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ArchivesAruna and Ruhanna
I'm looking for the origins of two female names: Aruna and Ruhanna.
Where are they from, and what do they mean?
I think the first may be Indian, but if it has additional origins, I'd love to know what they are and what meanings it has.
Where are they from, and what do they mean?
I think the first may be Indian, but if it has additional origins, I'd love to know what they are and what meanings it has.
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Replies
That's what I'm wondering, because that's the 1 place I've seen it: old American census records.
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According to what I have found, Aruna means "ruby" in Sanskrit. Ruhanna could be a variant of Rehana, which means "fragrant plant" - I'm not sure in which language, but I knew a Rehana once and she was from Bangladesh.
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Aruna is not quite ruby in connotation.
It could be from R to rise or go along a path, and is connected with the rising sun. Its oldest meanings are red/reddish-brown as opposed to the darkness of night. In classical mythology, the main meaning is the charioteer who carries the sun across the sky on its daily travel, and personifies dawn; loosely, it means the red sun itself. It has a number of other technical meanings and names a number of other mythological characters.
It could be from R to rise or go along a path, and is connected with the rising sun. Its oldest meanings are red/reddish-brown as opposed to the darkness of night. In classical mythology, the main meaning is the charioteer who carries the sun across the sky on its daily travel, and personifies dawn; loosely, it means the red sun itself. It has a number of other technical meanings and names a number of other mythological characters.
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I've actually seen the name Ruhanna on what seems to be old census records from the U.S. (19th century). I don't know that it's common, but I think that it may be American. Not sure, though.
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I thought Aruna was a male name ... based on either an Indian or, I think, a Sri Lankan cricketer. In the West we'd assume that if it ends in an -a it's a girl name, but this doesn't work elsewhere.
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In Sanskrit the feminine for words ending in a short closed -a (not pronounced in some languages, hence Arun) is usually formed by changing it to a long open -A (Sometimes long -I instead). See my other reply for meaning of Aruna.
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OK, so if this is the case, does that mean the female name should be spelled "Arun" instead of "Aruna"?
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The female name is always Aruna (or Arunaa). For the male, read on.
Depends on the language. `Indian' stands for more than a dozen languages each with its orthography and transliteration scheme, not to mention many who go through their life perfectly happily without ever spelling it in the roman script. In most scripts derived from the Brahmi script (Almost all the `alphabetic' languages of East/South/Southeast Asia except Korean Hangul) the name will have three grapheme clusters: the vowel closed a, the consonant r modified by the short u, and the consonant retroflex n with the inherent closed a sound. The feminine name will put a modifier for open a on the last consonant.
In pronounciation, languages like Bengali and Hindi will drop the inherent a in the last consonant of the last grapheme of the male name, and will transliterate it as Arun. In Oriya, many South Indian languages and Sinhalese, possibly, the closed a in the male name will be pronounced, possibly as the vowel in English cut. The open a in the female name will, by constrast, pronounce it as the vowel in English car (without the r, of course). In this case, depending on the linguistic tradition, both the male and the female name *may* be transliterated as Aruna, but pronounced differently.
The different languages differ not only in the pronounciation of this last consonant. Thus, in Bengali, the first vowel is more like o as the vowel in English cold, the retroflex and dental n are not distinguished, and all vowels have the same quantity. Though I have not actually seen Arun spelt Orun, I have seen similar alterations elsewhere picking up regional pronounciations: Anuttam/Onuttam, Arani/Auroni, Rishi/Rushi, and in fact, my name Tanmoy/Tonmoy/Tanmay/Tanmaya (and other variations, see my namesakes page linked from my home page).
An Indian name is not expected to have consistent orthography in the roman script, and very often it does not have one.
---
http://tanmoy.tripod.com/
Depends on the language. `Indian' stands for more than a dozen languages each with its orthography and transliteration scheme, not to mention many who go through their life perfectly happily without ever spelling it in the roman script. In most scripts derived from the Brahmi script (Almost all the `alphabetic' languages of East/South/Southeast Asia except Korean Hangul) the name will have three grapheme clusters: the vowel closed a, the consonant r modified by the short u, and the consonant retroflex n with the inherent closed a sound. The feminine name will put a modifier for open a on the last consonant.
In pronounciation, languages like Bengali and Hindi will drop the inherent a in the last consonant of the last grapheme of the male name, and will transliterate it as Arun. In Oriya, many South Indian languages and Sinhalese, possibly, the closed a in the male name will be pronounced, possibly as the vowel in English cut. The open a in the female name will, by constrast, pronounce it as the vowel in English car (without the r, of course). In this case, depending on the linguistic tradition, both the male and the female name *may* be transliterated as Aruna, but pronounced differently.
The different languages differ not only in the pronounciation of this last consonant. Thus, in Bengali, the first vowel is more like o as the vowel in English cold, the retroflex and dental n are not distinguished, and all vowels have the same quantity. Though I have not actually seen Arun spelt Orun, I have seen similar alterations elsewhere picking up regional pronounciations: Anuttam/Onuttam, Arani/Auroni, Rishi/Rushi, and in fact, my name Tanmoy/Tonmoy/Tanmay/Tanmaya (and other variations, see my namesakes page linked from my home page).
An Indian name is not expected to have consistent orthography in the roman script, and very often it does not have one.
---
http://tanmoy.tripod.com/
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Thank you very much for the explanation...I'm so glad to know I haven't given this lady a guy name. ;-)
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