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Australian for porpoise.

Foukaina seems quite rare, even in Greek. I did a search for Φουκαινα (Foukaina) and only came up with one hit on this message board thread asking for the most bizarre names people had ever heard: http://www.adslgr.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-47829.html

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Foukaina seems similar to φώκαινα (fokaina), which is the Greek word for porpoise (See: http://www.accobams.org/2006.php/pages/show/226 ). I came across Φώκαινα (transliterated as Phokaina) as a name in this article (and others): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theophanu. Various genealogy sites list her father as Leo(n) Phokas (including: http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cousin/html/p60.htm ). Phokaina is probably a patronymic from Phokas. If you Google "Greek feminine patronymics" the first result is a book titled A Greek and English Lexicon to the New Testament (the link was a mile long, lol). Anyway it lists αινα (-aina) as a feminine patronymic suffix.

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I also did a search for Φουκας (Foukas/Phokas) as a possible base and it is used as a surname. It is also seems to be the name of a mountain in Korinthia. I was unable to find a meaning for Foukas. Then again, it is possible that I am barking up the wrong tree and Foukaina could be totally unrelated to Phokaina and Phokas. Perhaps Pavlos can clean up my mess. :-D

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(Edit: I messed up αινα)

This message was edited 8/6/2009, 12:12 AM