to by the end of the year. 142 new names per week!

It means you've already learned 1159 new names if you've read every post in my 2014 names in 2014 post series.



GIRLS


Luvinnie

Madora

Percenith




BOYS


Davin

Helm

Hervery

Shadwick

Tilford

1139

That's how many new names you've learned this year thru my 2,014 New Names in 2014 blog posts. But that means I still need to introduce you to 875 more new names by the end of the year, and we now have only a month a half to learn that many names. That's more than 100 names per week. Yikes! Let's get going!

GIRLS

Allefer

Barcella

Barsheba

Barsheby

Betheir

Clary

Darkus

Frankey

Leasey

Liddy

Oney

Percilly

Sary

Sirenia

Sophira


BOYS

Adem - Turkish form of Adam.

Burak - Turkish, from the Arabic name Buraq which comes from 'barq' meaning "lightning". The name of the creature that transported the Prophet Muhammad.

Berryman

Claiborne

Devrim - Turkish, meaning "revolution".

15 More Names for November

GIRLS

Belinha - Portuguese nickname for Isabel.

Glaucia - Portuguese feminine form of the Roman cognomen Glaucia which comes from 'glaucus' meaning 'bluish-grey' and derived from Greek.

Iria- possibly a Portuguese form of Irene

Joaninha - Portuguese nickname for Joana.

Ligia - Portuguese form of Ligeia.

Margarida - Portuguese form of Margaret.

Nela - Portuguese nickname for names ending in 'nela' such as Antonela.

Otavia - Brazilian Portuguese form of Octavia.

Rosinha - Portuguese nickname for Rosa.


BOYS

Adao - Portuguese form of Adam.

Carmo - Portuguese form of Carmel.

Dado - Portuguese nickname for Eduardo

Egidio - Portuguese form of Aegidius.

Fernao - Portuguese form of Ferdinand.

Heitor - Portuguese form of Hector.

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Names for the middle of November

GIRLS
Gerd is the wife of a Norse god

Gerd - from the Old Norse 'gerdr' meaning "protection". There is a giantess in Norse mythology named this.

Goedele - Flemish


crown jewels of Greece
BOYS

Basiel- a short form of the Greek name Basileus which means "kingly".

Christoffel - a form of the Greek name Khristoforos, which means "Christ-bearing".


Egmont - Germanic, meaning "edge of a sword" or meaning "awe" or "terror" or "fear" or meaning "protection" or "protector". It comes from the Germanic name Agimund, derived from 'ek' or 'agi' meaning "awe" or "terror" or "fear" and 'munt' meaning "protection" or "protector".


Elio - Italian

Florent - from the Latin "Florens" which means "flourishing".

Jaak - medieval short form of Jaakob or Jaakobus, which comes from the Latin name Iakobos which is derived from the Hebrew name Yaakov which comes from ya'aqobh which originates from aqev, which means "heel of the foot" and so means "heel-grabber".

Kees - Dutch, a short form of Cornelis which comes from the Latin name Cornelius, which is an old Roman surname, possibly related to the word 'cornu' meaning 'horn'.

Laurys - Manx form of Laurence which derives from the Latin name Laurentius which means "a person from Laurentum" and may come from the word "laurus" meaning "laurel". A wreath of laurel leaves was placed on someone's head to indicate that they were being honored and had earned this honor through some accomplishment. Traditionally they were used to crown the winner of a poetry competition in ancient Greece, perhaps because they are associated with the god of poetry, Apollo, who, in attempting to seize the nymph Daphnae for his own pleasure  caused her father to turn her into a laurel tree in order to protect her. This is the explanation for why the laurel tree is sacred to Apollo.

Lieven- Flemish

Manu - a fascinating name that exists with distinct etymologies in different cultures. One is that it comes from ancient Sanskrit and means "man" or "mankind" and was the name of the first man and who was the first king and who saves all mankind from the Flood. Another is that it is the name of the person from whom Aryans are descended and who are supposed to be descendants of ancient Atlantis. Still a third origin is that it is used as a nickname, for instance, as a Finnish form of names such as Immanuel, which comes from the Hebrew 'imanu el' which means 'God is with us', or as a form of Mauno or Maunu, Scandinavian names which come from the Latin name Magnus, which means "great". A fourth (or fifth, if you count Immanuel and Magnus as two separate origins) origin would be as a Hawaiian name for boys or girls meaning "bird".

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Not so new, but new to me

GIRLS

Neferu - Egyptian
Egyptian hieroglyphs of Neferu's name


Sewirum-Uprat - Hurrian. I have not found the meaning of the name and I don't yet know how it is pronounced, but I think it's beautiful! I am completely taken with the Hurrians. I had forgotten about them but I remember being fascinated with them before, a long time ago. Right now such terrible things are happening where those people lived, or in part of where their people lived. This is the region where ISIS has established itself and other factions - where Turkey meets Syria and Iraq.

BOYS

Kawain, Kymothy, and Tyriq- these are names I saw on a news story, two individuals named Kawain and Kymothy-Tyriq. Still need to research them though.

Wolfram - Germanic, from "wulf" meaning "wolf" and "hraban" meaning "raven. These were the animals that accompanied the Norse god Odin. 

Sunday, November 9, 2014

A Veritable Feast of Names

GIRLS


Azusa

Brylynn

Cyprianna

Diethild
- Germanic, from 'theud' meaning "people" or "race" and 

Dorina

Evgeniya-
Bulgarian form of Eugenia and a Russian variant spelling of Yevgeniya. Pronounced "yev-GYE-nee-yah" or "eev-GYE-nee-yah" in Russian.

Floria

Gwenevra

Ixeia

Nolwen
-Breton, from 'gwen' meaning 'white' or 'fair' or 'holy' or 'blessed' and Noyal, the name of a town in Brittany, France. Used to refer to a saint from Noyal, Brittany, so it essentially means 'blessed one from Noyal" or "holy one from Noyal" or even "fair" or "white" with the more symbolic meaning of these words.

Sedna-Eskimo, the name of the goddess of food.

Zdeslava-Slavonic



BOYS


Aadne

Athama

Auginare

Betzalel

Bransford

Eufemio

Exeter

Jaron

Saturday, November 8, 2014

A Cornucopia of New Names

GIRLS


Janina

Saturnia

Vigila

Winefer

Yesenia

Zita

Zola




BOYS


Jeshua

Jovi

Kader

Lud

Lycaon

Piramus

Plutarchus

Roswell

Saturday, November 1, 2014

New Names for November

GIRLS

Bathshuah - Hebrew

Florisa - Spanish, pronounced 'floor EE sah'. Flor means 'flower' in Spanish. Florisa would mean something like 'flower-like'.

Lilla

Rosenda - may be a feminine variant of Rosendo, a Spanish form of the Visigothic name Rudecind, from the Germanic roots 'hrod' meaning 'fame' and 'sinths' meaning 'path'.

Theodate

Zilla