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ArchivesMelissa is like a red, red rose?
It's a bit late, but I'm beginning to learn to love my name, Melissa. I was researching all kinds of random things about it--its meaning, presence in mythology, people/places/songs named after it, Melissa the herb, etc. Well, the other day, I just saw a few sites saying that Melissa means "red rose" in Persian, but I can't seem to find any concrete evidence for that besides on discussion sites. A friend also told me that the Persian language is pretty much extinct. Anyway, I was wondering if any of you had researched this extensively and if you could point me in the right direction. Is it fact or myth?
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Hi Melissa,
I believe this question has been answered before:
http://www.behindthename.com/bb/fact/3764228
The Persian language (also called Farsi) is definitely not extinct. It has 110 million native speakers, and is spoken in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_language
As for Melissa being Persian, I have checked my Persian name book (The Complete Book of Muslim and Parsi Names by Maneka Gandhi and Ozair Husain) and I can't find any Persian name that sounds like Melissa. In fact, I've never heard of Melissa being anything other than Greek. However from a Google search there seems to have been a play called "The Persian Heroine" (1820) by Paul Jodrell that featured a Persian character called Melissa.
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=lx4UAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Perhaps this is where the association with Persian came from?
Interestingly, the definition ("red rose" in Persian) was also the same one that Tom Cruise gave when he named his daughter Suri. However this was later discovered to be incorrect:
http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/hey-tom-nice-job-article-1.591977
Possibly an unscrupulous baby name site has been touting the same false meaning, but for Melissa?
I don't speak Persian, so I can't say for definite that it doesn't mean "red rose", but I find it unlikely considering that Melissa is a Greek name. Perhaps you could try contacting a Persian speaker on a forum like WordReference to double check.
I believe this question has been answered before:
http://www.behindthename.com/bb/fact/3764228
The Persian language (also called Farsi) is definitely not extinct. It has 110 million native speakers, and is spoken in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_language
As for Melissa being Persian, I have checked my Persian name book (The Complete Book of Muslim and Parsi Names by Maneka Gandhi and Ozair Husain) and I can't find any Persian name that sounds like Melissa. In fact, I've never heard of Melissa being anything other than Greek. However from a Google search there seems to have been a play called "The Persian Heroine" (1820) by Paul Jodrell that featured a Persian character called Melissa.
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=lx4UAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Perhaps this is where the association with Persian came from?
Interestingly, the definition ("red rose" in Persian) was also the same one that Tom Cruise gave when he named his daughter Suri. However this was later discovered to be incorrect:
http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/hey-tom-nice-job-article-1.591977
Possibly an unscrupulous baby name site has been touting the same false meaning, but for Melissa?
I don't speak Persian, so I can't say for definite that it doesn't mean "red rose", but I find it unlikely considering that Melissa is a Greek name. Perhaps you could try contacting a Persian speaker on a forum like WordReference to double check.
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