7 Outstanding names for Today

GIRLS

Lérida - name of a city in northeastern Spain, anciently called Iltirta (the Romans called it Ilerda and later, the Muslim conquerors called it Larida).

The book  Pueblos y apellidos de España: Diccionario Etimológico by Julián Aydillo San Martín,

suggests that Ilerda (which is referred to as the Iberian name of the city) is derived from Ilezda. As if  Lérida itself were not a pretty enough name (and it is absolutely beautiful when said ... "LEHR ee thah"), Ilezda is just that much more beautifully pronounced, with the allure of the initial I and the letter z. It is said "ee LACE thah" the 's' sound in LACE having a slight z vocalization in Spanish.

The city was inhabited by the Ilerguetes, the Iberian people of ancient Spain that occupied this place before the Romans, Celts, and Carthaginians. This is the region of Spain near the Pyrenees mountains. The ancient name, according to the above etymological dictionary, meant or referred to its position in an elongated depression or valley.

Modern History Or the Present State of All Nations, Volume 2 By Thomas Salmon is an English resource which also gives the Iberian name of the town as Ilezda. 

Edgiva

Malgorzata - Polish, from the Greek word "margarites" meaning 'pearl'. Pronounced "mahw-gaw-ZHAH-tah", according to behindthename.com. 


Nallomy -

Odgiva - Anglo-Saxon, its original form is Eadgifu, from 'ead' meaning "rich" or "blessed" and 'giefu' meaning 'gift'. Variants of this name include Otgive and Edgiva.








BOYS


Peleg - Hebrew, meaning "a brook", according to Wikipedia.

The Brook of Sorek 

Add caption

Reccared - Gothic, from 'rec', which comes from 'wrikan' meaning 'to persecute' or 'to chase' while the second part of the name comes from a name element meaning 'advice' or 'counsel' (according to Vrbes Extinctae: Archaeologies of Abandoned Classical Towns edited by Neil Christie, Andrea Augenti, p 147).



Stanislav - Slavic, from 'stani' meaning 'stand' or 'become' and 'slava' meaning 'glory'.

Stanislav Petrov received the Dresden Prize
(he's holding it up in this picture). He is the man
 who decided that the warning system was
 mistaken when it said that the U.S. had launched
 6 nuclear missiles against the Russians. Thanks
to him, you only have 10 fingers or 10 toes, rather
 than 13 or 2.

1,748 Names left to learn this year

GIRLS

Life in the Elysian Fields was one of perfect bliss and joy.

Elysia-  Greek, meaning "incorruptible" or "to be deeply stirred from joy" or "to come". The Elysian Fields were Paradise in Greek mythology.


Fauneil possibly French, this is a surname also. I encountered it as a woman's name, however.
 

In the devotional medal above, the assassins 

have a rope or ribbon to strangle Godelieve

Godelieve - Flemish, from Godeliva, the feminine form of the German name Gotelieb, which comes from 'god' and 'leub' meaning 'dear' or 'beloved'.

Saint Godelieve, a pious Christian 

woman, was murdered on her husband's command.

BOYS


Heriberto - Spanish, from the Germanic name Herbert, which comes from 'hari' meaning 'army' and 'beraht' meaning 'bright' (according to behindthename.com).


Isembart - Saxon, from "isern" meaning 'iron and steel' and 'beraht' meaning 'bright'. Beraht came from 'barta' which was the Saxon name for a broad axe.  There is a medieval poem that described the deeds of the knight Isembart with his cohort, Gormont, a Moor. Not the book pictured below, necessarily, that was just a nice picture to go with the name.

I will get around to reading the epics, when I can pull my nose out of the book I came across that FINALLY after hours of research gave me the origin of the name Isembart, which is

Surnames of the United Kingdom: A Concise Etymological Dictionary

By Henry Harrison

Which is nice resource and available on Google Books.


Jubal  - after all the hard work to find the etymology of Isembart, I am taking the easy way out and giving you the etymology for Jubal that I found in another source, likewise available on Google Books.

The Encyclopædia britannica: a dictionary of arts, sciences ..., Volume 16

edited by Hugh Chisholm

A hedge could be made of stone, as in the stone wall surrounding this village
 from long ago

Kellen - Richard Stephen Charnock in his  Patronymica Cornu-Britannica: Or, the Etymology of Cornish Surnames   (1870) supposes that this name comes from 'ke-lan' and refers to a church or place surrounded by a hedge. Well, his spelling is Kellan, until I find that there is any difference other than spelling, we'll assume it is the same name. He does offer the possibility that it comes from Kelland, which he connects with the name Helland in 'Trigg Hundred'. He also mentions that 'kil' means 'neck' or 'promontory' and 'kelin' means 'holly-tree'. As for Helland in Trigg Hundred, well, there were enough different theories of how the name came to be, that I decided to just let you read his explanation:

XYZA and BCD

GIRLS

Xanthippe- Greek, from 'xanthos' meaning yellow and 'hippos' meaning horse.

Yadira - Hebrew, meaning "friend".

Zenetta - One possibility is that this is related to the French Zanette, which comes from the Hebrew John meaning "God is gracious". On the other hand, if it is related to the Greek via Zanetta, then it would mean 'long teeth'.

Azucena- Spanish variant of an Arabic name meaning "lily". Pronounced "ah su say nah".

BOYS

Braulio - Spanish, derived from German and means "shining".

Chilperic  - From:

English Etymology: Or, a Derivative Dictionary of the English Language

by George William Lemon

Diggory - English

I found more than one possible origin for this name. Behind the Name suggests that it may come from the name of a knight featured in a medieval poem from Brittany, Sir Degare, which they think comes from the French word 'egare' meaning 'lost one'.

This is the same etymology (essentially) provided by Llewellyn's Book of Names, though they give more details. It is important to note that in their supposing where Sir Degare's name may have come from (they provide other spellings, but we'll stick to the one previously indicated) they suggest perhaps a connection to the Celtic name Dungarth, which belonged to a fabled king of Dumnonia. This they connect to the roots dubno, meaning 'deep' and 'world' and 'kar-o' meaning, 'to love'.

A new name blog I came across, just by researching this name, is firstandmiddlebabynames.wordpress.com. Clicking on the link will take you to the discussion Elizabeth McKeown hosts there, this one, specifically, on Diggory. She offers the meaning as 'astray' but following a similar derivation as Llewellyn and Behind the Name.

Babynamespedia, however, says the name is English and means 'from the dyke'.

Tuesday's 7 Names -Names # 246-252

GIRLS

Passiflora - "passion flower". Passion in the name of the passion flower refers to the Passion of Christ, all the suffering he underwent in his effort to save humanity from sin.

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Quinterria - probably a variant spelling of Quiteria, the name of a Christian martyr who lived in the 5th century, according to Wikipedia. There is a fine article on Saint Quiteria here. The theory put forth on Wikipedia as to the origin of her name is that it may derive from Phoenician, due to the fact that the goddess Astarte was also called Kythere (or Kuteria or Kyteria), meaning "the red one". Another theory they offered was that it is derived from Cytherea, the island where Aphrodite is said to have been born (Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love). The story on Wikipedia on the saint is brief, but it is one of the better saint stories, I think, and well worth the short investment of time to read it (click here.)

Cytherea, or Kythira, is one of the 7 main Ionian islands of Greece, just south of the Peleponnese peninsula. Phoenicians created a community here and also worshipped their goddess Astarte. Even anciently it was believed that the worship of Aphrodite had originated here.

I found the Wikipedia articles on Kythira and on Astarte fascinating. You can read them here: Kythira    Astarte

My final word (for now) on the name Quinterria is this. I had met a lady named Katiria, a Spanish-speaking lady, and that is pronounced 'kah tier ee uh'.

I have to say that this name wound up completely surprising me. It was curious, sure, but I did not expect such a wealth, hey, that's cool, kind of interesting. Hope you enjoyed learning more about the name. I think I may add Cytherea or Kythira or Kythere or perhaps even Quiteria to my list.

Variants of the name offered on Wikipedia:  Quiteira, Quitterie, Kithiriammal

This singer's name is Andra Day

Riya - Sanskrit, meaning 'singer'. It is pronounced 'ree yah'. 

BOYS

Stig - Old Norse, derived from the name Stigr and means 'path' (according to behindthename.com).

Follow Highway 89 south until you reach Salina, then head west on Route 50.
At the junction of these two routes stood Stig's, when I was growing up, the
neighborhood bar. Perfect, ain't it? That the name means path and stood at a
crossroads. The whole Paiute trail is beautiful and you really should go. They 
have a sort of ATV rendezvous in late August or September and that is the 
perfect time of year to tour the beautiful mountains of the area.

Tench - a type of carp. This word is derived from the French 'tenche' or 'tanche' which in turn comes from the Latin 'tinca', which meant something like 'the nibbler'. Tinca derives from tinea which meant 'a moth'. Tinea comes from the Greek. 

I also came across this alternate etymology of the word tench:




Tench became a nickname for a person who resembled the fish (? I have no idea which part of a person looks like this fish!).

It could also come from the surname which is derived from the Dutch surname 'Tenge'. The surname could have been acquired in the same way as the nickname, or could have been used for someone who caught or sold this type of fish or lived near a place where these fish lived.

Vernile - Latin, "servile". It comes from the Latin word vernilis which is based on the word 'verna' which means slave.

Warnock - Scottish, it comes from the surname Mac Giolla Mhearnóg, which, according to ancestry.com means "son of the devotee of St Mearnóg". St Mearnóg is a saint from Kilmarnock. Wikipedia says that Mearnóg may derive from the Gaelic mo meaning 'my', Ernán and the diminutive ag.  Ernán means 'iron' and the Etymology of the principal Gaelic national names, personal names, surnames by Alexander Macbain says that St. Ernan's name in Latin was Ferreolus, meaning 'iron one', and this coming from 'iarunn'. So, Warnock comes from the surname Mac Giolla Mhearnog, meaning 'son of the devotee of St. Mearnog' and Mearnog means 'my little Ernan' or 'my little iron-one'. 

monk's cell and standing stone on Eilach an
Naoimh, or Holy Isle, one of the islands of
 the Inner Hebrides on the west coast of
 Scotland. around 542 A.D. a monastery was
founded here. This may have been Hinba, the
island that St. Columba retreated to, where his
 uncle, St. Ernan, lived. Hinba means 'isles of
 the sea'. The island is uninhabited now and was
 remote and isolated then as well, which made
it a great place for spiritual growth. I'm not a
 'devotee' of the saint, but I would not mind being
 a 'follower' if that meant getting to go to a
pleasant, peaceful spot such as this.

1,769 names left to learn

Sudanese woman

With these 7 names under your belt, you only need to learn 1,769 more names this year!!

GIRLS

Ismeria - ? unsure of origin, but one possibility is Arabic. This name was featured on britishbabynames.com as part of their Name of the Week series. You can read more in depth about it here. BBN (britishbabynames.com) connects it to a legend and some history from Picardy, France (the town of Liesse), with a woman named Ismeria from Sudan, during the time of the Crusades. Ismenia and Ismérie, pronounced 'EEZ mer ee', according to BBN) are two names that BBN finds may be connected to Ismeria's origin. To keep it interesting, she suggests Isma, an Arabic name meaning 'protection' or Asma, also Arabic and meaning 'supreme', could potentially be names which gave rise to Ismeria. Ismérie appears to be the version of the name generally used in France. It seems, according to the BBN article, that a Spanish play may have helped spread the name a bit after the Middle Ages.  There are quite a few variants on this name on britishbabynames.com, so I encourage you to visit the article for all of them, plus quite a bit more of interest on the name and its usage. My favorites were Ismary and Ismeriette.

How adorable is this little Mexican girl?
She could easily be named 'Jesusa'. 
Susie or Sue would be easy nicknames, or Hazy. 

Jesusa - Spanish feminine form of Jesus, which is the English form of the Greek Iesous, which is a form of the Aramaic name Yeshu'a, which is a short form of Yehoshu'a meaning "Yahweh is salvation". Jesusa is pronounced "hay SU sah".


Kjersten - Danish, meaning "follower of Christ".

Painting by the Danish artist Vilhelm Hammershøi 

Queen Boudiccea, a neighbor of the Trinovantes
 clan, as imagined by the artist John Opie,
 who lived in the late 18th century. 

Landora - Uncertain the language of origin of the name. However, Landora is used as the name of the female love interest in the play Fuimos Troes written in English and published in England in 1633. In the play the character is a native Briton, a member of the Trinovantes, one of the Celtic tribes that inhabited England at the time of the Roman invasion of Britain. However, a key concept of the play is that the British were descended from ancient Troy, just as the Romans were thought to have come from that nation. It also appears nearly the same as the name Pandora, which is Greek.

BOYS

This image of Melchizedek painted on the wall of a church in Romania is
well-preserved. He is worshipped as a saint in the Orthodox and Catholic churches. 

Melchizedek - Hebrew, meaning 'king of righteousness". In the Bible, Melchizedek is a high priest of God. He was also the king of Salem, and the meaning of Salem is 'peace', so he is considered a king of both righteousness and peace. There are arguments that Melchizedek is Michael the archangel and that he is Shem, the grandson of Noah. Jesus Christ, according to the Bible, became a priest forever in Melchizedek's priesthood order. The priesthood of Melchizedek is said to be greater than the priesthood which was given to Abraham and some say that his is a heavenly priesthood (i.e. only practiced in heaven, and not on earth).

In the Bible, Nimrod is known as a great hunter.

Nimrod - possibly Akkadian. It may mean "rebel" in Hebrew.



Osten - German, from 'ostan' or 'ost'  meaning 'east', which comes from the Proto-Germanic root 'austra' and is related to the 'word 'ausos' meaning 'dawn' (according to Wikipedia. I haven't searched more than that yet).

Sunday's Names #232-238

Roza Shanina, who died at age 21 in WWII, a Soviet hero
who is known to have killed at least 59 of the enemies, at
 least 12 during the Battle of Vilnius. She was an expert
 marksman and volunteered for service in 1941 at age 17. 

Since our goal is to learn 2,014 new names this year, todays' names leave us with just 1,776 names left to learn!!




GIRLS


Bronislava - Russian, a feminine form of Bronislaw, from the Slavic roots "bron" meaning "protection" and "slav" meaning "glory". Pronounced "brah nee SLAH vah".


Corliss - English, from 'caru' meaning 'grief' or 'care' and 'leas' meaning 'without' or 'free from', so that the name means 'cheerful' or 'carefree' (according to a user on behindthename.com). Pronounced 'kar liss'. I'm a little disappointed, as I had imagined it was said 'core liss'.

by Renoir, this mother and her 2 children seem perfectly
 carefree! The daughter, Georgette-Berthe is to the left and
the son,  Paul-Emile-Charles, sits next to his mother. The
mother's name is Marguerite-Louise.

Dorta - Spanish, a shortened form of Dorota, which comes from the Greek name Dorotheos (it gives us the English version Dorothy, as well). Dorotheos is derived from 'doron' meaning 'gift' and 'theos' meaning 'god', so that it means, as a name, 'gift of God'.

Altar angel made in Artois, France
between 1275 and 1300 AD

BOYS

The Temple of Bel at Palmyra, where religious offerings were
 made in ancient times.

Elkanah -Hebrew, meaning "God has purchased".


Faramond - Variant of the Germanic name Faramund, from "fara" meaning "journey" and "mund" meaning "protection".

Jonah was thrown overboard while traveling by boat to Nineveh, as the sailors
 believed doing so would please the sea god and their journey would be
protected. Jonah, of course, was swallowed by a big fish. (see Geppetto, below,
  and the story of his time inside a whale in the tale of Pinocchio).

Geppetto - Italian, nickname for Giuseppe, which comes from the Hebrew Joseph (well, Joseph is English, the Hebrew is more like Yossef). Joseph (Yossef) means 'Jehovah will add' or "Jehovah will increase".

Heulyn - Welsh, meaning 'ray of sun'. It is pronounced 'HEE lin'.

Names 225-231

7 names to begin the first week of February. Two from people I've met. (the first two)

beautiful Mount Timpanogos is the favorite mountain of many Utahns and visitors

the legendary mountain as seen from across the valley and Utah lake

GIRLS

Utahna - Not exactly sure how the name came to be, if it was an authentic Native American name or invented by a white guy. Ute, which is the name for a tribe of Indians and is the root of the name of the State of Utah, means "Land of the Sun", according to one webpage. But my father, who grew up in Southern Utah (where the Paiute Indians live) has always heard it meant 'the land high up'. It probably means both. So, we shall use our imagination and suppose that Utahna is a girl or woman from the land of the sun, or the land high up.

According to the article posted on the National Park Service webpage, Utahna is the name of the Indian princess associated with the Legend of Timpanogos (a large mountain with a beautiful cave in Utah County, Utah.) You can read more of what their website has here . Some versions of the legend say her name is Ucanogos and others say Norita. Or, at least, the poem that appears in this book published in 1922, names her Norita. I came across an obituary for a lady (a twin sister) named for the Indian Princess Norita. The twins were born March 3, 1922, the same year the poem was published in a manuscript put together by a professor. Read here about Norita and her brother Norman (the twins). Another name for the same princess is Owasetta, from a 1909 version of the legend. According to a 2009 'scholarly' article, these names, including calling the princess Timpanogos, are names those in 'western' culture ascribe to the figure in the story.

one way of seeing the princess mountain

a different interpretation of how the princess lays (or this may be the Indian brave she loved, since there's no bust)

Wouldn't it be nice to know the full story? Utahna perhaps comes from the same root as the name of the Ute people. Still not sure what language it comes from or the 'true' legend. Let me know if you have anything for me! (I do know of Utahna used as woman's name in modern times, though by Anglo-Saxons. Not sure if it is only used by we white people.)

She commands the view from every direction and is one of the most striking features of the valley. Provo Canyon and Bridal Veil Falls lie to the south, or to the right in this picture. 

Vontess - No luck yet on finding the origin of this name. An elderly lady in my hometown had this name. It does seem it could have come from two names smooshed together into one, Von and Tess, perhaps for a father and a mother. In any case, here is a picture of her house. She has the loveliest pine trees! They are especially welcome in the semi-arid desert of central Utah

UPDATE: I came across the last name Vontress, which the Library of Congress subject headings listed as Von Tress and said to use Vantrees family rather than Von Tress family. That would make me think of it as a Dutch surname. The Library of Congress subject headings, under Von Tress family, suggest using these additional spelling variations:
Van Trees
Van Treese
Van Tress
Vantrease
Vantreese
Vantrese
Vantress
Ventres
Verdries
Verdriess
Vertrees





Wvladislawa - Polish form of the Slavic name Vladislav, which comes from the root words 'vladeti' meaning 'rule' and 'slava' meaning 'glory'. According to behindthename.com, it is said 'vwah di SWAH vah'.

Wladyslawa, the girl on the right, would seem to be the younger sister of a nun who founded a convent or order of nuns.

Jesus is exalted

Xylia - Greek, from the word 'xylon' meaning 'wood'.

BOYS    

Yehuda - Hebrew, meaning "praise" or "exalt". The name Judah is derived from Yehuda.

, 

Zabdiel -      the Hebrew is shown at left, a bit small, I know. You can see it a bit better here in Calmet's Great Dictionary of the Bible. It is derived from  , which is Hebrew, written in English as 'zabad' and meaning 'portion' and from  , which is Hebrew, written in English as 'el' and meaning 'God'. So that Zabdiel is taken to mean 'God's portion'.

"Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's
 and unto God, that which is God's.

Amadis-Spanish form of the Latin name Amadeus, meaning "to love God". Amadis is a famous figure of medieval chivalry, with many books devoted to his adventures. The famous knight of La Mancha, don Quixote is inspired to do good deeds and become a 'knight-errant' after reading the books about Amadis.