Savoring Some Good Ol' Names

GIRLS


Arnelda

Lovinnie

Seleta

Terissa

Texanna

To market, to market, to find some strange names, home again, home again, jiggety-james.

GIRLS

Victorina - Latin, meaning "victory", the mother of Victorinus, one of the Thirty Tyrants.

Wilella - English


Xenoveva - Asturian


BOYS

Yemelyan - Russian

Zagraeus - Greek

Adalbern - Germanic, from "adal", meaning "noble", and "bern", meaning "bear".

Rainy days and Names always cheer me up

GIRLS

Donda

Elander

Fan


BOYS

Greenbury

Holdridge

Iacchus

A Bit of Both and Neither (or is it Either?)

GIRLS

Zelia - Hebrew, from "zelus" meaning "zealous" or "ardent". It is pronounced "ZEH lee uh".

Ajarae

Brickaney


BOYS

Deileon

Elim



NOT SURE WHICH GENDER

Calsey

Pioneer Day Names

GIRLS


Tristiana

Ulpukka - Finnish, name of a yellow pond-lily called spatterdock.

Xenoclea - Greek, name of the oracle at the temple of Apollo at Delphi.



BOYS


Volusius - Latin, from Volusus, a form of Volesus. According to a user on behindthename.com the name may come from the Oscan or Sabine languages and mean "to be strong" (coming from 'valere') or "to will" or "to want" or "to wish" or "to desire" (coming from "volo") or "flying, winged thing" (coming from volucer).

Wmffre

Ynyr Welsh form of the Latin name Honorius, from "honoro" meaning "honor" or "respect".

1142

That's how many names we still need to learn in 2014 to reach our goal of learning 2,014 new names this year. We are learning 6 names today so that means we have 1,136 names left to learn. It also means that we have now (with today's names) learned 878 new names in 2014.

GIRLS


Prunelle -French diminutive for prune, which comes from the Latin 'prunum' which comes from the Greek "prounon" which is a form of "proumnon" which means "plum".


Rafaeline

Turid



BOYS


Ethric - Anglo-Saxon short form of Aethelric or Ethelric, from "aethel" meaning "noble" and "ric" meaning "rule" or "power".  

Falvey 



NOT SURE OF GENDER


Cathal

First things first, Second things Second - Names for the 2nd of July

GIRLS


Krishelle

Phonesavanh- the name of a city in Laos that was built in the 1970s. The ethnic groups in the area are Hmong, Khmu, Phuan, Tai Dam, and Tai Daeng. I'm not sure what language the name of the city comes from

Rula



BOYS


Taliaferro - Italian, meaning "iron cutter".
 

Aberforth - Anglo-Saxon meaning "Eadburg's ford". It is also written as Aberford and is the name of an ancient place in England.



NOT SURE WHICH GENDER


Shomo - 

6 New Names

We've had a bit of a break in the month of May. So far I've introduced you to 800 names. That leaves 1214 names left to learn this year. Unless I'm doing my math wrong, that means you need to learn 5 to 6 names each day for the rest of the year.

Here are 6 for today

GIRLS

Henny

Kendallynn

Olithia- This is probably a variant spelling of Alethea, which derives from the Greek word 'aletheia' meaning 'truth'.



NOT SURE WHICH GENDER

Pollard  this seems to be English and may mean "shaved head". Polle meant head in Middle English and pollard refers to an animal with its horns removed and trees whose branches have been cut back.


Rafa

Shanika

Today is Wednesday, Though, These are for Thursday

GIRLS

Vanda - a form of Wanda in a few different languages. Wanda means "wanderer". Vanda is also a species of orchid.

Budingen

Zettie

Bedinger  this was the middle name of an American female poet, which is why I thought it was a female name. It is just a surname stuck in the middle after all. It is German and derives from the city of Budingen.

Budingen coat of arms

*side note genealogy-wise. This lends credence to my idea that the name Dellet is a surname indicating the town that family was from. I have now come across at least a few German surnames of this sort.

Add caption

Calceolaria- Latin, from 'calceolus' meaning 'small shoe', this is a genus of plants, a kind of orchid. I thought it might make a nice name. It's more commonly called lady's slipper.

BOYS

Elbert -  Old English, meaning "noble, bright.

Heman

NOT SURE WHICH GENDER

Dowdell - Old English, either from "dow", which derives from "dufe" meaning "a dove" or from "do" which derives from "da" meaning "a doe" and "dael" meaning "a valley". So the name either means "dove valley" or "doe valley", or more romantically "valley of doves" or "valley of does". Dowdell is an English surname, but I encountered it being used as a first name. I consulted the book Surnames of the United Kingdom: A Concise Etymological Dictionary by Henry Harrison for this information.

Keep your spirits high with these 7 fascinating names!

GIRLS

Zenaida

Eveleaner

Fleur-de-mai

Gentry


BOYS

Hajadiah

Isam

Jacinto -Spanish form of the name Hyacinth, which comes from the Greek Hyacinthus, which means "hyacinth flower" or "the color purple". It is pronounced "ha SEEN tow".

Begin the week with 7 new names!

GIRLS

Valaunta

Willa Mae

Yhoalibeth


BOYS


Anakin - according to Wikipedia the name of Luke Skywalker's father, Anakin, was based on the last name of a friend of George Lucas. But I also came upon the following trying to research this name. In the Old Testament a race of giants are called the Anakim - they are descendants of Anak and their name may come
from a root meaning "strength" or "stature". Personally I find this to be the perfect meaning to be associated with the Anakin in Star Wars, as Darth Vader is known for both his strength and stature. In addition the giant Goliath is supposed to be a descendant of the Anakim. The battle between Luke and Vader seems to me a David and Goliath type battle, in fact the entire rebellion could be seen as David and the Empire as Goliath. The Anakim were supposed to have dwelt in the Holy Land
before the Hebrews came there from Egypt.

Anak (the ancestor of the Anakim) is considered by some to be related to the Sumerian god Enki (who is also known as Ea among the Akkadians and Babylonians), patron god of the city of Eridu and also the god of crafts, mischief, water, seawater, lakewater, intelligence, and creation. He was associated with the southern band of constellations called the stars of Ea, and also the constellation As-Iku or "the field" (known as the Square of Pegasus in modern times) and he was also associated with the planet Mercury. He appears in the earliest texts - cuneiform - and was important at least 3,000 years before Christ. He was known as "Lord of Earth". He was considered the master shaper of the world and god of wisdom and all magic. Enki casts a spell on his grandfather, Abzu, the 'begetter' of the gods and then takes over his roles.

Anak is also associated with Anax. In Greek Anax means "king" or "lord" or "leader", in the sense of a tribal king or military leader. It comes from the stem 'wanakt' and sometimes appears as 'wanaka' or 'wanasa'. As the term is used in the ancient Greek texts, an anax (such as Agammemnon) is a kind of high king, or a king in charge of other lesser kings. Anax is also a term used to refer to Zeus who is the king of the gods and 'overlord of the Universe'. Even in the ancient Homeric writings Anax is not a term used for just any king, but reserved for legendary kings and gods. It is hypothesized that this term originates with the Proto-Indo-European 'wen-ag' meaning 'bringer of spoils'. It appears as part of other terms, Hipponax (king of horses), Anaxagoras (king of the agora), Pleistoanax (king of the multitude), etc. The plural, Anakes meaning "kings" was used to refer to the 'heavenly twins' Castor and Polydeuces whose temple was called the 

Anakeion and their festival the Anakeia.

Not that Georgie had any of this in mind when naming Anakin Skywalker. Still, it is interesting to me that the name could be seen to be related to these ancient figures.

Baldric -from the German roots "bald" meaning "brave" or "bold" and "ric" meaning "rule". This name was brought to England by the Norman invaders and was common in the Middle Ages.


Cicerón

Donofrio

Wednesday's Whatsits

GIRLS

Orlena

Petronella

Rella

BOYS


Shem

Teshonn

Zedidiah - Hebrew, meaning "justice of God".

Aias- Greek, perhaps derived from 'aiastes' meaning "mourner". Ajax is a form of Aias and so either can be used to refer to the famous hero of the Trojan war. Aias is pronounced 'eye us'.

Names #397-403

Beautiful urns in a Roman mosaic

GIRLS


Zuri - Swahili, meaning "beautiful".




silver and blessed

Arianwen - Welsh, meaning "silver and blessed". Pronounced "ar ee AHN when".

Burla - a Bulgarian Jewish name. Possibly means "storm".


storm over Utah Lake

BOYS

Carlese


Dule

Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego protected by an angel

Eliaphaz - Hebrew, meaning "My Elohim is strength". Elohim means God.

Fant

Do you see one or two names you would use?

I'm not saying they're all extremely usable. But, I think that Aljourn 'might' work on a boy these days and Xevera maybe on a girl. I wonder if there was ever more than one Zerubbabel??

GIRLS

Wilmet

Xevera

Yrsa - Swedish, possibly derived from 'ursa' meaning 'bear'.


BOYS

Zerubbabel - possibly Hebrew, derived from "Zerua Bavel" meaning "the one sown of Babylon" or "Zeruy Bavel" meaning "the winnowed one of Babylon". The one interpretation relates to the idea of child born in Babylon or conceived there and the second to living in Babylon as an exile. Wikipedia also suggests the possibility that this name derives from the Assyrian-Babylonian "Zeru Bavel" which means "one conceived in Babylon". They all seem the same to me.

Burgess Meredith, actor

Aljourn - a form of Algernon.

Burgess - English, derived from the French and indicating someone who lives in a town.

Cuthbert - Old English, meaning "famous".

oops, I posted this a bit early - these names are for Saturday

Some rather awesome names to add to the list!

GIRLS

Hermelinda

Iraida - Arabic, meaning "seeker".

woman seeking knowledge

BOYS

Kenton - English. The second part of the name refers to 'town'. The first element, 'ken', could refer to
the river Kenn, thus, a town near this river. The Old English surname Cena referred to someone from the town of this name, according to the website babynamespedia. The website also points out that the Old English 'cyne' is another possible source for 'Ken', and meaning 'royal' and that 'tun' can mean 'homestead' as well as 'town' or 'settlement'. In this instance Kenton then means "royal manor". The website says that 'cena' as a word and personal name means 'keen'. Though, in combination with the second element it would seem the reference would be most likely to indicate a settlement named for someone named Cena, rather than the word 'cena'.

Loftus - perhaps Loftus as a first name comes from the practice of using a family surname as a child's first name. I found a very neat webpage in my search to find the origin of this name. called Surname Database. According to this site, it is English coming from "lotht" which means "upper floor" and "hus" meaning "house". It points out the rarity of such a home in the Middle Ages, and so a place that had such a thing came to be called Loftus. And from that, someone from such a place eventually had the surname Loftus. As early as 1219 A.D.

The website has some neat features. It has a map that shows the distribution of this surname in the U.S. It would seem that there is no one in Hawaii, North Dakota, or Alabama with the name, but a lot in Oklahoma (if the legend that says the high rate of occurrence for the name is shown by dark red). Or else in Illinois and Pennsylvania, if the part that says the greener the state shown on the map, the more people who live there with this surname.

It seems rather odd to me as a first name though.

Marama - name of a moon good in the Cook Islands, in the South Pacific ocean.


Noam- Hebrew, from "No-omi" meaning "pleasantness".

Joiada - Hebrew, meaning "Yahu knows", derived from Jehoiada. Wikipedia gives the pronunciation as 'Yoyada'.

Wednesday's Names

GIRLS

Williadine - No greater luck determining how this name came to be than for Willowdean.

Xanthe- Greek, meaning "blond-haired".

I also came across a poet who has published some of her work on the web, going by Xanthe (not blond haired, though, from what I can see, but hopefully a lover of Ancient Greece!) Here is a link to one of her poems. I liked how vulnerable she was willing to be in her poem and the simplicity of it. It seems like maybe writing this was therapeutic and what I call "soul-building". When I read some of my earliest poems I find that in them sometimes. You know, when you don't want to hide the meaning or intent of your poem behind artifice.

Queen Boudicca - one example of "fierce" "glory" of the "noble kind"

Yarisleidy- I know that this name is given to Spanish-speakers. Beyond that, I don't know anything 'certain' about its origin or meaning. However, some possibilities exist. Might it be a form of the Slavic name Yaroslava? This can  also be spelled Jaroslava. Eleydi is another name I've come across on Spanish-speaking girls, which is an old name. It can also be written Aleydis. Could Yarisleidy be a compound name, like many Spanish-speaking names (Adamaris, for instance), combing Jaroslava and Aleydis?  Jarosleydis or perhaps written Yarosleydis, with the s eventually dropped and amending the spelling a bit? If so, Yaroslava means "fierce glory" as it is derived from the Slavic roots 'jary' meaning "fierce" or "strong" and 'slawa' meaning "glory". Aleydis is a form of Adelaide, which is a German name meaning "noble type" or "noble sort" or "noble kind", coming from the roots 'adal' meaning "noble" and 'heid' meaning "kind, sort, type". The meaning you might get for a compound name derived from Yaroslava and Aleydis, then, would be "fierce glory of the noble kind". Gotta say that I love that.


BOYS

Zabry - possibly comes from the Czech Zábřeh, which is the name of a town in the Czech Republic - it is in the Sudentenland, which was 'annexed' by Hitler to Germany in 1938. It is derived from “zá” meaning "behind" and "břeh" meaning "riverbank". This refers to the  Moravská Sázava river.  Zábřežská vrchovina refers to the part of the town located on a hillside, with Zábřežská vrchovina meaning Zábřeh highlands. So, it seems to me, Zábřežská would make a nice feminine version of this name. Though I have NO idea how to say that!


Abimael - Hebrew, meaning "my father is God".

Burnell - English, meaning "little brown-haired one".







Cristóforo- Spanish form of Christopher. Pronounced "cree STOW foe row" be sure to roll the r in the last syllable.