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Help[Facts] Zara -- Origins, related names?
I'm trying to do some research on a name that's been in my family for generations, and hoping whatever I find may help lead me to a similar or related name that's more masculine... I think I'm looking as much for informed opinions as definite fact -- "this is likely" would be as useful to me here as "it's definitely ____" haha.
My great-grandmother Zara was born between 1910 and 1920 in the southeastern United States. We have no idea where her parents got the name... they were Jewish, if that might help? I've always wondered whether there might have been a popular book or something that inspired them -- I do see on this site that "Zara" was sometimes used as an English version of "Zaïre" from an old play? Does anyone know if this might have been well known enough where/when she was born to possibly influence her parents...? Something else? I have no idea what popular naming conventions there might have been there/then.
I know there's no direct masculine equivalent, but I'm hoping to find something that's somehow related/inspired for a boy's middle name, in honor of my family's history... what I know of it, anyway haha. Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated!
My great-grandmother Zara was born between 1910 and 1920 in the southeastern United States. We have no idea where her parents got the name... they were Jewish, if that might help? I've always wondered whether there might have been a popular book or something that inspired them -- I do see on this site that "Zara" was sometimes used as an English version of "Zaïre" from an old play? Does anyone know if this might have been well known enough where/when she was born to possibly influence her parents...? Something else? I have no idea what popular naming conventions there might have been there/then.
I know there's no direct masculine equivalent, but I'm hoping to find something that's somehow related/inspired for a boy's middle name, in honor of my family's history... what I know of it, anyway haha. Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated!
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Replies
Since her parents were Jewish, the most "obvious" explanation is surely that they used this as an alternative for Sara or Sarah.
In her book "The History of Christian Names" (google it), page 48, the 19th century British pioneer of name meanings and usage Charlotte Mary Yonge gives Zara as an "eastern" form of Sarah, meaning "princess".
Here in Australia, there was a well-known public figure called Zara (Dame Zara Bate, whose second husband,Harold Holt, was prime minister of this country in the 1960s. She was born in 1909, so it may be that the name was mildly fashionable in English-speaking countries at that time.
If you enter the name into the Google Books search option you may turn up something literary, dating to that period.
There is, for instance, a long work, "Zara ... a poem of the sea", dating to 1833, published in London, so the name was certainly known by the time your ancestor was born.
In her book "The History of Christian Names" (google it), page 48, the 19th century British pioneer of name meanings and usage Charlotte Mary Yonge gives Zara as an "eastern" form of Sarah, meaning "princess".
Here in Australia, there was a well-known public figure called Zara (Dame Zara Bate, whose second husband,Harold Holt, was prime minister of this country in the 1960s. She was born in 1909, so it may be that the name was mildly fashionable in English-speaking countries at that time.
If you enter the name into the Google Books search option you may turn up something literary, dating to that period.
There is, for instance, a long work, "Zara ... a poem of the sea", dating to 1833, published in London, so the name was certainly known by the time your ancestor was born.
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Thank you, this is exactly the sort of response I was looking for! And great ideas, too. I really appreciate it!
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