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ArchivesRe: Has anyone heard of this name? (Indeo)
in reply to a message by DebraG2
First thought? It's a variant of India, which derives from the name of the Indus river.
The path to the modern form of India is, however, rather tortuous. It all started as Sanskrit Sapta-Sindhu "land of the seven rivers" (Sindhu meaning "river"). Then one day the Persians arrived, and translated Sindhu into Hindu via the common mechanism of aspirating the S. (The modern word Hindu also derives from Sindhu derives from this.) A little later, the Greeks came along and dropped Hindu's H, thus leaving Indos. The Romans took the Greek name up in Latin as Indus, and then proceeded to name the entire subcontinent India after the river.
This info comes from Wikipedia: http://snipurl.com/faom.
In 1877, Queen Victoria became Empress of India, which was then called "the jewel of the British Empire". India was first taken up among English-speakers in the late 19th century becuse of this; however, it only became truly widespread after it was used to name Ashley Wilkes's sister in Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind (1936).
EDIT: Reworded and corrected some stuff, 'cause I got confused. Also added history of usage as a personal given name.
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I could also see Indeo somehow coming from Indigo, perhaps from a combination of India and Indigo. Ironically, both India and Indigo have the same etymological roots.
Indigo comes from both Spanish índigo and Dutch indigo (the Dutch derived their form from Portuguese endego), which are both ultimately from Latin indicum. The Greek form of indicum was Indikon, which derived from the neuter of Indikos "of India".
This info comes from The American Heritage History of the English Language: Fourth Edition (2000): http://snipurl.com/faot.
Indigo is, I believe, a very modern name, almost certainly of late mid-20th century to early 21st-century origin. It doesn't rank on any of the popularity charts Behind the Name has, which tells me that it's currently an extremely rare name anywhere. From the few bearers I've seen online, I believe Indigo's used for both sexes—perhaps a little more for girls than boys though.
EDIT: Added Indigo's history as a given name.
EDIT: Fixed italics. D'oh!
Miranda
Proud adopter of 15 punctuation marks; see my profile for their names.
The path to the modern form of India is, however, rather tortuous. It all started as Sanskrit Sapta-Sindhu "land of the seven rivers" (Sindhu meaning "river"). Then one day the Persians arrived, and translated Sindhu into Hindu via the common mechanism of aspirating the S. (The modern word Hindu also derives from Sindhu derives from this.) A little later, the Greeks came along and dropped Hindu's H, thus leaving Indos. The Romans took the Greek name up in Latin as Indus, and then proceeded to name the entire subcontinent India after the river.
This info comes from Wikipedia: http://snipurl.com/faom.
In 1877, Queen Victoria became Empress of India, which was then called "the jewel of the British Empire". India was first taken up among English-speakers in the late 19th century becuse of this; however, it only became truly widespread after it was used to name Ashley Wilkes's sister in Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind (1936).
EDIT: Reworded and corrected some stuff, 'cause I got confused. Also added history of usage as a personal given name.
--------------------------
I could also see Indeo somehow coming from Indigo, perhaps from a combination of India and Indigo. Ironically, both India and Indigo have the same etymological roots.
Indigo comes from both Spanish índigo and Dutch indigo (the Dutch derived their form from Portuguese endego), which are both ultimately from Latin indicum. The Greek form of indicum was Indikon, which derived from the neuter of Indikos "of India".
This info comes from The American Heritage History of the English Language: Fourth Edition (2000): http://snipurl.com/faot.
Indigo is, I believe, a very modern name, almost certainly of late mid-20th century to early 21st-century origin. It doesn't rank on any of the popularity charts Behind the Name has, which tells me that it's currently an extremely rare name anywhere. From the few bearers I've seen online, I believe Indigo's used for both sexes—perhaps a little more for girls than boys though.
EDIT: Added Indigo's history as a given name.
EDIT: Fixed italics. D'oh!
Miranda
Proud adopter of 15 punctuation marks; see my profile for their names.
This message was edited 6/1/2005, 2:49 PM
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Replies
Sindhu indeed means river, and by extension a large body of water. The etymology is not clear, but maybe indicates the flowing nature of a river from a root sidh meaning to go. The word Sapta means seven as could be guessed from the cognate sept- (Of course the Indians never knew how to count: roughly the same bunch of rivers gave Punjab its name. panch is cognate with penta- and apas are the waters :-) More seriously, rivers change courses, so their numbers also change.)
I am not sure if you meant to suggest that the old persians called Sindhu as India: as you correctly point out later in your post, they changed the S to an H.
I was nicknamed Indeo by someone in the US once. Never heard of it as a formal name.
I am not sure if you meant to suggest that the old persians called Sindhu as India: as you correctly point out later in your post, they changed the S to an H.
I was nicknamed Indeo by someone in the US once. Never heard of it as a formal name.
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