Riez's Personal Name List

Derived from the Old German elements adal "noble" and bern "bear".

Means "eldest daughter of her father" in Igbo.

German and Dutch form of Adelaide.

Means "my lord is exalted" in Hebrew, derived from אָדוֹן (ʾaḏon) meaning "lord, master" and רוּם (rum) meaning "to exalt". In the Old Testament this is the name of an overseer of tribute under the kings David, Solomon and Rehoboam. He was stoned to death when the Israelites revolted.

Possibly means "very steadfast" in Greek. In Greek mythology he was the brother of Menelaus. He led the Greek expedition to Troy to recover his brother's wife Helen. After the Trojan War Agamemnon was killed by his wife Clytemnestra.

From the Greek name Αἴας (Aias), perhaps deriving from Greek αἰαστής (aiastes) meaning "mourner" or αἶα (aia) meaning "earth, land". In Greek mythology this was the name of two of the heroes who fought for the Greeks in the Trojan War: the son of Telamon and the son of Oileus. When the armour of the slain hero Achilles was not given to Ajax Telamonian, he became mad with jealousy and killed himself.

Variant of Akhenaton.

This name became popular after the Battle of Alma (1854), which took place near the River Alma in Crimea and ended in a victory for Britain and France. However, the name was in rare use before the battle; it was probably inspired by Latin almus "nourishing". It also coincides with the Spanish word meaning "the soul".

Variant of Elmira 1. Handel used it for the title character in his opera Almira (1705).

Middle English form of Ælfheah.

Late Latin name meaning "lovable". Saint Amabilis was a 5th-century priest in Riom, central France.

Means "shining over heaven", from Japanese 天 (ama) meaning "heaven, sky" and 照 (terasu) meaning "shine". This was the name of the Japanese sun goddess, the ruler of the heavens. She was born when Izanagi washed his left eye after returning from the underworld. At one time the Japanese royal family claimed descent from her.

Means "God is my kinsman" in Hebrew, from the roots עַם (ʿam) meaning "people, nation, kinsman" and אֵל (ʾel) meaning "God". This is the name of one of the spies sent out by Moses in the Old Testament.

Means "minuteness" from Sanskrit अणिमन (aṇiman). In yoga texts, this is the name of the ability to make oneself infinitely small so to be invisible.

Combination of Anne 1 and Liese.

Means "condor of the sun" in Mapuche, from antü "sun" and mañku "condor".

Variant of Araceli.

Feminine variant of Ashley.

From עַשְׁתֹרֶת (ʿAshṯoreṯ), the Hebrew form of the name of a Phoenician goddess of love, war and fertility. Her name is cognate to that of the East Semitic goddess Ishtar.

Greek form of Ashtoreth.

From the Greek name Ἀθανάσιος (Athanasios) meaning "immortal", from Greek ἀ (a), a negative prefix, combined with θάνατος (thanatos) meaning "death". Saint Athanasius was a 4th-century bishop of Alexandria who strongly opposed Arianism.

From Atholl, the name of a district in Scotland, from Scottish Gaelic Athall, possibly derived from Old Irish ath Fhotla "new Ireland".

Roman family name that was derived from Latin aureus meaning "golden, gilded". Marcus Aurelius was a 2nd-century Roman emperor and philosophical writer. This was also the name of several early saints.

Hebrew form of Abital, sometimes used as a masculine name in modern times.

Means "moon flood" in Turkish and Azerbaijani, derived from ay "moon" and sel "flood, stream" (of Arabic origin).

Form of Basemath and Basmath used in the Greek Old Testament.

Means "worthless" in Hebrew. In the Old Testament this term is used to refer to various wicked people. In the New Testament, Paul uses it as a name for Satan. In later Christian tradition Belial became an evil angel associated with lawlessness and lust.

Latinized feminine form of Berengar. This name was borne by a 13th-century queen of Castile.

The name of the star that marks the right shoulder of the constellation Orion. It is derived from Arabic يد الجوزا (yad al-Jawzā) meaning "the hand of Jawza". جوزا (Jawzā) meaning "central one" was the old Arabic name for the constellation Orion (also for Gemini).

Means "Candlemas" in Spanish, ultimately derived from Spanish candela "candle". This name is given in honour of the church festival of Candlemas, which commemorates the presentation of Christ in the temple and the purification of the Virgin Mary.

From the title of the Virgin Mary Our Lady of Mount Carmel. כַּרְמֶל (Karmel) (meaning "garden" in Hebrew) is a mountain in Israel mentioned in the Old Testament. It was the site of several early Christian monasteries. As an English given name, it has mainly been used by Catholics. As a Jewish name it is unisex.

Medieval Spanish form of Carmel, appearing in the devotional title of the Virgin Mary Nuestra Señora del Carmen meaning "Our Lady of Mount Carmel". The spelling has been altered through association with the Latin word carmen meaning "song". This was the name of the main character in George Bizet's opera Carmen (1875).

Variant of Carmen.

Latin form of Charles.

From the Greek name Κασσάνδρα (Kassandra), possibly derived from κέκασμαι (kekasmai) meaning "to excel, to shine" and ἀνήρ (aner) meaning "man" (genitive ἀνδρός). In Greek myth Cassandra was a Trojan princess, the daughter of Priam and Hecuba. She was given the gift of prophecy by Apollo, but when she spurned his advances he cursed her so nobody would believe her prophecies.

In the Middle Ages this name was common in England due to the popularity of medieval tales about the Trojan War. It subsequently became rare, but was revived in the 20th century.

French form of Katherine, and also a common English variant.

English form of Cecilia. This was the usual English form during the Middle Ages.

Means simply "chalice, goblet" from the English word, derived from Latin calix.

French form of Cosmas.

Means "consoled" in Italian. It is taken from the title of the Virgin Mary, Maria Consolata.

Either a French form of Koralia, or a derivative of Latin corallium "coral" (see Coral).

Latinized form of Greek Κυνθία (Kynthia), which means "woman from Cynthus". This was an epithet of the Greek moon goddess Artemis, given because Cynthus was the mountain on Delos on which she and her twin brother Apollo were born. It was not used as a given name until the Renaissance, and it did not become common in the English-speaking world until the 19th century. It reached a peak of popularity in the United States in 1957 and has declined steadily since then.

Medieval short form of Durante. The most notable bearer of this name was Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), the Italian poet who wrote the Divine Comedy.

Derived from Greek δυσδαίμων (dysdaimon) meaning "ill-fated". This is the name of the wife of Othello in Shakespeare's play Othello (1603).

Derived from Latin desiderium meaning "longing, desire". It was the name of several early saints. It was also borne in the 8th century by the last king of the Lombard Kingdom.

Spanish feminine form of Adelmar.

Means "snow" in Welsh. This is a recently created name.

Possibly from Old Irish etne meaning "kernel, grain". In Irish mythology Eithne or Ethniu was a Fomorian and the mother of Lugh Lámfada. It was borne by several other legendary and historical figures, including a few early saints.

Spanish form of a Visigothic name, recorded from the 10th century in forms such as Geloyra or Giluira. It is of uncertain meaning, possibly composed of the Gothic element gails "happy" or gails "spear" combined with wers "friendly, agreeable, true". The name was borne by members of the royal families of León and Castille. This is also the name of a character in Mozart's opera Don Giovanni (1787).

Swedish feminine form of Aemilius (see Emily).

Feminine form of Erik. It also coincides with the word for "heather" in some languages.

Old German form of Hermenegildo.

From the Hebrew name אֶסְתֵר (ʾEsṯer), which possibly means "star" in Persian. Alternatively it could be a derivative of the name of the Near Eastern goddess Ishtar. The Book of Esther in the Old Testament tells the story of Queen Esther, the Jewish wife of the king of Persia. The king's advisor Haman persuaded the king to exterminate all the Jews in the realm. Warned of this plot by her cousin Mordecai, Esther revealed her Jewish ancestry and convinced the king to execute Haman instead. Her original Hebrew name was Hadassah.

This name has been used in the English-speaking world since the Protestant Reformation. In America it received a boost in popularity after the birth of Esther Cleveland (1893-1980), the daughter of President Grover Cleveland [1].

English form of the Germanic name Adallinda. The name was very rare in medieval times, but it was revived in the early 19th century.

Means "rain" in Basque.

Feminine form of Eutropios (see Eutropius).

Variant of Faigel.

Latin name meaning "good luck, fortune". In Roman mythology the goddess Felicitas was the personification of good luck. It was borne by a 3rd-century saint, a slave martyred with her master Perpetua in Carthage.

Form of Fionnuala used by Walter Scott for a character in his novel Peveril of the Peak (1823).

From Old Irish Fiachrae, possibly from fiach "raven" or fích "battle" combined with rí "king". This was the name of several legendary figures, including one of the four children of Lir transformed into swans for a period of 900 years. This is also the name of the patron saint of gardeners: a 7th-century Irish abbot who settled in France, usually called Saint Fiacre.

Welsh form of Valentine 1.

Russian form of Thomas.

Short form of Alfons.

Simply from the word fortune, ultimately from Latin fortuna, a derivative of fors "luck".

German feminine form of Franciscus (see Francis).

Variant of Freya.

Feminine form of Frederico or Frederick.

Means "lord" in Old Norse, derived from the Germanic root *fraujô. This is the name of a Norse god. He may have originally been called Yngvi, with the name Freyr being his title. Freyr is associated with fertility, sunlight and rain, and is the husband of the giantess Gerd. With his twin sister Freya and father Njord he is one of the group of deities called the Vanir.

Means "love me" in Igbo.

Means "joy, happiness" in Swahili, borrowed from Arabic فرح (fariḥa).

Means "birth, origin" in Greek. This is the name of the first book of the Old Testament in the Bible. It tells of the creation of the world, the expulsion of Adam and Eve, Noah and the great flood, and the three patriarchs.

From a biblical place name, the garden where Jesus was arrested, located on the Mount of Olives near Jerusalem. It is derived from Γεθσημανί (Gethsemani), the Greek form of an Aramaic name meaning "oil vat". It is very rarely used as a given name.

Means "glory", from the Portuguese and Spanish titles of the Virgin Mary Maria da Glória and María de Gloria. Maria da Glória (1819-1853) was the daughter of the Brazilian emperor Pedro I, eventually becoming queen of Portugal as Maria II.

The name was introduced to the English-speaking world by E. D. E. N. Southworth's novel Gloria (1891) and George Bernard Shaw's play You Never Can Tell (1898), which both feature characters with a Portuguese background [1]. It was popularized in the early 20th century by American actress Gloria Swanson (1899-1983). Another famous bearer is feminist Gloria Steinem (1934-).

Diminutive of Grete. It is well-known as a character from an 1812 Brothers Grimm fairy tale who is captured, with her brother Hansel, by a witch. The Grimm's story was based on earlier European folktales.

From an English surname that was derived from a place name meaning "heather field" in Old English.

Means "wind" in Basque.

From the Old Norse name Halli, a diminutive of names containing the element hallr meaning "rock".

Means "harmony, agreement" in Greek. She was the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, given by Zeus to Cadmus to be his wife.

Greek form of Egyptian ḥwt-ḥrw (reconstructed as Hut-Heru) meaning "the house of Horus", derived from Egyptian ḥwt "house" combined with the god Horus. In Egyptian mythology she was the goddess of love, often depicted with the head of a cow.

From the English word hazel for the tree or the light brown colour, derived ultimately from Old English hæsel. It was coined as a given name in the 19th century and quickly became popular, reaching the 18th place for girls in the United States by 1897. It fell out of fashion in the second half of the 20th century, but has since recovered.

From the Greek Ἑκάτη (Hekate), possibly derived from ἑκάς (hekas) meaning "far off". In Greek mythology Hecate was a goddess associated with witchcraft, crossroads, tombs, demons and the underworld.

German diminutive of Adelheid. This is the name of the title character in the children's novel Heidi (1880) by the Swiss author Johanna Spyri. The name began to be used in the English-speaking world shortly after the 1937 release of the movie adaptation, which starred Shirley Temple.

Low German diminutive of Henrike or Henrik.

Portuguese form of Hector.

Short form of Wilhelmine.

Latinized form of Heinrich. As a Dutch name, it is used on birth certificates though a vernacular form such as Hendrik is typically used in daily life.

Latinate form of Henriette. It was introduced to England by Henriette Marie, the wife of the 17th-century English king Charles I. The name Henriette was also Anglicized as Harriet, a form that was initially more popular.

Latin form of Esther. Like Esther, it has been used in England since the Protestant Reformation. Nathaniel Hawthorne used it for the heroine of his novel The Scarlet Letter (1850), Hester Prynne, a Puritan woman forced to wear a red letter A on her chest after giving birth to a child out of wedlock.

From the English word hope, ultimately from Old English hopian. This name was first used by the Puritans in the 17th century.

Latinized form of Ὧρος (Horos), the Greek form of Egyptian ḥrw (reconstructed as Heru and other forms) possibly from ḥr "above, over" or ḥrj "distant". In Egyptian mythology Horus was a god of the sky and light, often depicted as a man with the head of a falcon. In some versions of the mythology he was the son of Osiris and Isis, and avenged his father's murder by killing his uncle Seth.

Means "air" in Finnish.

Latin form of Inmaculada.

The name of the daughter of King Cymbeline in the play Cymbeline (1609) by William Shakespeare. He based her on a legendary character named Innogen, but it was printed incorrectly and never emended. Innogen is probably derived from Gaelic inghean meaning "maiden". As a given name it is chiefly British and Australian.

English form of Inés.

From the Old Norse name Ingríðr meaning "Ing is beautiful", derived from the name of the Germanic god Ing combined with fríðr "beautiful, beloved". A famous bearer was the Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982).

Finnish and Frisian feminine form of Inge.

Older form of Jove.

Means "watchful" in Hebrew. In the Old Testament this is the name of King David's priest. As an English Christian given name, Ira began to be used after the Protestant Reformation. In the 17th century the Puritans brought it to America, where remained moderately common into the 20th century.

Possibly a Portuguese and Galician form of Irene. This was the name of a 7th-century saint (also known as Irene) from Tomar in Portugal. This is also the name of an ancient town in Galicia (now a district of Padrón).

Means "rainbow" in Greek. Iris was the name of the Greek goddess of the rainbow, also serving as a messenger to the gods. This name can also be given in reference to the word (which derives from the same Greek source) for the iris flower or the coloured part of the eye.

German short form of names beginning with the Old German element irmin meaning "whole, great" (Proto-Germanic *ermunaz). It is thus related to Emma. It began to be regularly used in the English-speaking world in the 19th century.

German form of Ermengard.

Means "trinity" in Basque, derived from hiru meaning "three". It was proposed by Sabino Arana in 1910 as an equivalent of the Spanish name Trinidad.

Means "spark" in South Slavic.

Latin form of Junia.

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 feminine form of Jacques, also commonly used in the English-speaking world.

Means "archway" in Latin. Janus was the Roman god of gateways and beginnings, often depicted as having two faces looking in opposite directions. The month of January is named for him.

Latinate form of Greek Ioanna (see Joanna).

From the English word for the type of tree, derived ultimately from Latin iuniperus.

Finnish and Estonian diminutive of Katherine.

From the name of the mythological ancestor of the Finns, which is of unknown meaning. The name of the Finnish epic the Kalevala means "the land of Kaleva".

From Greek καλός Ἰωάννης (kalos Ioannes) meaning "handsome John", the nickname of a 13th-century emperor of Bulgaria. He successfully defended the empire from the Fourth Crusade.

Norwegian short form of Katarina.

From the name of the bird of prey, ultimately derived from Old French crecelle "rattle", which refers to the sound of its cry.

From Lithuanian kęsti meaning "to cope, to endure" combined with a diminutive suffix. This was the name of a 14th-century ruler of Lithuania.

From the Hebrew name קְטוּרָה (Qeṭura) meaning "incense". In the Old Testament she is Abraham's wife after Sarah dies.

Means "lily of the valley" in Finnish (species Convallaria majalis).

German variant of Cora.

Short form of names beginning with the Old German element kunni meaning "clan, family". It can also be a short form of Konrad.

Bulgarian, Serbian and Macedonian form of Cosmas.

Derived from Greek λαλαγέω (lalageo) meaning "to babble, to prattle". The Roman poet Horace used this name in one of his odes.

Means "love" in Finnish.

Possibly from Lycian lada meaning "wife". Other theories connect it to Greek λήθω (letho) meaning "hidden, forgotten". In Greek mythology she was the mother of Apollo and Artemis by Zeus.

Simply from the English word liberty, derived from Latin libertas, a derivative of liber "free". Interestingly, since 1880 this name has charted on the American popularity lists in three different periods: in 1918 (at the end of World War I), in 1976 (the American bicentennial), and after 2001 (during the War on Terrorism) [1].

Dutch diminutive of Angelique or names ending in lia.

German and Dutch diminutive of Elisabeth.

Russian, Ukrainian and Bulgarian cognate of Lily.

Possibly from the patronymic Manannán mac Lir, in which case Lir is the genitive case of the name Ler. The medieval Irish legend the Children of Lir tells how Lir of the Tuatha Dé Danann had his children transformed into swans by his third wife Aoife. The legendary characters Lir and Ler seem to be distinct.

Combination of Lise and Charlotte.

Meaning unknown. In Finnish mythology Loviatar, also known as Louhi, was a goddess of death and plague.

From an English surname meaning "son of Maud". It was not commonly used as a feminine name until after the movie Splash (1984), in which the main character adopted it as her name after seeing a street sign for Madison Avenue in New York City. It was ranked second for girls in the United States by 2001. This rise from obscurity to prominence in only 18 years represents an unprecedented 550,000 percent increase in usage.

A famous bearer of the surname was James Madison (1751-1836), one of the authors of the American constitution who later served as president (and after whom Madison Avenue was named).

Polish form of Malvina.

French diminutive of Marie.

Medieval French diminutive of Marie.

Italian, Spanish and Portuguese combination of Maria and Luisa.

Means "martyrdom" in Spanish. It is taken from the title of the Virgin Mary, Nuestra Señora del Martirio, the patron saint of the Spanish town of Ugíjar.

Means "illusion, magic" in Sanskrit. In Buddhist tradition this is the name of the mother of Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha). This is also another name of the Hindu goddess Durga.

German form of Matilda.

Old German form of Meinrad.

From Chinese 美 (měi) meaning "beautiful" or 梅 (méi) meaning "Chinese plum" (species Prunus mume), as well as other characters that are pronounced similarly.

Means "tall and slender, beautiful maiden" in Welsh (a compound of main "slender" and hir "tall").

Probably a combination of Mel (from names such as Melanie or Melissa) with the suffix antha (from Greek ἄνθος (anthos) meaning "flower"). John Dryden used this name in his play Marriage a la Mode (1672).

Old French form of Millicent.

Means "man of the dart" in Hebrew, from מַת (maṯ) meaning "man" and שֶׁלַח (shelaḥ) meaning "dart, weapon". In the Old Testament he is the father of Lamech and the grandfather of Noah. He lived to age 969, making him the longest-lived person in the Bible.

Means "ruling with peace", from Latvian miers "peace" and valdīt "to rule".

Dutch diminutive of Maria or Bartholomeus.

Diminutive of Maria and other names beginning with M.

Means "fish catcher" in Sanskrit.

Means "love" in Old German, specifically medieval courtly love. It is also used as a short form of Wilhelmina. This is the name of the title character in the play Minna von Barnhelm (1767) by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing.

Short form of Araminta.

From Sanskrit मीर (mīra) meaning "sea, ocean". This was the name of a 16th-century Indian princess who devoted her life to the god Krishna.

Variant of Mireia.

Form of Mary used in the Old Testament, where it belongs to the elder sister of Moses and Aaron. She watched over the infant Moses as the pharaoh's daughter drew him from the Nile. The name has long been popular among Jews, and it has been used as an English Christian name (alongside Mary) since the Protestant Reformation.

From Serbo-Croatian miran meaning "peaceful, calm".

Russian diminutive of Mikhail.

German diminutive of Maria.

From Japanese 美 (mi) meaning "beautiful" and 羽 (u) meaning "feather". Other kanji combinations are possible.

From Japanese 百 (momo) meaning "hundred" or 桃 (momo) meaning "peach" combined with 子 (ko) meaning "child". This name can be constructed from other kanji combinations as well.

Anglicized form of Muadhnait. It is also associated with Greek monos "one" and Leonardo da Vinci's painting the Mona Lisa (in which case it is a contraction of Italian ma donna meaning "my lady").

From the name of a Basque village where there is a sanctuary dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

Means "my struggle, my strife" in Hebrew, a derivative of פָּתַל (paṯal) meaning "to twist, to struggle, to wrestle". In the Old Testament he is a son of Jacob by Rachel's servant Bilhah, and the ancestor of one of the twelve tribes of Israel.

Means "sun flower" in Mongolian, from наран (naran) meaning "sun" and цэцэг (tsetseg) meaning "flower".

Form of Nathanael used in the Latin Bible.

Means "delicate, beautiful, coy" in Persian.

From Basque nere, a dialectal variant of nire meaning "mine".

Latinized form of Germanic *Nerþuz, which is also the root of the Old Norse god's name Njǫrðr (see Njord). Nerthus was a Germanic goddess of fertility as described by the Roman historian Tacitus in the 1st century.

Italian form of Nestor.

Short form of Geneva.

From the Greek name Νικόδημος (Nikodemos) meaning "victory of the people", derived from Greek νίκη (nike) meaning "victory" and δῆμος (demos) meaning "the people". This is the name of a character in the New Testament who helps Joseph of Arimathea entomb Jesus.

Short form of names that end in nina, such as Antonina or Giannina. It was imported to Western Europe from Russia and Italy in the 19th century. This name also nearly coincides with the Spanish word niña meaning "little girl" (the word is pronounced differently than the name).

A famous bearer was the American jazz musician Nina Simone (1933-2003).

From the Breton phrase Noyal Gwenn meaning "holy one from Noyal". This was the epithet of a 6th-century saint and martyr from Brittany.

From Japanese 典 (nori) meaning "rule, ceremony" or 紀 (nori) meaning "chronicle" combined with 子 (ko) meaning "child". Other kanji combinations are possible.

Created by Felice Romani for the main character in the opera Norma (1831). He may have based it on Latin norma "rule". This name is also frequently used as a feminine form of Norman.

Elaborated form of Norma.

Derived from Hebrew נוֹי (noi) meaning "beauty, ornament".

Feminine form of Palmiro.

Means "all gifts", derived from a combination of Greek πᾶν (pan) meaning "all" and δῶρον (doron) meaning "gift". In Greek mythology Pandora was the first mortal woman. Zeus gave her a jar containing all of the troubles and ills that mankind now knows, and told her not to open it. Unfortunately her curiosity got the best of her and she opened it, unleashing the evil spirits into the world.

Contracted form of Petronel. In the later Middle Ages it became a slang term for a promiscuous woman, and the name subsequently fell out of use.

Russian form of Pelagia.

Meaning unknown, possibly an early American alteration of Pamela.

Derived from Latin perpetuus meaning "continuous". This was the name of a 3rd-century saint martyred with another woman named Felicity.

Meaning unknown, probably of Pre-Greek origin, but perhaps related to Greek πέρθω (pertho) meaning "to destroy" and φόνος (phonos) meaning "murder". In Greek myth she was the daughter of Demeter and Zeus. She was abducted to the underworld by Hades, but was eventually allowed to return to the surface for part of the year. The result of her comings and goings is the changing of the seasons. With her mother she was worshipped in the Eleusinian Mysteries, which were secret rites practiced at the city of Eleusis near Athens.

Derived from Albanian pranverë meaning "spring", itself from pranë "nearby, close" and verë "summer".

From the name of a genus of several species of flowers, including the primrose. It is derived from the Latin word primulus meaning "very first".

Short form of Priscilla.

Latinized form of the Greek name Πρόχορος (Prochoros) meaning "leader of the dance". Saint Prochorus was one of the original seven deacons of the church, as told in Acts in the New Testament.

Italian form of Prosper. This is the name of the main character, a shipwrecked magician, in The Tempest (1611) by William Shakespeare.

From Egyptian rꜥ meaning "sun" or "day". Ra was an important Egyptian sun god originally worshipped in Heliopolis in Lower Egypt. He was usually depicted as a man with the head of a falcon crowned with a solar disc. In later times his attributes were often merged with those of other deities, such as Amon, Atum and Horus.

Italian form of Rachel.

Simply from the English word rain, derived from Old English regn.

Diminutive of Raisa 2.

Diminutive of Rayna 1 or Raisa 1.

Means "flower" in Mapuche.

Feminine form of Raziel.

From the Hebrew name רִבְקָה (Rivqa), probably from a Semitic root meaning "join, tie, snare". This is the name of the wife of Isaac and the mother of Esau and Jacob in the Old Testament. It came into use as an English Christian name after the Protestant Reformation, and it was popular with the Puritans in the 17th century. It has been consistently used since then, becoming especially common in the second half of the 20th century.

This name is borne by a Jewish woman in Walter Scott's novel Ivanhoe (1819), as well as the title character (who is deceased and unseen) in Daphne du Maurier's novel Rebecca (1938).

Means "queen" in Latin (or Italian). It was in use as a Christian name from early times, and was borne by a 2nd-century saint. In England it was used during the Middle Ages in honour of the Virgin Mary, and it was later revived in the 19th century. A city in Canada bears this name, in honour of Queen Victoria.

From Japanese 鈴 (rei) meaning "bell", 麗 (rei) meaning "beautiful, lovely" or 玲 (rei) meaning "the tinkling of jade". This name can also be formed by other kanji with the same pronunciation.

Finnish form of Raymond.

German form of Rayner.

Means "remedy" in Catalan, a Catalan equivalent of Remedios.

Latin form of Rémy.

Means "one that moves" in Sanskrit. This is another name of the Hindu goddess Rati.

Variant of Rhiannon.

Derived from Arabic الرجل (al-Rijl) meaning "foot". This is the name of the star that forms the left foot of the constellation Orion.

Means "white antelope" in Arabic.

From Sanskrit ऋषि (ṛṣi) meaning "sage, poet", perhaps ultimately deriving from a root meaning "to see".

Finnish, Estonian, Macedonian and Serbian short form of Christopher.

Means "singer" in Sanskrit.

Generally this can be considered to be from Latin rosa meaning "rose", though originally it may have come from the unrelated Germanic name Roza 2. This was the name of a 13th-century saint from Viterbo in Italy. In the English-speaking world it was first used in the 19th century. Famous bearers include the Polish-German revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919) and the American civil rights activist Rosa Parks (1913-2005).

French, German and Dutch form of Rosalia. In the English-speaking this name received a boost after the release of the movie Rosalie (1938), which was based on an earlier musical.

Catalan (feminine) form of Rosario.

Variant of Hrodohaidis.

Means "rose" in Russian, Bulgarian and Macedonian. It is a cognate of Rosa 1.

Croatian diminutive of Rozalija.

Means "ruddy, rosy" in Bulgarian and Macedonian.

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.

From a now extinct English surname that was derived from a Norman place name. It was occasionally given in honour of the English preacher Henry Sacheverell (1674-1724), especially by the Sitwell noble family.

From Japanese 幸 (sachi) meaning "happiness, good luck" and 子 (ko) meaning "child". Other kanji combinations are possible.

Diminutive of Sarah.

Diminutive of Sari 1.

Greek form of Shealtiel. This form is also used in some English translations of the Bible (including the King James Version).

From an Aramaic name that was related to the Hebrew word שָׁלוֹם (shalom) meaning "peace". According to the historian Josephus this was the name of the daughter of Herodias (the consort of Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee). In the New Testament, though a specific name is not given, it was a daughter of Herodias who danced for Herod and was rewarded with the head of John the Baptist, and thus Salome and the dancer have traditionally been equated.

As a Christian given name, Salome has been in occasional use since the Protestant Reformation. This was due to a second person of this name in the New Testament: one of the women who witnessed the crucifixion and later discovered that Jesus' tomb was empty. It is used in Georgia due to the 4th-century Salome of Ujarma, who is considered a saint in the Georgian Church.

Means "moonlight" in Mongolian, from саран (saran) meaning "moon" and гэрэл (gerel) meaning "light".

From Japanese 里 (sato) meaning "village" or 聡 (sato) meaning "intelligent, clever, bright" combined with 美 (mi) meaning "beautiful". Other kanji combinations are possible.

Means "fairy tale, fable" in Finnish.

Means "of the sun" in Sanskrit. This is the name of a hymn in the Rigveda dedicated to Savitr, a sun god. This is also the name of Savitr's daughter, a wife of Brahma, considered an aspect of Saraswati. In the Hindu epic the Mahabharata it is borne by King Satyavan's wife, who successfully pleas with Yama, the god of death, to restore her husband to life.

Meaning uncertain, possibly a derivative of Mapuche ayün "love".

Anglicized form of Shahrazad.

From a Late Latin name that was derived from scholasticus meaning "rhetorician, orator". Saint Scholastica was a 6th-century Benedictine abbess, the sister of Saint Benedict of Nursia.

Meaning unknown, possibly a short form of Anselma. It could also have been inspired by James Macpherson's 18th-century poems, in which it is the name of Ossian's castle.

Feminine form of Septimus.

Means "red, scarlet" in Hebrew.

Means "feather" in Choctaw.

Diminutive of Siet.

Variant of Zisel.

French form of the Late Latin name Sollemnia, which was derived from Latin sollemnis "religious". This was the name of a French shepherdess who became a saint after she was killed by her master.

Means "solitude" in Spanish. It is taken from the title of the Virgin Mary, María de la Soledad, meaning "Mary of Solitude".

Latin form of Solange.

From an Old Norse name, which was derived from the elements sól "sun" and veig "strength". This is the name of the heroine in Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt (1876).

Anglicized form of the Old Norse name Sumarliði meaning "summer traveller". This was the name of a 12th-century Norse-Gaelic king of Mann and the Scottish Isles.

Simply from the English word, ultimately deriving from Greek σύμφωνος (symphonos) meaning "concordant in sound".

Means "smiling" in Arabic.

Means "gazelle" in Aramaic. Tabitha in the New Testament was a woman restored to life by Saint Peter. Her name is translated into Greek as Dorcas (see Acts 9:36). As an English name, Tabitha became common after the Protestant Reformation. It was popularized in the 1960s by the television show Bewitched, in which Tabitha (sometimes spelled Tabatha) is the daughter of the main character.

Means "star" in Finnish and Estonian.

Italian form of Thaïs.

This is the name of waterfalls in Georgia. Popularly claimed to mean "leaping waters" in the Choctaw language, it may actually mean "town" in the Creek language. It was borne by American actress Tallulah Bankhead (1902-1968), who was named after her grandmother, who may have been named after the waterfalls.

From an English surname that was originally derived from a place name meaning "Tata's homestead" in Old English. It was brought to public attention by the child actress Tatum O'Neal (1963-) in the 1970s, though it did not catch on. It attained a modest level of popularity after 1996, when it was borne by a character in the movie Scream.

Finnish short form of Dorothea.

Short form of Terence or Terry 1.

Either a Portuguese form of Thelma or a feminine form of Telmo.

Means "third" in Spanish. This name was traditionally given to the third child born.

From Akkadian tâmtu meaning "sea". In Babylonian myth Tiamat was the personification of the sea, appearing in the form of a huge dragon. By Apsu she gave birth to the first of the gods. Later, the god Marduk (her great-grandson) defeated her, cut her in half, and used the pieces of her body to make the earth and the sky.

Frisian form of Diede.

Means "daughter of twilight, nightingale" in the fictional language Sindarin. In the Silmarillion (1977) by J. R. R. Tolkien, Tinuviel was another name of Lúthien, the daughter of Thingol the elf king. She was the beloved of Beren, who with her help retrieved one of the Silmarils from the iron crown of Morgoth.

Means "avenging murder" in Greek, derived from τίσις (tisis) meaning "vengeance" and φόνος (phonos) meaning "murder". This was the name of one of the Furies or Ἐρινύες (Erinyes) in Greek mythology. She killed Cithaeron with the bite of one of the snakes on her head.

Possibly from Nahuatl tlālloh meaning "covered with earth" [1], derived from tlālli meaning "earth, land, soil". This was the name of the Aztec god of rain and fertility, the husband of Chalchiuhtlicue.

From the Old Norse name Þórgeirr, which meant "Thor's spear" from the name of the Norse god Þórr (see Thor) combined with geirr "spear".

Variant of Valerie.

Means "twinflower" in Finnish.

Diminutive of Varvara.

Derived from the Slavic elements velĭ "great" and mirŭ "peace, world".

Means "king over warriors" from Gaulish wer "on, over" combined with kingeto "marching men, warriors" and rix "king". This name was borne by a 1st-century BC chieftain of the Gaulish tribe the Arverni. He led the resistance against Julius Caesar's attempts to conquer Gaul, but he was eventually defeated, brought to Rome, and executed.

Latin form of Virgil.

Means "gentle" in Finnish.

From Lithuanian viltis "hope" and tauta "people, nation".

Ukrainian cognate of Vera 1.

English form of Gwrtheyrn.

German cognate of Wayland.

Dutch and German feminine form of Wilhelm. This name was borne by a queen of the Netherlands (1880-1962).

Means "firstborn daughter" in Dakota or Lakota. According to folklore, this was the name of a daughter of a Dakota chief (possibly Wapasha III) who leapt from a cliff to her death rather than marry a man she hated. Numerous places in the United States have been named after her. The actress Winona Ryder (1971-) was named after the city in Minnesota where she was born.

Greek form of the Old Persian name 𐎧𐏁𐎹𐎠𐎼𐏁𐎠 (Xšayarša), which meant "ruler over heroes". This was the name of a 5th-century BC king of Persia, the son of Darius the Great. He attempted an invasion of Greece, which ended unsuccessfully at the battle of Salamis.

Hebrew form of Jotham.

Feminine form of Zorion.