GIRLS
Thomsey - usually a nickname for Thomasine or Thomasina. However, I encountered this as a given name doing some Early American genealogy. Thomasine is the feminine form of Thomas, which is the Greek form of the Aramaic name Tauma and means 'twin'.
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the sort of doll a Ula might
have had a hundred years ago |
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| Ulster, Ireland |
Ula -Ulla is how Uladh is pronounced, being the Irish Gaelic name for the northern part of Ireland (with 'ster' from Norse roots, it has come to be known as Ulster).
a nickname for Urszula, which is the Polish form of Ursula, meaning "little bear", it is derived from the Latin word for bear 'ursa'.
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Beautiful spot from which a princess
might view the the country she reigned. |
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Louisa Ulrika was the sister of
Frederick the Great. Ulrika was
given to honor her godmother,
Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden.
Louisa Ulrika became Queen
Consort of Sweden. She was
well-educated. |
Ula is used as a nickname for Ulrika, the feminine form of the Germanic name Ulrich, which comes from 'othal' meaning 'country' and 'ric' meaning 'reign' or 'empire'. The Old English Ulric means 'wolf ruler' and Ulmar means 'wolf famous' or 'famous rule', Ulrika also is a form of Alarice, which means 'powerful ruler'.
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Julie of the Wolves - wolf famous, wolf queen, country reign
and Julie is not that far from Ula. Ula would be a perfectly
acceptable nickname for Julia, in my opinion. |
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Wouldn't Ula be a darling name for
this kitten? |
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Ancient Scythian bee
goddes Apia (an apiary
is a place for keeping
bees) |
The Hausa language of Africa uses the name Ula, where it means 'cat'.
"Ula t Vis" is an ancient saying which means "Ula is the Bee". This is a reference to the plentitude of bees in ancient Scythia, in the land of the Ula. I need to do a little research to see if this is the same area as the Ula river in southern Lithuania.
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Sahaliyan ula, the tenth longest river in the world, otherwise
called The Black River. |
Ula is the name of a clan in the Manchurian confederacy that existed in the late 17th century and of their capital city. It means "great river".
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Ulanara, second Empress of the Qing dynasty
Ulanara is the name of her clan
we have to guess at what her own name was |
In Mongolian this means mountain and gave rise to the name of the Altai mountain range, Altai ula. Altai means 'gold' and with Ula it means 'mountain of gold'.
In Hawaiian Ula means 'sacred red'.
In Arabic, the Wadi Ula is supposed to be the site where Noah's Ark landed. Ula means 'exalted' here.
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Al-Ula, Saudi Arabia, where you will find these ruins of Mada'in Saleh, which
were built before the time of Mohammed |
In Basque, Ula refers to the Virgin Mary.
There is a poem by the Japanese poet Hagiwara Sakutaro, subtitled "To a woman named Ula". He explained that her name in the poem serves a particular purpose since the l of Ula has no equivalent in Japanese, and the poem is meant to be read aloud, including the woman's name. He said that the main motif of the poem lies in the sound of the name Ula. For him, the sound of Ula expresses "a musical image of nostalgia, like a wind coming from a desolate graveyard." Ura was the name used for the woman in earlier versions of the poem and means 'seacoast'. I think this may be as beautiful an expression of the name as any of its meanings in other languages.
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Three women who founded Soko Mushrooms in Zimbabwe
They were so happy! I thought it would work for the Soko name Ula. |
In the Soko language of Africa Ula means 'laughing'.
It is fascinating to me to consider that the tribes that settled Eastern Europe and Germany (and from there, England and Spain) had come from much farther east, perhaps in the general area of the Altai ula of the Mongols and that perhaps there is some relation as well to the Manchurians, Aborigine, and Hawaiian use of the word. And curious the difficulty of saying it in Japanese. Parts of the Middle East also fell under the rule of people from Central Asia but I wonder if the name is so old, in fact, as to date back to ancient Ur and Elam. As it is present in the Elamite language as well. The landing place of Noah. Exalted as a mountain, sacred red, the sound of a wind from the sea or graveyard. This name has proven much more interesting than I originally anticipated it would.
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| the volva tells the god Odin of the end of the world |
Vala - German, meaning 'singled out'.
Norse, from the word 'volva', meaning "fortune teller" or "prophet". In Norse mythology, Vala is the name of the sibyl that predicts the end of the world.
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| the ship that takes the brave dead to Valhalla where they live in luxury until the world's end |
In Norse and other Scandinavian languages Vala is used as a nickname for names containing the root 'val'. "Walha" is a Germanic root which meant "foreign". 'Valr' refers to the slain and Valhalla is the the 'hall' of the slain (who died well). There is Proto-Norse in which waihalaR means 'the arguing one'. Someone named Wanilo in Norse might go by the name Vali while they are young. This is ironic to me since Wanilo itself means 'the little Vanir' and so would seem to already be a name used while someone is young. It's possible that there is some connection in the meaning of Vala to Vali through this, as the Vanir were a family of gods in Norse mythology (not the family of Odin) and lived elsewhere, practiced magic, etc.
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Her name was not Vala, but perhaps it should have been. Charlotte Ray was the first female
lawyer to argue a case before the Supreme Court. |
In ancient India Vala was a figure who had cows which were set loose by Indra and he is seen as a protector of them. As a word in this ancient literature, vala is taken to mean 'cover' or 'cave', as the cave which received "the waters" (this reminds me of Genesis, when the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters). In this instance, though, Vala is a masculine name.
BOYS
Wolfgang - German, from 'wulf' (wolf, obviously), and 'gang' meaning 'path' or journey (can't you picture how a modern streetgang forms, following the same path to school each day, playing on the same sequence of play equipment at recess, etc, Or even how a gang might have formed once upon a time, traveling the same road for safety). It is quite natural to picture a pack of gray wolves stalking Hansel and Gretel through an old forest.
Xanto - Greek, meaning "a blonde-haired man" and pronounced "zaen toe".
Zebulon - Hebrew, perhaps from 'zebed' meaning 'gift' or possibly from 'yizbeleni' meaning 'honor'.
Archelaus- Greek, meaning "prime" or "rule of the people".
Synolda - I've been digging around on this name for nearly a year now. I know one thing for certain, which is that it was a female name in use in Northern France or among the Norman invaders of Britain. I don't know much more for certain. Conjecture might associate it with 'chennault' a name given to a person who lived near a channel of water (such as the English channel separating England and France) or to the word 'saulte' as in the name of Saulte Sainte Marie, the name of a city on the Saint Mary's river in Ontario, Canada, so named by the French, perhaps, because of the rapids or waterfall located there, as 'saulte' means 'jump' (saltar in Spanish also means 'to jump, and 'salta' would be what you would say if telling someone to jump. Perhaps Synolda is an old French form of some word related to this root. But in the end, it may simply mean 'a waterfall' or perhaps a place on a river where one enters or leaves the river). It 'looks' more like the word 'synod', which is the word used to refer to a church council where doctrinal matters are decided. It comes from the Greek 'synodos' meaning 'assembly' or 'meeting'. It is also worth remembering that 'ot' is a common ending to French names and a often makes a name feminine, so the original form of the name may have looked and sounded different. Which makes me think of the Greek 'xeno' meaning 'stranger' or 'foreign'. The Vikings were strangers, at first, in France, their Norman descendants were 'foreign' to the people of England, and the Anglo Normans who came to Ireland were also. I would like to know for certain the origin and meaning of this name. For now, this will have to suffice.
Uli- Germanic form of Ulli, meaning "heritage" or "patrimony". It can also be a short form of the Germanic name Ulrike, meaning "powerful ruler" or an Estonian form of the Latin Ursula, meaning "little female bear". It is also a form of the Irish name "Ula", meaning "sea jewel".
