peacedancer's Personal Name List

Breton form of Iudicael (see Judicaël).

Variant of Vidmantas.

Derived from Romanian viorea (see Viorel).

From Lithuanian viltis "hope" combined with mantus "intelligent" or manta "property, wealth".

Latin cognate of Hesperos. This name was used by the British author Ian Fleming for a female character, a love interest of James Bond, in his novel Casino Royale (1953). She also appears in the film adaptations of 1967 and 2006.

Alternate transcription of Russian Василий (see Vasiliy).

Means "goddess of the Vanir" in Old Norse. This was an epithet of the Norse goddess Freya, given because she was a member of the Vanir (as opposed to the Æsir).

Lithuanian form of Valdemar.

Scandinavian form of Waldemar, also used as a translation of the Slavic cognate Vladimir. This was the name of four kings of Denmark and a king of Sweden. It was introduced to Scandinavia by the 12th-century Danish king Valdemar I who was named after his mother's grandfather: Vladimir II, a grand prince of Kievan Rus.

Basque and Scandinavian form of Theresa.

Ossetian form of Tahmuras.

From a surname that was a variant of the surname Sidney. This is the name of the largest city in Australia, which was named for Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney in 1788. Formerly used by both genders, since the 1980s this spelling of the name has been mostly feminine.

Means "summer" in Finnish.

Variant of Zisel.

German and Scandinavian form of Severinus.

Finnish form of Severus.

In the United States, this name is usually given in honour of the city of Sedona in Arizona. The city itself had been named after Sedona Arabella Schnebly (née Miller), who was the wife of Theodore Carlton Schnebly, the city's first postmaster. Sedona herself is said to have gotten her name from her mother, who had allegedly thought up the name herself, thinking it sounded pretty. However, it could just as well be that her mother had taken the existing names Sidonia or Sidony and slightly altered them to her liking. She may even have been inspired by Cydonia to some degree, which is the Latin name of the quince plant.

From a Dutch surname meaning "scholar". Dutch settlers brought the surname to America, where it was subsequently adopted as a given name in honour of the American general and senator Philip Schuyler (1733-1804) [1].

Portuguese form of Sapphira. It coincides with the Portuguese word for "sapphire".

Means "rose" in Breton.

Italian form of Roxana.

Although Rhiann is first and foremost a short form of the name Rhiannon, it is sometimes associated with Welsh rhiain "maiden".

Latin form of Peter. As a Dutch name, it is used on birth certificates though a vernacular form such as Pieter is typically used in daily life.

Diminutive of Ottilie. A famous bearer was the British socialite Lady Ottoline Morrell (1873-1938).

French and Dutch form of Oliver. This is also a French word meaning "olive tree".

Masculine form of Natalia.

From Hebrew מֹרִיָה (Moriyah) possibly meaning "seen by Yahweh". This is a place name in the Old Testament, both the land where Abraham is to sacrifice Isaac and the mountain upon which Solomon builds the temple. They may be the same place. Since the 1980s it has occasionally been used as a feminine given name in America.

Means "remembrance" in Greek. In Greek mythology Mnemosyne was a Titan goddess of memory. She was the mother by Zeus of the nine Muses.

Derived from Latin mirabilis meaning "wonderful". This name was coined during the Middle Ages, though it eventually died out. It was briefly revived in the 19th century.

Means "bee" in Greek. In Greek mythology this was the name of a daughter of Procles, as well as an epithet of various Greek nymphs and priestesses. According to the early Christian writer Lactantius [2] this was the name of the sister of the nymph Amalthea, with whom she cared for the young Zeus. Later it appears in Ludovico Ariosto's 1532 poem Orlando Furioso [3] belonging to the fairy who helps Ruggiero escape from the witch Alcina. As an English given name, Melissa has been used since the 18th century.

From the place name Maricourt, located in the Somme department in northern France, first used during the First World War and last used before the Second World War.

From an English surname that meant "unfortunate" in Norman French. It first became common in the 1980s due to the American sitcom Family Ties (1982-1989), which featured a character by this name.

Medieval form of the Old English name Leofdæg, literally "beloved day". According to medieval English custom, a love day or dies amoris was a day for disputants to come together to try to resolve their differences amicably. Mainly a feminine name, with some male usage. Known textual examples date from the 11th century. It seems to have been most common in Cornwall and Devon, according to the British births, deaths and marriages index. Currently very rare.

The novel Coming Home (1995) by Rosamunde Pilcher, set in 1930s Cornwall, has a character called Loveday. Loveday Minette is a fictional character in the children's fantasy novel The Little White Horse (1946) by Elizabeth Goudge (in the novel's film adaptation, she is known as Loveday de Noir). Also, a character in Poldark.

Short form of Juliana, Liliana and other names that end in liana. This is also the word for a type of vine that grows in jungles.

French feminine variant of Jocelyn.

Anglicized form of Iseabail.

From Ancient Greek ἴον (ion) meaning "violet flower". This was the name of a sea nymph in Greek mythology. It has been used as a given name in the English-speaking world since the 19th century, though perhaps based on the Greek place name Ionia, a region on the west coast of Asia Minor.

From a surname that was from a place name meaning "hare land" in Old English. In America it has sometimes been given in honour of Supreme Court justice John Marshall Harlan (1833-1911).

Finnish diminutive of Johanna or Hannah.

Means "to use words of good omen" from Greek εὐφημέω (euphemeo), a derivative of εὖ (eu) meaning "good" and φημί (phemi) meaning "to speak, to declare". Saint Euphemia was an early martyr from Chalcedon.

Catalan form of Eulalia.

Means "bee" in Basque.

French feminine form of Emmanuel.

Combination of Elsie and Mae.

Means "snowdrop (flower)" in Welsh, a compound of eira "snow" and llys "plant".

From Latin dulcis "sweet" and bella "beautiful". The usual medieval spelling of this name was Dowsabel, and the Latinized form Dulcibella was revived in the 18th century.

From an English surname that was derived from Norman French d'Arcy, originally denoting one who came from the town of Arcy in La Manche, France. This is the surname of a character, Fitzwilliam Darcy, in Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice (1813).

French feminine form of Daniel. It has been commonly used in the English-speaking world only since the 20th century.

From the Old Norse name Dagmær, derived from the elements dagr "day" and mær "maid". This was the name adopted by the popular Bohemian wife of the Danish king Valdemar II when they married in 1205. Her birth name was Markéta.

Variant of Corinne.

Derived from the Irish word cailín meaning "girl". It is not commonly used in Ireland itself, but has been used in America since the early 20th century.

Feminine form of Claudius. It is mentioned briefly in the New Testament. As a Christian name it was very rare until the 16th century.

French feminine form of Christian.

Short form of Christina.

Combination of Cheryl and the popular name suffix lyn.

Feminine form of the Roman family name Caelius. Shakespeare used it in his play As You Like It (1599), which introduced the name to the English-speaking public at large. It is sometimes used as a short form of Cecilia.

From the name of the flower, which is derived from Greek χελιδών (chelidon) meaning "swallow (bird)".

Combination of Carol 1 and Ann.

Spanish and Portuguese feminine form of Calixtus.

Feminine form of Callistus. As an English name it might also be a variant of Kallisto.

Variant of either Bobbijo or Bobbyjoe.

Means "earth, soil" in Sanskrit. This is the name of a Hindu earth goddess. She is the wife of Varaha, an avatar of Vishnu.

Short form of Elizabeth, or sometimes Bethany.

Means "azure, sky blue" in Italian.

From the English word that means "sky blue". It is ultimately (via Old French, Latin and Arabic) from Persian لاجورد (lajvard) meaning "azure, lapis lazuli".

Possibly means "healer" in Hebrew. This name was borne by the third king of Judah, as told in the Old Testament.

French form of Herleva.

Feminine form of Antonius (see Anthony).

Derived from the Old German elements ansi "god" and helm "helmet, protection". This name was brought to England in the late 11th century by Saint Anselm, who was born in northern Italy. He was archbishop of Canterbury and a Doctor of the Church.

From the name of the anemone flower, which is derived from Greek ἄνεμος (anemos) meaning "wind".

Meaning uncertain, possibly a derivative of Anne 1 or Agnès. It was used in Jean-Henri Guy's opera Anacréon chez Polycrate (1798), where it is borne by the daughter (otherwise unnamed in history) of the 6th-century BC tyrant Polycrates of Samos. Guy could have adapted it from a classical name such as Anaitis or Athénaïs.

A famous bearer was the Cuban-French writer Anaïs Nin (1903-1977), known for her diaries.

From the English word meaning "friendship", ultimately deriving from Latin amicitia.

French form of Amelia.

Variant of Alison 1.

Greek form of Alice. It also corresponds with the Greek word άλικη meaning "scarlet".

French diminutive of Alexandra. This was the name of a Danish queen, the wife of King Christian X.

Italian form of Alexius.

Variant of Alaina.

Latinized form of the Greek name Ἀγαθή (Agathe), derived from Greek ἀγαθός (agathos) meaning "good". Saint Agatha was a 3rd-century martyr from Sicily who was tortured and killed after spurning the advances of a Roman official. The saint was widely revered in the Middle Ages, and her name has been used throughout Christian Europe (in various spellings). The mystery writer Agatha Christie (1890-1976) was a famous modern bearer of this name.

From an English surname that was derived from the given name Edgar.

From the name of a type of tree, ultimately derived from Greek ἀκή (ake) meaning "thorn, point".