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ArchivesRe: Indian/Hindu Name
in reply to a message by Jyo
I have no information on ruhi, but ...
I am confused. Arabic is a language and Hinduism is a religio-cultural trait. I do not know Arabic nor do I know Persian and ruhi, for all I know, could be etymologically related to rukh for wind, or a cluster of words for breath and soul. That has, however, little to do with its being used in the Hindu community: and I suspect that some names used in this community are etymologically not derived from Sanskrit. In fact, once you notice that the word Hindu is itself of Persian origin (a loan word into Persian of the Sanskrit word Sindhu meaning water and not having any religious connotation!), it is even more odd to call a name non-Hindu simply because it has a non-Sanskrit origin. And, then, I am not sure what to think about borrowings into Sanskrit, and of words whose origin is from the Austrasiatic, Dravidian, or Tibeto-Burmese families ... Also, the definition of who is a Hindu is quite simply non-existant, so that even with all the data it is not always meaningful to ask with what frequency a particular name is used by the Hindus.
So, the question you could be interested in is whether Ruhi is used by a significant number of people who call themselves Hindus. The evidence of the websites, I believe, answers this in the affirmative, for some definition of a significant number (this is a kind of thing that the websites are likely to get right).
I am confused. Arabic is a language and Hinduism is a religio-cultural trait. I do not know Arabic nor do I know Persian and ruhi, for all I know, could be etymologically related to rukh for wind, or a cluster of words for breath and soul. That has, however, little to do with its being used in the Hindu community: and I suspect that some names used in this community are etymologically not derived from Sanskrit. In fact, once you notice that the word Hindu is itself of Persian origin (a loan word into Persian of the Sanskrit word Sindhu meaning water and not having any religious connotation!), it is even more odd to call a name non-Hindu simply because it has a non-Sanskrit origin. And, then, I am not sure what to think about borrowings into Sanskrit, and of words whose origin is from the Austrasiatic, Dravidian, or Tibeto-Burmese families ... Also, the definition of who is a Hindu is quite simply non-existant, so that even with all the data it is not always meaningful to ask with what frequency a particular name is used by the Hindus.
So, the question you could be interested in is whether Ruhi is used by a significant number of people who call themselves Hindus. The evidence of the websites, I believe, answers this in the affirmative, for some definition of a significant number (this is a kind of thing that the websites are likely to get right).
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