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Hello! I was hoping someone could help me with the name Amara. As usual, I've found extremely different meanings/root languages for this name, including English, Greek, German, Latin and Spanish, and I stopped there because it was all just losing credibility. Does anyone know about this name? Is there a chance it could be Arabic or something? That's what I thought when I saw the name. Thanks for any input!
~SHILOH~
~SHILOH~
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Replies
Well...
Amar's a masculine Indian name, Sanskrit for "immortal", but it could easily be feminised into Amara if one chooses.
Amara can come from Latin amarus "bitter".
Amara can be a short form of Amaranta, the Anglo form of Amarante. Amarante is derived from Greek amarantos "unfading" (thus having a related meaning to the Indian version).
More out there, but still conceivable is that Amara could be a short, altered form of Amardad, a feminine Persian name. Amardad's the modern form of Ameretat, meaning "immortality" in Avestan. Ameretat was the name of a Persian goddess of plants and long life (hence, presumably, her name's meaning), and Ameretat is also the name of a month in the Iranian calendar.
Amara could even be a form of Amariah, a masculine Biblical name meaning "Yahweh has said" in Hebrew.
I don't know about any German, Arabic, or Spanish meanings, sorry. Are you quite sure you're checking reliable, non-"baby name" sites/books?
Miranda
"Multiple exclamation marks are a sure sign of diseased mind" -- Terry Pratchett
Proud adopter of 15 punctuation marks. Check my profile for their names.
Amar's a masculine Indian name, Sanskrit for "immortal", but it could easily be feminised into Amara if one chooses.
Amara can come from Latin amarus "bitter".
Amara can be a short form of Amaranta, the Anglo form of Amarante. Amarante is derived from Greek amarantos "unfading" (thus having a related meaning to the Indian version).
More out there, but still conceivable is that Amara could be a short, altered form of Amardad, a feminine Persian name. Amardad's the modern form of Ameretat, meaning "immortality" in Avestan. Ameretat was the name of a Persian goddess of plants and long life (hence, presumably, her name's meaning), and Ameretat is also the name of a month in the Iranian calendar.
Amara could even be a form of Amariah, a masculine Biblical name meaning "Yahweh has said" in Hebrew.
I don't know about any German, Arabic, or Spanish meanings, sorry. Are you quite sure you're checking reliable, non-"baby name" sites/books?
"Multiple exclamation marks are a sure sign of diseased mind" -- Terry Pratchett
Proud adopter of 15 punctuation marks. Check my profile for their names.
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Re: Amar's a masculine Indian name, Sanskrit for "immortal", but it could easily be feminised into Amara if one chooses.
I agree, however, just to be clear, in India I haven't heard anyone choose to do so. In fact, most people would have to look up a dictionary for the feminine form of amar (the form without the feminine suffix was the form used in compounds, was always used as the common or collective gender, and, in any case, gender correspondence has weakened in modern Indian languages, except in substantive use), though they would probably indeed choose amara if forced to do so. In fact both amari and amara have been used in different periods in Sanskrit.
I do not know, but it is possible that amara in the technical senses of umbilical cord or afterbirth was probably more common than as the feminine form of amar in classical Sanskrit.
Given this, I think this name is unlikely to be of direct Sanskrit origin (a long history going back to Sanskrit is certainly possible). In any case, the first and second vowels in sanskrit are closed, not open (open means as in the English car) as in the last feminine suffix. I think in the name amara, the three syllables are the same except for length.
To me it sounds Persian (in which case it is related to the same root mR which gave the sanskrit name, and English words like mortuary, immortal, murder etc.), if it is not Semitic (I think I have heard it in middle eastern names) or Egyptian (Doesn't it appear in names of cities and temples?)
I agree, however, just to be clear, in India I haven't heard anyone choose to do so. In fact, most people would have to look up a dictionary for the feminine form of amar (the form without the feminine suffix was the form used in compounds, was always used as the common or collective gender, and, in any case, gender correspondence has weakened in modern Indian languages, except in substantive use), though they would probably indeed choose amara if forced to do so. In fact both amari and amara have been used in different periods in Sanskrit.
I do not know, but it is possible that amara in the technical senses of umbilical cord or afterbirth was probably more common than as the feminine form of amar in classical Sanskrit.
Given this, I think this name is unlikely to be of direct Sanskrit origin (a long history going back to Sanskrit is certainly possible). In any case, the first and second vowels in sanskrit are closed, not open (open means as in the English car) as in the last feminine suffix. I think in the name amara, the three syllables are the same except for length.
To me it sounds Persian (in which case it is related to the same root mR which gave the sanskrit name, and English words like mortuary, immortal, murder etc.), if it is not Semitic (I think I have heard it in middle eastern names) or Egyptian (Doesn't it appear in names of cities and temples?)
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Hi! Thank you very much Miranda and "other person" (sorry, I don't read whatever language that is, as much as I'd like to. What language is it?). You were very helpful. Do you happen to know anything about Amira? According to Behind the Name, Amir means "prince" or "commander". Does that mean Amira means "princess" or "commander"? I saw on another name site that Amira means "leader", which I suppose princes and commanders are. Can "leader" be an accurate translation/combination of prince and commander? Thanks! I'm also going to post this last part again as a new message so others will see it.
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Another person on the other thread has already explained Amira. I know little about Semitic languages to be able to add to that explanation. In Hindi, the word amir has been borrowed, but only in the sense of rich; and amira is not used.
My name is written in Bengali script. It is pronounced t-awe-n-moy, with a unaspirated soft dental t (think French). -moy is a common suffix meaning `made of' (technically, `transformation of') and tad is the demonstrative pronoun `that'. The whole indicated someone concentrating intensely. The post is long enough without going into my last name, I'll leave that for a different post.
---
http://tanmoy.tripod.com/
My name is written in Bengali script. It is pronounced t-awe-n-moy, with a unaspirated soft dental t (think French). -moy is a common suffix meaning `made of' (technically, `transformation of') and tad is the demonstrative pronoun `that'. The whole indicated someone concentrating intensely. The post is long enough without going into my last name, I'll leave that for a different post.
---
http://tanmoy.tripod.com/
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I'm not a MPD, I swear... read for explanation of why I used two names.
Hi! This is Shiloh/Tieliebirds. The reason I have two names is that I've been posting as Tieliebirds ever since I started posting on BtN about 2 years ago, but recently I've been having trouble logging in and so made another username so I could post (and my name is Shiloh so that's the name I chose). So, again, I'm not pretending to be more than one person.
Hi! This is Shiloh/Tieliebirds. The reason I have two names is that I've been posting as Tieliebirds ever since I started posting on BtN about 2 years ago, but recently I've been having trouble logging in and so made another username so I could post (and my name is Shiloh so that's the name I chose). So, again, I'm not pretending to be more than one person.
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