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[Opinions] Re: Safiya (and other names on my mind)
It's not too long at all! - it's always great to see non-Anglo names on here.
I think I'd go with the Safiya spelling just to make it distinct from Sofia. It is pretty.
From your list I like these best:
Hava
Naira
Anush
Narine*
Arevik
Zuhra
Inara
Marjan
Darejan*
Nabila
Taisa*
* = do you have any etymology for these?
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I'm glad!Narine is Armenian, I think it's usually written Narineh. It could be derived from the Arabic word nar, "fire", or from Persian nar meaning "pomegranate" (the same root as Gulnara). There's also the Armenian name Nare / Nareh which might be more common.Darejan is an interesting one! It comes up as the name of Georgian queens and princess especially in the 17 - 18th century. I found it from the medieval book of Amiran-Darejaniani (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiran-Darejaniani), Amiran son of Darejan. I would guess that that isn't a matronym and Darejan was used for males as well? I can't find much about it and I don't know if it's used much now, it doesn't seem very common. The -jan is from the Persian meaning soul (like Turkish Can, it is quite a common element in names) and can be used as an endearing suffix, but I'm not sure about Dare-, it could be derived from/related to the Persian names Dariush or Darya. Taisa is an uncommon variant of Taisiya, Taisiya is the usual version.
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