Kaleria

The first known bearer of this name is saint Kaleria from the port city of Caesarea Maritima in ancient Palestine. She lived during the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian (284-305) and was martyred together with two to four other women (sources differ on the exact amount as well as their names).

Saint Kaleria is venerated in the Catholic Church as Valeria on June 5. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, she is venerated on different days and sometimes also under different names. In the Greek Orthodox Church, she is venerated as Βαρέρια (Bareria/Vareria) on June 6. In the Georgian and Russian Orthodox Church, it is respectively Kaleria (June 20) and Kaleriya (June 7).

The meaning of the saint's name is uncertain. It might well be a corruption of the aforementioned Latin name Valeria ("firm, strong"). Her Greek name Βαρέρια (Bareria in ancient Greek, Vareria in modern Greek) also seems to point in this direction, although a completely different etymology cannot be ruled out for that name. For example, there might possibly be a connection to Aramaic בּר (bar) meaning "son".

Other sources propose that the name might be derived from the Greek adjective καλός (kalos) meaning "beautiful, lovely". However, if this were indeed the case, then the saint should have been known as Καλέρια (Kaleria) in the Greek Orthodox Church.

Lastly, there are also sources that theorize that the name is derived from Latin calere, which is the present active infinitive of the verb caleo meaning "to be warm or hot, to glow".

Finally, I would like to note that Kaleria as a Russian name is an alternate transcription of Калерия (see Kaleriya).