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ArchivesKrishna as a female name in Chile
I currently work through lists of the most popular names in Chile and encountered the name Krishna ranking as a female name, with a quite surprising rank of 12 in 2001:
http://www.registrocivil.cl/Servicios/Estadisticas/Archivos/NombresComunes/damas.html
Several sites on the Internet say that in this case the usually male name of the famous Indian deity is simply used as a female name.
I'm sceptical. Usually male name of Indian deity ranking highly as a female name in a very Catholic country?
Maybe the identical writing is just coincidence, and this Krishna is somehow shortened/altered from Christina or a similar female, Spanish and "Christian" name?
Does anybody have details on this?
Rene www.AboutNames.ch
http://www.registrocivil.cl/Servicios/Estadisticas/Archivos/NombresComunes/damas.html
Several sites on the Internet say that in this case the usually male name of the famous Indian deity is simply used as a female name.
I'm sceptical. Usually male name of Indian deity ranking highly as a female name in a very Catholic country?
Maybe the identical writing is just coincidence, and this Krishna is somehow shortened/altered from Christina or a similar female, Spanish and "Christian" name?
Does anybody have details on this?
Rene www.AboutNames.ch
1
Replies
The popularity of Krishna, as a female name, is because of Krishna Navas de Caso (her stage name is Krishna de Caso), a very popular Chilean journalist and writer. Her sister is the actress and painter Yuyuniz de Castro and she is daugther of the painter Reynaldo Navas and the TV hostess Eliana de Caso.
Since it ends in -A, in Spanish the name is perceived as feminine and it sounds as a modern variant of Cristina, even if both names are not related at all. A lot of people who are using the name don't even know that it is a deity name.
Since it ends in -A, in Spanish the name is perceived as feminine and it sounds as a modern variant of Cristina, even if both names are not related at all. A lot of people who are using the name don't even know that it is a deity name.
1
Off topic, I would like to mention: in India, Krishna is both a male *and a female* name. The female name ends in a long open -A (as in the vowel in English car), whereas the male name ends in either an indistinct version of the same sound, a schwa (the a- sound in English about) or an o sound ... either the vowel of cot or that in know, depending on the language. The original Sanskrit had a vowel R (a short version of the sound you would write as in krrrrrng), which today becomes ri or ru i various languages, and the S and N were retroflex which often merges into the palatal sh/dental s and dental n in many modern languages. In Eastern India, the male name had also changed the S to an h, and finally gave rise to the form kA(N/n)hA by the common metathesis of hN to Nh.
Both the male and female versions arise from the same root: kRSNa means black or dark blue, and the -A is a feminine suffix. The male name (which also is the name of various animals, metals etc. like the Indian antelope) is very old: it appears as the author of a bit of the Rgveda, and is, as you point out, also the name of a famous promiscuous prankster cowherd who was worshipped as a manifestation of the protector viSNu (worker). Many other mythological and historical figures (some good, some bad) had this name.
Similarly the female name (which also names various animals, plants etc.) appears already in the mahAbhArata, as the name of the famous draupadI, for example; but also as a name of the goddess durga, etc.
The female name is common in Bengal even today.
Both the male and female versions arise from the same root: kRSNa means black or dark blue, and the -A is a feminine suffix. The male name (which also is the name of various animals, metals etc. like the Indian antelope) is very old: it appears as the author of a bit of the Rgveda, and is, as you point out, also the name of a famous promiscuous prankster cowherd who was worshipped as a manifestation of the protector viSNu (worker). Many other mythological and historical figures (some good, some bad) had this name.
Similarly the female name (which also names various animals, plants etc.) appears already in the mahAbhArata, as the name of the famous draupadI, for example; but also as a name of the goddess durga, etc.
The female name is common in Bengal even today.
1
"the name of a famous promiscuous prankster cowherd"
I loved that.
I loved that.
1