erb816's Personal Name List

Means "radiance, brilliance" in Irish. This was the name of a goddess of love and fertility in Irish legend, thought to dwell at the hill of Cnoc Áine in Limerick. It has sometimes been Anglicized as Anne.

Spanish form of Alexandra.

Alternate transcription of Russian Алексей (see Aleksey).

Bosnian feminine form of Al-Amir.

Means "hope, aspiration" in Arabic. It is related to Amaal.

French form of Amelia.

Form of Aminah 1 used in western Africa.

Means "protection, shelter, refuge" in Spanish. It is taken from the title of the Virgin Mary, Nuestra Señora del Amparo, meaning "Our Lady of Refuge".

Means "angel" in Maori.

Possibly a French variant of Anahita. A famous bearer was the French writer Anaïs Nin (1903-1977), known for her diaries.

Ancient Greek and Latin form of Andrew. It is also the form used in Modern Greek, German and Welsh.

Spanish and Icelandic form of Andrew.

Dutch form of Angélique.

From Old Irish Aífe, derived from oíph meaning "beauty" (modern Irish aoibh). This was the name of several characters in Irish legend, including a woman at war with Scáthach (her sister in some versions). She was defeated in single combat by the hero Cúchulainn, who spared her life on the condition that she bear him a child (Connla). Another legendary figure by this name appears in the Children of Lir as the jealous third wife of Lir.

This name is sometimes Anglicized as Eve or Eva.

Means "appeared" in Portuguese, taken from the Brazilian title of the Virgin Mary Nossa Senhora da Conceição Aparecida, meaning "Our Lady of the Conception Who Appeared". It refers to a statue of the Virgin Mary that was said to have been pulled from a river by fishermen in the 18th century. Our Lady of Aparecida is regarded as the patron saint of Brazil.

Means "altar of the sky" from Latin ara "altar" and coeli "sky". This is an epithet of the Virgin Mary in her role as the patron saint of Lucena, Spain.

Modern transcription of Ardashir.

Dutch and German variant of Arnold. This is also the Dutch word for "eagle".

Spanish, Catalan, Russian and Polish form of Ariadne.

Means "honey" in Persian (of Arabic origin).

Feminine variant of Aviv.

Means "doe, female deer, gazelle". It is taken from the Hebrew phrase אַיֶלֶת הַשַׁחַר ('ayelet hashachar), literally "gazelle of dawn", which is a name of the morning star.

Means "free" in Persian. This word has derivatives in several other languages, such as Hindi and Turkish.

Perhaps a form of Azalaïs. It was borne by Saint Marie-Azélie Guérin (1831-1877), also called Zélie, the mother of Thérèse of Lisieux.

Spanish form of Bethlehem, the name of the town in Judah where King David and Jesus were born. The town's name is from Hebrew בֵּית־לֶחֶם (Beit-lechem) meaning "house of bread".

Means "little flower" from Irish bláth "flower" combined with a diminutive suffix. In Irish legend she was a maiden abducted and married by Cú Roí. She was rescued by Cúchulainn, who killed her husband, but was in turn murdered by one of Cú Roí's loyal servants.

Derived from Irish brecc "freckled, speckled" combined with a diminutive suffix, making it a cognate of Brychan. This was a common name in early Ireland, borne by at least 13 saints.

Form of Briseis used in medieval tales about the Trojan War.

Means "armour" in Old Norse.

Means "Candlemas" in Spanish, ultimately derived from Spanish candela "candle". This name is given in honour of the church festival of Candlemas, which commemorates the presentation of Christ in the temple and the purification of the Virgin Mary.

Diminutive of Ecaterina.

Italian form of Clara. Saint Chiara (commonly called Saint Clare in English) was a follower of Saint Francis of Assisi.

Modern Persian form of Dārayavahush (see Darius).

Russian and Ukrainian form of Damian.

Alternate transcription of Hebrew דְּבוֹרָה (see Devorah).

Feminine form of Dieudonné.

Variant of Éamonn.

Diminutive of Eilionoir, also taken to be a Gaelic form of Helen.

Feminine form of Eleftherios.

Modern Greek form of Helen.

Italian form of Electra.

Spanish and Italian form of Eleutherius.

Italian form of Aelius or Helios.

Italian and Spanish form of Elisha.

Possibly from a Breton word meaning "light". This name was borne by an obscure 6th-century saint who is now venerated mainly in Brittany and Cornwall.

Means "elm tree" in Cornish. This is a recently coined Cornish name.

Derived from Welsh eilun meaning "image, likeness, idol". This was the name of a legendary 5th-century Welsh saint, also known as Eiliwedd, one of the supposed daughters of Brychan Brycheiniog.

Means "empress" in Spanish.

English form of Endelienta. Known bearers include English artist Endellion Lycett Green (1969-) and Florence Rose Endellion Cameron (2010-), British Prime Minister David Cameron's fourth child, whose second middle name was given in honour of the Cornish village of St Endellion.

Derived from Finnish ensi meaning "first".

Cornish form of Iseult.

Means "emerald" in Spanish and Portuguese. Victor Hugo used this name in his novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831), in which Esmeralda is the Gypsy girl who is loved by Quasimodo. It has occasionally been used in the English-speaking world since that time.

Spanish form of the Late Latin name Sperantia, which was derived from sperare "to hope".

Variant of Øystein.

Variant of Fayruz.

Means "horseman, knight" in Arabic.

Feminine form of Feie.

Feminine form of Fen 2.

Spanish, Portuguese and Italian feminine form of Ferdinand.

Means "wild, untamed" (modern Irish fia) or "respect" in Irish.

Means "butterfly" in Albanian.

Feminine form of Fortunato.

Combination of Francesca and Pia.

Italian form of the Roman name Frigidianus, which was derived from Latin frigidus "cold". This was the name of a 6th-century Irish bishop who made a pilgrimage to Rome and settled as a hermit on Mount Pisano.

Germanic name, originally a short form of other feminine names containing the Germanic element frid meaning "peace". This is also the Scandinavian equivalent, from the Old Norse cognate Fríða. A famous bearer was Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (1907-1954).

Georgian form of Gaius.

French form of Gawain used in the works of Chrétien de Troyes.

Means "dark-skinned, swarthy" in Welsh.

Italian form of Guinevere. This is also the Italian name for the city of Geneva, Switzerland. It is also sometimes associated with the Italian word ginepro meaning "juniper".

Feminine form of Gwenaël.

Means "beautifier, improver" in Arabic. Hassan ibn Thabit was a 7th-century poet who was a companion of the Prophet Muhammad. This name is sometimes transcribed as Hasan, though the two names are spelled distinctly in Arabic.

Derived from Cornish Hedra "October". This is a recent coinage.

Finnish feminine form of Heinrich (see Henry).

From Japanese 日向 (hinata) meaning "sunny place", 陽向 (hinata) meaning "toward the sun", or a non-standard reading of 向日葵 (himawari) meaning "sunflower". Other kanji compounds are also possible. Because of the irregular readings, this name is often written using the hiragana writing system.

Arabic form of Elijah.

Means "beauty" in Sanskrit. This is another name of Lakshmi, the wife of the Hindu god Vishnu. A notable bearer was India's first female prime minister, Indira Gandhi (1917-1984).

Russian and Ukrainian form of Inés.

Means "security, pledge" in Arabic.

Spanish variant of Isidore.

From Japanese 泉 (izumi) meaning "fountain, spring". This name can also be constructed from other combinations of kanji.

Means "eternal" in Persian.

Spanish form of Xavier.

Scandinavian and Dutch form of Iohannes (see John).

Latin form of Greek Ioannes (see John). Notable bearers include the inventor of the printing press Johannes Gutenberg (1398-1468), astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) and composer Johannes Brahms (1833-1897).

French form of the Old Breton name Iudicael, derived from the elements iudd "lord" and hael "generous". This was the name of a 7th-century Breton king, also regarded as a saint.

Form of Khadija used in parts of French-influenced western Africa.

Means "sound, voice" from Hawaiian ka "the" and leo "sound, voice".

Breton form of Katherine.

Polish form of Katherine.

Alternate transcription of Japanese Kanji 謙三 or 健三 or 賢三 (see Kenzō). Use of the name in France can probably be attributed to the fashion brand Kenzo, founded in 1970 by the Japanese-French designer Kenzō Takada (1939-).

Means "love" in Cornish.

French form of Lazarus.

Short form of Eleftherios.

From the Old Norse name Leifr meaning "descendant, heir". Leif Eriksson was a Norse explorer who reached North America in the early 11th century. He was the son of Erik the Red.

Means "heavenly flowers" or "royal child" from Hawaiian lei "flowers, lei, child" and lani "heaven, sky, royal, majesty".

Late Latin name that might be derived from the name of the Greek island of Leucadia or from Greek λευκός (leukos) meaning "bright, clear, white" (which is also the root of the island's name). Saint Leocadia was a 3rd-century martyr from Spain.

Possibly from Old Irish líath meaning "grey". According to an Irish tale this was the name of a poet who became a nun, but then missed her lover Cuirithir so much that she died of grief. The name was also borne by a 5th-century saint, the mother of Saint Ciarán the Elder.

Breton form of Louis.

Used by the French author George Sand for a character in her novel Mattea (1833) and later by the Italian author Luciano Zuccoli in his novel L'amore de Loredana (1908). It was possibly based on the Venetian surname Loredan, which was derived from the place name Loreo.

From the name of a French town. It became a popular center of pilgrimage after a young girl from the town had visions of the Virgin Mary in a nearby grotto.

Medieval variant of Lucrèce (see Lucretia), still occasionally found in French-speaking African countries.

Italian form of Lucretia.

French form of Ludovicus, the Latinized form of Ludwig. This was the name of an 1833 opera by the French composer Fromental Halévy.

Means "snow" in Finnish.

Irish form of Magdalene.

Feminine form of Maël, possibly influenced by the spelling of Mailys.

From Tupi maya arya meaning "great-grandmother".

Irish form of Maria (see Mary). The form Muire is used to refer to the Virgin Mary.

Means "marjoram" in French. Marjoram is a minty herb.

From Japanese 真 (ma) meaning "real, genuine" or 満 (ma) meaning "full" combined with 優 (yu) meaning "excellence, superiority, gentleness" or 夕 (yu) meaning "evening". This name can also be constructed from other kanji combinations.

From the name of a village in Andorra where there is a sanctuary dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The name of the village may derive from Latin meridies meaning "midday".

Spanish and Portuguese form of Michael. A notable bearer of this name was Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616), the Spanish novelist and poet who wrote Don Quixote.

From the Occitan name Mirèio, which was first used by the poet Frédéric Mistral for the main character in his poem Mirèio (1859). He probably derived it from the Occitan word mirar meaning "to admire". It is spelled Mirèlha in classical Occitan orthography. A notable bearer is the French singer Mireille Mathieu (1946-).

Occitan (Mistralian) form of Mireille.

Hebrew form of Nadab.

Means "hope" in Russian and Bulgarian.

Circassian form of Nafisa.

From the Basque name of the Spanish city of Nájera, which is Arabic in origin. In the 12th century there was a reported apparition of the Virgin Mary in a nearby cave.

Means "breeze" in Arabic.

Means "wild rose" in Persian.

Means "good news" in Persian.

Means "new" in Sanskrit.

Possibly from Zapotec nadxiie lii meaning "I love you" or nayele' meaning "open".

Russian, Ukrainian, Turkmen and Armenian form of Nazarius.

Means "Sunday" in Bulgarian.

Possibly from Basque nere, a dialectal variant of nire meaning "mine". Alternatively, it could be a feminine form of Nereus. This name arose in Basque-speaking regions of Spain in the first half of the 20th century, though it is now popular throughout the country.

Means "bright" in Irish. She was the daughter of the sea god Manannán mac Lir in Irish legends. She fell in love with the poet Oisín, the son of Fionn mac Cumhaill. It has been used as a given name for people only since the early 20th century.

From the Greek name Νικάνωρ (Nikanor), which was derived from νίκη (nike) meaning "victory" and ἀνήρ (aner) meaning "man". This name was borne by several notable officers from ancient Macedon.

Alternate transcription of Russian/Bulgarian Николай (see Nikolay).

Turkish form of Nimat.

From Navajo nizhóní meaning "beautiful" [1].

Means "heavenly mist" from Hawaiian noe "mist" and lani "heaven, sky, royal, majesty".

From the Breton phrase Noyal Gwenn meaning "holy one from Noyal". This was the epithet of a 6th-century saint and martyr from Brittany.

Spanish form of Núria.

Russian and Ukrainian form of Olympias.

Anglicized form of Úna, as well as a Finnish form.

Italian form of Octavia.

Variant of Piran.

Manx form of Patrick.

Feminine form of Pius.

Means "pillar" in Spanish. It is taken from the title of the Virgin Mary, María del Pilar, meaning "Mary of the Pillar". According to legend, when Saint James the Greater was in Saragossa in Spain, the Virgin Mary appeared on a pillar.

Means "full moon" in Sanskrit.

From the name of a Spanish sanctuary (in Catalonia) that is devoted to the Virgin Mary.

Variant of Quetzalli.

Catalan form of Raymond.

French form of Radulf (see Ralph).

Portuguese, Italian, Romanian and Estonian form of Radulf (see Ralph).

Finnish form of Gregory.

Means "remedy" in Catalan, a Catalan equivalent of Remedios.

Variant of Ronne.

Means "famous battle" from the Germanic elements hrom "fame" and hild "battle".

Strictly feminine form of Ron 2.

Invented by Swedish children's author Astrid Lindgren, who based it on the middle portion of Juronjaure, the name of a lake in Sweden. Lindgren used it in her 1981 book Ronia the Robber's Daughter (Ronia is the English translation).

Feminine form of Rosendo.

Means "rose" in Breton.

Means "greatest beauty" from Sanskrit रूप (rupa) meaning "beauty, form" combined with the name of the Hindu god Indra, used here to mean "greatest".

Romanian form of Roxana.

Possibly means "traveller" in Arabic.

Means "freedom" in Irish Gaelic. It was first used as a given name in the 20th century.

Variant of Saorfhlaith. It means free princess or free noblewoman derived from Irish saor meaning "free" and Irish flaith meaning "princess, nobelwoman".

From Japanese 小 (sa) meaning "small" and 百合 (yuri) meaning "lily". This name can also be composed of other kanji combinations.

From the name of the patron saint of Zennor, a village in Cornwall, which is of obscure origin. Conceivably it may be derived from the Breton name Azenor or the old Celtic Senovara. According to local legend Saint Senara was originally Princess Azenor of Brest in Lower Brittany, the mother of Saint Budoc. She is also said to have been a mermaid before her conversion (though even after becoming a Christian, "she continued to pine for the sea"). This name was given to 52 girls born in England and Wales in the years 1916-2005.

French form of Sergius.

Alternate transcription of Russian Севастьян (see Sevastyan).

Means "free city" from the Persian elements شهر (shahr) meaning "city" and آزاد (azad) meaning "free". This is the name of the fictional storyteller in The 1001 Nights. She tells a story to her husband the king every night for 1001 nights in order to delay her execution.

Alternate transcription of Persian شیرین (see Shirin).

Modern Hebrew form of Shulammite.

Variant of Sigal.

Feminine form of Silvester.

Means "elf, sprite" in Irish. This name was created in the 20th century.

Variant of Solène.

Means "buttercup flower" in Faroese (genus Ranunculus). The buttercup is the national flower of the Faroe Islands.

From an Old Norse name, which was derived from the elements sól "sun" and veig "strength". This is the name of the heroine in Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt (1876).

Form of Sonya in various languages.

Welsh form of Stephen.

Meaning unknown, perhaps related to Old Norse stilling "calm", or perhaps of German origin.

Scandinavian form of the Old English name Sunngifu, which meant "sun gift" from the Old English elements sunne "sun" and giefu "gift". This was the name of a legendary English saint who was shipwrecked in Norway and killed by the inhabitants.

French and Czech form of Silvia.

Alternate transcription of Russian Таисия or Ukrainian Таїсія (see Taisiya).

Means "shining brow", derived from Welsh tal "brow, head" and iesin "shining, radiant". This was the name of a semi-legendary 6th-century Welsh poet and bard, supposedly the author of the collection of poems the Book of Taliesin. He appears briefly in the Welsh legend Culhwch and Olwen and the Second Branch of the Mabinogi. He is the central character in the Tale of Taliesin, a medieval legend recorded in the 16th century, which tells how Ceridwen's servant Gwion Bach was reborn to her as Taliesin; how he becomes the bard for Elffin; and how Taliesin defends Elffin from the machinations of the king Maelgwn Gwynedd.

Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian form of the Greek name Ταράσιος (Tarasios), which possibly means "from Taras". Taras was an Italian city, now called Taranto, which was founded by Greek colonists in the 8th century BC and was named for the Greek mythological figure Taras, a son of Poseidon. Saint Tarasios was an 8th-century bishop of Constantinople. It was also borne by the Ukrainian writer and artist Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861).

Ossetian form of Tahmuras.

Means "third" in Spanish. This name was traditionally given to the third child born.

Means "warmth" in Welsh.

Anglicized form of Tighearnán.

Irish form of Timothy, occurring in some Irish translations of the Bible. It is not commonly used as a given name.

Probably derived from Georgian ცის (tsis) meaning "of the sky", the genitive case of ცა (tsa) meaning "sky, heaven". This is also an alternative Georgian word for the forget-me-not flower.

Meaning unknown. It is used as a Russian form of Bademus, but it may actually be derived from the Slavic name Vadimir or else from an Old Norse source.

From Lithuanian vaivorykštė meaning "rainbow".

Scandinavian form of Waldemar. This was the name of four kings of Denmark.

Italian, Spanish and Portuguese form of Valens.

From the Roman family name Velius, which possibly means "concealed" in Latin.

Contracted form of Veridiana, which itself is a variant form of Viridiana. This was the name of an Italian saint from the 13th century AD.

Possibly related to Latin verus "true". This might also be a Coptic form of the Ptolemaic name Berenice. Saint Verena was a 3rd-century Egyptian-born nurse who went with the Theban Legion to Switzerland. After the legion was massacred she settled near Zurich.

French form of Veronica.

From the name of a Cornish town, which is taken from Sen Veryan meaning "Saint Veryan", a Cornish corruption of Severian, itself a corrupted form of Symphorian (the saint to whom the village church is dedicated).

From Old Norse Víðarr, which was possibly derived from víðr "wide" and arr "warrior". In Norse mythology Víðarr was the son of Odin and Grid. At the time of the end of the world, Ragnarök, it is said he will avenge his father's death by slaying the wolf Fenrir.

Feminine form of Viridianus.

Possibly derived from Finnish virvatuli meaning "will o' the wisp". In folklore, will o' the wisp is a floating ball of light that appears over water.

Russian form and Modern Greek transcription of Bessarion.

Variant of Viveka.

Means "wisdom, distinction, discrimination" in Sanskrit.

Feminine form of Willem.

Variant of Gwenneg.

Possibly a Spanish form of Guiomar.

Variant of Yasmin.

Hebrew form of Jochebed.

Amharic form of John.

Combination of Yunus and Emre, given in reference to the 13th-century poet.

Feminine form of Ziv.

Polish form of Sophia.

Derived from Georgian ზვიადი (zviadi) meaning "proud, arrogant".

Possibly means "forever, always" in Zapotec. It appears in the novel Aztec (1980) by the American author Gary Jennings.