Browse Names - Behind the Name

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Ai 1 f Japanese
From Japanese 愛 (ai) meaning "love, affection", 藍 (ai) meaning "indigo", or other kanji with the same pronunciation.

Aoi f & m Japanese
From Japanese 葵 (aoi) meaning "hollyhock, althea" or an adjectival form of 碧 (ao) meaning "green, blue". Other kanji with the same reading can form this name as well.

Asena f Turkish
Possibly of Scythian origin meaning "blue". In Turkic mythology Asena was a grey wolf who gave birth to the ancestor of the Ashina tribe of Turks.

Azzurra f Italian
Means "azure, sky blue" in Italian.

Blue m & f English (Rare)
From the English word for the colour, derived via Norman French from a Frankish word (replacing the native Old English cognate blaw). Despite the fact that this name was used by the American musicians Beyoncé and Jay-Z in 2012 for their first daughter, it has not come into general use in the United States.

Caeso m Ancient Roman
Roman praenomen, or given name, that was probably derived from Latin caesius meaning "blue-grey". This praenomen was only used by a few families.

Cyan f & m English (Rare)
From the English word meaning "greenish blue, cyan", ultimately derived from Greek κύανος (kyanos).

Diindiisi f & m Ojibwe
Means "blue jay" in Ojibwe.

Gökçe f Turkish
Means "blue" in Turkish.

Gormlaith f Old Irish
Derived from Old Irish gorm "blue" or "illustrious" and flaith "ruler, sovereign, princess". This was the name of several medieval Irish royals, including the wife of the 11th-century king Brian Boru.

Kahurangi f & m Maori
From the name of a type of green gemstone found in New Zealand, meaning "sky blue" in Maori.

Kaltrina f Albanian
Possibly from Albanian kaltër meaning "blue, azure".

Khazhak m Armenian
Means "blue-eyed" in Armenian.

Livius m Ancient Roman
Roman family name that may be related to either Latin liveo "to envy" or lividus "blue, envious". Titus Livius, also known as Livy, was a Roman historian who wrote a history of the city of Rome.

Nila f Tamil, Hindi, Indonesian, Burmese
From Sanskrit नील (nīla) meaning "dark blue".

Nilam f & m Hindi, Marathi
From Sanskrit नील (nīla) meaning "dark blue".

Nilesh m Marathi
From Sanskrit नील (nīla) meaning "dark blue" and ईश (īśa) meaning "lord, ruler".

Nilima f Marathi, Hindi, Telugu
From Sanskrit नील (nīla) meaning "dark blue".

Qing f & m Chinese
From Chinese 青 (qīng) meaning "blue, green, young", as well as other characters pronounced in a similar way.

Qinglong m Chinese Mythology
From Chinese 青 (qīng) meaning "blue, green" and 龙 (lóng) meaning "dragon". This is the Chinese name of the Azure Dragon, associated with the east and the spring season.

Safira f Portuguese
Portuguese form of Sapphira. It coincides with the Portuguese word for "sapphire".

Sapir f Hebrew
Means "sapphire" in Hebrew.

Sappheire f Biblical Greek
Greek form of Sapphira.

Sapphira f Biblical
From the Greek name Σαπφείρη (Sappheire), which was from Greek σάπφειρος (sappheiros) meaning "sapphire" or "lapis lazuli" (ultimately derived from the Hebrew word סַפִּיר (sappir)). Sapphira is a character in Acts in the New Testament who is killed by God for lying.

Sapphire f English (Modern)
From the name of the gemstone, typically blue, which is the traditional birthstone of September. It is derived from Greek σάπφειρος (sappheiros), ultimately from the Hebrew word סַפִּיר (sappir).

Sappho f Ancient Greek
Possibly from Greek σάπφειρος (sappheiros) meaning "sapphire" or "lapis lazuli". This was the name of a 7th-century BC Greek poetess from Lesbos.

Shyama m & f Hinduism, Hindi
Derived from Sanskrit श्याम (śyāma) meaning "dark, black, blue". This is a transcription of both the masculine form श्याम (another name of the Hindu god Krishna) and the feminine form श्यामा (another name of the goddess Kali).

Shyamal m Bengali
From Sanskrit श्यामल (śyāmala), a derivative of श्याम (śyāma) meaning "dark, black, blue".

Shyamala f Tamil, Telugu, Marathi
Feminine form of Shyamal.

Sini f Finnish
Means "blue" in Finnish. More specifically, sini is a poetic term for the colour blue.

Sirje f Estonian
Possibly from Estonian sinisirje meaning "blue-feathered", a word associated with a magical bird in the Estonian national epic Kalevipoeg (1857) by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald. Apparently this name was suggested by the linguist Julius Mägiste in the 1920s. It was subsequently used in the 1945 opera Tasuleegid by Eugen Kapp.

Sunil m Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Assamese, Gujarati, Punjabi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Nepali
From Sanskrit सु (su) meaning "good, very" combined with नील (nīla) meaning "dark blue".

Thanh f & m Vietnamese
From Sino-Vietnamese 青 (thanh) meaning "blue, green, young" or 聲 (thanh) meaning "sound, voice, tone".

Žydrė f Lithuanian
From Lithuanian žydra meaning "light blue".

Žydrūnas m Lithuanian
From Lithuanian žydra meaning "light blue" (using the patronymic suffix ūnas).

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