GabiSalti's Personal Name List

Derived from the Basque place name Etxeberria meaning "the new house". This was the surname of the Jesuit priest Saint Francis Xavier (1506-1552) who was born in a village by this name. He was a missionary to India, Japan, China, and other areas in East Asia, and he is the patron saint of the Orient and missionaries. His surname has since been adopted as a given name in his honour, chiefly among Catholics.

Feminine form of Vivianus (see Vivian). Saint Viviana (also known as Bibiana) was a Roman saint and martyr of the 4th century.

Brazilian Portuguese form of Veronica.

Possibly related to Latin verus "true". This might also be a Coptic form of the Ptolemaic name Berenice. Saint Verena was a 3rd-century Egyptian-born nurse who went with the Theban Legion to Switzerland. After the legion was massacred she settled near Zurich.

Portuguese form of Tullio.

Spanish, Portuguese and Irish form of Thomas.

From the Latin name Sebastianus, which meant "from Sebaste". Sebaste was the name a town in Asia Minor, its name deriving from Greek σεβαστός (sebastos) meaning "venerable" (a translation of Latin Augustus, the title of the Roman emperors). According to Christian tradition, Saint Sebastian was a 3rd-century Roman soldier martyred during the persecutions of the emperor Diocletian. After he was discovered to be a Christian, he was tied to a stake and shot with arrows. This however did not kill him. Saint Irene of Rome healed him and he returned to personally admonish Diocletian, whereupon the emperor had him beaten to death.

Due to the saint's popularity, the name came into general use in medieval Europe, especially in Spain and France. It was also borne by a 16th-century king of Portugal who died in a crusade against Morocco.

Latinized form of Habren, the original Welsh name of the River Severn. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Sabrina was the name of a princess who was drowned in the Severn. Supposedly the river was named for her, but it is more likely that her name was actually derived from that of the river, which is of unknown meaning. She appears as a water nymph in John Milton's masque Comus (1634).

The name was brought to public attention by Samuel A. Taylor's play Sabrina Fair (1953) and the movie adaptation Sabrina that followed it the next year. This is also the name of a comic book character, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, first introduced 1962 and with television adaptations in 1970-1974 and 1996-2003, both causing minor jumps in popularity. Another jump occurred in 1976, when it was used for a main character on the television series Charlie's Angels.

Feminine form of Paulinus (see Paulino).

French and Dutch form of Oliver. This is also a French word meaning "olive tree".

Portuguese form of Martinus (see Martin).

Italian form of Marcus (see Mark). During the Middle Ages this name was common in Venice, where Saint Mark was supposedly buried. A famous bearer was the Venetian explorer Marco Polo, who travelled across Asia to China in the 13th century.

English form of Madeleine. This is the name of the heroine in a series of children's books by the Austrian-American author Ludwig Bemelmans, first published 1939.

Portuguese form of Louis.

Portuguese form of Lucius.

Portuguese and Hungarian form of Lucia.

Italian and Romanian form of Lucas (see Luke). This name was borne by Luca della Robbia, a Renaissance sculptor from Florence.

Latinate form of Lillian.

Latinate form of Lily, as well as an alternate transcription of Russian Лилия or Ukrainian Лілія (see Liliya).

Variant of Leila.

Short form of Juliana, Liliana and other names that end in liana. This is also the word for a type of vine that grows in jungles.

Italian, Portuguese, Georgian and Greek form of Leah.

Portuguese and Hungarian form of Letitia.

Spanish and Portuguese form of Juliet.

Catalan form of George.

Newer form of the Old Church Slavic name Іѡаннъ (Ioannŭ), which was derived from Greek Ioannes (see John). This was the name of six Russian rulers, including the 15th-century Ivan III the Great and 16th-century Ivan IV the Terrible, the first tsar of Russia. It was also borne by nine emperors of Bulgaria. Other notable bearers include the Russian author Ivan Turgenev (1818-1883), who wrote Fathers and Sons, and the Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936), who is best known for his discovery of the conditioned reflex.

French form of Heinrich (see Henry). A notable bearer was the French artist Henri Matisse (1869-1954).

Portuguese form of Helios.

Latinized form of Greek Ἕκτωρ (Hektor), which was derived from ἕκτωρ (hektor) meaning "holding fast", ultimately from ἔχω (echo) meaning "to hold, to possess". In Greek legend Hector was one of the Trojan champions who fought against the Greeks. After he killed Achilles' friend Patroclus in battle, he was himself brutally slain by Achilles, who proceeded to tie his dead body to a chariot and drag it about. This name also appears in Arthurian legends where it belongs to King Arthur's foster father.

Hector has occasionally been used as a given name since the Middle Ages, probably because of the noble character of the classical hero. It has been historically common in Scotland, where it was used as an Anglicized form of Eachann.

Portuguese form of William.

From the Roman cognomen Florianus, a derivative of Florus. This was the name of a short-lived Roman emperor of the 3rd century, Marcus Annius Florianus. It was also borne by Saint Florian, a martyr of the 3rd century, the patron saint of Poland and Upper Austria.

Derived from Latin flos meaning "flower" (genitive case floris). Flora was the Roman goddess of flowers and spring, the wife of Zephyr the west wind. It has been used as a given name since the Renaissance, starting in France. In Scotland it was sometimes used as an Anglicized form of Fionnghuala.

Portuguese form of Flavius.

Portuguese form of Philip.

French, Spanish, Portuguese and Hungarian form of Felix.

Hungarian and Portuguese form of Felicia.

Portuguese form of Fabricius (see Fabrice).

From the Roman cognomen Fabianus, which was derived from Fabius. Saint Fabian was a 3rd-century pope.

Anglicized form of Ifan, a Welsh form of John.

Portuguese and Slovak form of Eulalia.

Portuguese form of Eric.

Means "ever ruler", from the Old Norse name Eiríkr, derived from the elements ei "ever, always" and ríkr "ruler, king". A notable bearer was Eiríkr inn Rauda (Eric the Red in English), a 10th-century navigator and explorer who discovered Greenland. This was also the name of several early kings of Sweden, Denmark and Norway.

This common Norse name was first brought to England by Danish settlers during the Anglo-Saxon period. It was not popular in England in the Middle Ages, but it was revived in the 19th century, in part due to the children's novel Eric, or Little by Little (1858) by Frederic William Farrar.

Portuguese form of Aemilius (see Emil).

Portuguese, Slovak and Hungarian feminine form of Aemilius (see Emily).

Short form of Elisabeth.

From the Late Latin name Dominicus meaning "of the Lord". This name was traditionally given to a child born on Sunday. Several saints have borne this name, including the 13th-century founder of the Dominican order of friars. It was in this saint's honour that the name was first used in England, starting around the 13th century. It has historically seen more use among Catholics.

Italian form of Dominicus (see Dominic). Domenico Veneziano was a Renaissance painter who lived in Florence.

Italian feminine form of Dominicus (see Dominic).

Means "divine, goddesslike", a derivative of Latin dia or diva meaning "goddess". It is ultimately related to the same Indo-European root *dyew- found in Zeus. Diana was a Roman goddess of the moon, hunting, forests and childbirth, often identified with the Greek goddess Artemis.

As a given name, Diana has been regularly used since the Renaissance. It became more common in the English-speaking world following Walter Scott's novel Rob Roy (1817), which featured a character named Diana Vernon. It also appeared in George Meredith's novel Diana of the Crossways (1885). A notable bearer was the British royal Diana Spencer (1961-1997), the Princess of Wales.

From Lithuanian dalis meaning "portion, share". This was the name of the Lithuanian goddess of weaving, fate and childbirth, often associated with Laima.

Latinate form of Clarice. This is the name of the title character in a 1748 novel by Samuel Richardson. In the novel Clarissa Harlowe is a virtuous woman who is tragically exploited by her family and her lover. Another literary character by this name is Clarissa Dalloway from the novel Mrs. Dalloway (1925) by Virginia Woolf.

Variant of Céline.

Feminine form of Caelinus. This name can also function as a short form of Marcelina.

Portuguese, Catalan, Slovak and Hungarian form of Cecilia.

Feminine form of Camillus. This was the name of a legendary warrior maiden of the Volsci, as told by Virgil in the Aeneid. It was popularized in the English-speaking world by Fanny Burney's novel Camilla (1796).

French and German form of Bridget. A famous bearer is the French model and actress Brigitte Bardot (1934-).

Portuguese form of Basil 1.

Portuguese form of Aurelius.

Slovak, Hungarian and Portuguese feminine form of Aurelius, as well as a French variant of Aurélie.

Latinate diminutive of Angela. A famous bearer is American actress Angelina Jolie (1975-).

Portuguese form of Annabel.

Portuguese and Spanish form of Amerigo.

Portuguese and French form of Amelia.

Hungarian, Portuguese and Slovak form of Amalia.

Spanish form of Alvarus, the Latinized form of a Visigothic name, possibly derived from the elements alls "all" and wars "aware, cautious" or wards "guard". Álvar Fáñez was an 11th-century military commander and duke of Toledo, who appears as a general of El Cid in the epic poem El Cantar de mio Cid. Verdi also used the name in his opera The Force of Destiny (1862).

From a Germanic name that was derived from the element adal meaning "noble" (Proto-Germanic *aþalaz).