borage's Personal Name List

Polish and Latvian form of Susanna.

Means "good" in Hebrew.

Modern Hebrew form of Susanna.

From the Hebrew name שָׁאוּל (Shaʾul) meaning "asked for, prayed for". This was the name of the first king of Israel, as told in the Old Testament. Before the end of his reign he lost favour with God, and after a defeat by the Philistines he was succeeded by David as king. In the New Testament, Saul was the original Hebrew name of the apostle Paul.

Combination of Rose and Mary. This name can also be given in reference to the herb, which gets its name from Latin ros marinus meaning "dew of the sea". It came into use as a given name in the 19th century.

Means "pleasantness" in Hebrew. A famous bearer is Noam Chomsky (1928-), an American linguist and philosopher.

Variant of Nisa.

Means "beautiful" in Hebrew.

Variant of Nathanael. It has been regularly used in the English-speaking world since the Protestant Reformation. This has been the most popular spelling, even though the spelling Nathanael is found in most versions of the New Testament. The American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), author of The Scarlet Letter, was a famous bearer of this name.

Means "giving light" in Hebrew.

Form of Clara in various languages.

Means "viburnum tree" in Bulgarian, Macedonian and Polish.

From the Greek name Ἱερώνυμος (Hieronymos) meaning "sacred name", derived from ἱερός (hieros) meaning "sacred" and ὄνυμα (onyma) meaning "name". Saint Jerome was responsible for the creation of the Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Bible, in the 5th century. He is regarded as a Doctor of the Church. The name was used in his honour in the Middle Ages, especially in Italy and France, and has been used in England since the 12th century [1].

Of uncertain origin and meaning, although theories include a combination of Isabella and Susannah. This name was first recorded in the Boston area in the early 1700s and famously borne by one of Paul Revere's daughters who died in infancy. It was later used by Esther Forbes in her 1943 historical fiction novel Johnny Tremain.

Latinate form of Helen. This is the name of the heroine of William Shakespeare's play All's Well That Ends Well (1603).

Feminine form of Francis. The distinction between Francis as a masculine name and Frances as a feminine name did not arise until the 17th century [1]. A notable bearer was Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850-1917), a social worker and the first American to be canonized.

Polish, Slovak, Romanian and Lithuanian form of Esther.

From the Hebrew name אֶףְרָיִם (ʾEfrayim) meaning "fruitful". In the Old Testament Ephraim is a son of Joseph and Asenath and the founder of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. This name was also borne by two early saints: Ephraim or Ephrem the Syrian, a 4th-century theologian, and Ephraim of Antioch, a 6th-century patriarch of Antioch.

Polish form of Elijah.

Means "judged" in Hebrew, derived from דִּין (din) meaning "to judge". According to the Old Testament, Dinah was a daughter of Jacob and Leah who was abducted by Shechem. It has been used as an English given name since after the Protestant Reformation.

Polish form of Dagmar.

Hebrew variant of Bithiah.

From an Aramaic form of Yaakov. Akiva (or Akiba) ben Joseph was a prominent 1st-century Jewish rabbi.