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ArchivesSilona meaning/existence
I found the name Silona in a Hebrew baby name book, claimed to mean stream/brook. The word silon in Hebrew, according to dictionary websites I could find, is popularly used to mean jet as in jetting off on a plane. Curious if anyone can confirm that Silona is a name, however rare, or if nowadays it would be more like naming a child airplane!
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I checked my dictionary and I'm taking an educated guess here:
Perheps the book views Silona as a derivation from שִׁלַֹח (shiloakh). This is the name of a canal in Jerusalem. The name possibly derives from שֶׁלַח (shaelakh) "canal".
In different languages, the canal is called Siloah or Siloam. So perheps: Shiloakh - Siloam - (Siloan) - Silona
Though - even if my guessing is correct - that doesn't mean, that there is any etymological connection.
I found the name on a dutch website for names. It states no name bearers in the Netherlands an no meaning:
https://www.meertens.knaw.nl/nvb/naam/is/silona
Perheps the book views Silona as a derivation from שִׁלַֹח (shiloakh). This is the name of a canal in Jerusalem. The name possibly derives from שֶׁלַח (shaelakh) "canal".
In different languages, the canal is called Siloah or Siloam. So perheps: Shiloakh - Siloam - (Siloan) - Silona
Though - even if my guessing is correct - that doesn't mean, that there is any etymological connection.
I found the name on a dutch website for names. It states no name bearers in the Netherlands an no meaning:
https://www.meertens.knaw.nl/nvb/naam/is/silona
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That is correct! I would like to add that the website specifies (in green-coloured letters) that the name was previously borne by women of foreign birth. Meaning: so far the name has only been borne by immigrants, no natural Dutch citizen was given the name at birth.
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A quick search shows that the name Silona exists in Germany, and more specifically as an East German name (all four hits come from the former GDR): https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffsb&q=Silona+site%3Astayfriends.de&atb=v344-1&ia=web
However, this search result gives no hints at the etymology of the name, the surnames are usual German names and don't hint on the origin.
EDIT: Found a Swedish ship named Silona that stranded near Hamburg during the North Sea flood of 1962, maybe the name of the ship deemed a suitable girl's name to some parents: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silona
--elbowin
However, this search result gives no hints at the etymology of the name, the surnames are usual German names and don't hint on the origin.
EDIT: Found a Swedish ship named Silona that stranded near Hamburg during the North Sea flood of 1962, maybe the name of the ship deemed a suitable girl's name to some parents: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silona
--elbowin
This message was edited 1/9/2023, 2:50 PM
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The fact that they are all from the former GDR made me wonder if the name could be connected to Russia somehow. But alas... in Russian, силона (silona) is only the genitive of силон (silon), which is the name of a type of polymer fibre that was developed in the 1940s by the Czech chemist Otto Wichterle (1913-1998) and others:
- https://ru.wiktionary.org/wiki/силон (in Russian)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silon (in English)
I strongly doubt that East German parents would want to name their daughter after something like that! In their case it is probably more likely that Silona is a combination of two existing names, such as Silke with Ilona or even Aliona.
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Never mind, there is a connection to Russia after all!
For the East German bearers, the names that we should be looking at are Силен (Silen) and Силена (Silena):
- Силен (Silen): https://imya.com/name/32497 (in Russian)
- Силена (Silena): https://imya.com/name/9150 (in Russian)
Both are derived from the Russian adjective силен (silen) meaning "strong, powerful", which makes them etymologically related to the Russian noun сила (sila) meaning "strength" as well as "power, might":
- силен (silen): https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/силен (in English)
- сила (sila): https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/сила#Russian (in English)
The aforementioned Russian adjective has a very similar-looking variant, namely силён (silon/silion/silyon). It has the exact same meaning:
- силён (silon/silion/silyon): https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/силён (in English)
As a result, the names Silen and Silena appear to have the variants Силён (Silon/Silion/Silyon) and Силёна (Silona/Siliona/Silyona), but they seem to be either very rare or archaic. Searching for them produces name-like results on the search engines, but nothing that is immediately and obviously concrete (at least at first glance). For the feminine name in particular, it probably also doesn't help that in modern Russian, there is a similar-looking everyday word with a negative meaning:
- силёнка (silonka/silionka/silyonka) meaning "weak, puny strength": https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/силёнка (in English)
For the East German bearers, the names that we should be looking at are Силен (Silen) and Силена (Silena):
- Силен (Silen): https://imya.com/name/32497 (in Russian)
- Силена (Silena): https://imya.com/name/9150 (in Russian)
Both are derived from the Russian adjective силен (silen) meaning "strong, powerful", which makes them etymologically related to the Russian noun сила (sila) meaning "strength" as well as "power, might":
- силен (silen): https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/силен (in English)
- сила (sila): https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/сила#Russian (in English)
The aforementioned Russian adjective has a very similar-looking variant, namely силён (silon/silion/silyon). It has the exact same meaning:
- силён (silon/silion/silyon): https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/силён (in English)
As a result, the names Silen and Silena appear to have the variants Силён (Silon/Silion/Silyon) and Силёна (Silona/Siliona/Silyona), but they seem to be either very rare or archaic. Searching for them produces name-like results on the search engines, but nothing that is immediately and obviously concrete (at least at first glance). For the feminine name in particular, it probably also doesn't help that in modern Russian, there is a similar-looking everyday word with a negative meaning:
- силёнка (silonka/silionka/silyonka) meaning "weak, puny strength": https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/силёнка (in English)
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Exploring the Russian path, there may be a connection to Classical Greek Selene / Modern Greek Sileni, the moon goddess.
This message was edited 1/10/2023, 3:23 AM
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The modern Greek form is actually Selini. There are two Greek letters used for the 'e' in the name, namely the epsilon and the eta. Of the two of them, only the eta becomes an 'i' in modern Greek.
But yes, that has indeed occurred to me, as Selene, Selini and their variants Selena and Selina (both used in Russian) are visually rather similar to Silona. I even considered that Silona might be related to Silenus, which is also the name of a character from Greek mythology. But then I thought: "Hmm, the jump from Greek Sel- to Sil- in Russian might be a bit too much, especially if you consider that Russian tends to stay very faithful to Greek names, in that the names (often in their modern Greek form) will be almost perfectly preserved in Russian, at least vowel-wise. As for Silenus: he is not a famous/important enough character for parents to want to name their daughter after."
Just to make sure, I have also checked whether in Greek there has ever been the name Silon (can be spelled as Σίλων and Σίλον) or Sylon (can be spelled as Σύλων and Σύλον), as both would become Силон (Silon) in Russian. But alas, no such name has ever existed! The closest possible name is Κύλων (Kylon), which becomes Cylon in Latin and Килон (Kilon) in Russian. There is also the lesser known Κίλων (Kilon), which would also become Килон (Kilon) in Russian, but Cilon in Latin.
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So this looks like a dead end. I searched for forms like Siliona and Siljona with an additional -i- or -j- in Germany but they don't exist. So the best trace right now leads to the Swedish ship: Its stranding in the big flood of 1962 had a lot of news coverage in German media.
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