# In your language, do the names have a meaning?



## ameana7

Hi,

In Turkey, choosing a name for a new-born baby is a very important thing, because names have meanings. For instance, my name means "love" and i like my name very much.  Sometimes names get some meanings very odd, like "Suna". It is a common girl name in Turkey and according to TDK it means both " nice, beautiful" and "a male duck"! So parents have to be careful! I think it is an interesting thing. I have Venezulan friends, they say that their names haven't meanings. So in your language names also have meanings like we have in Turkey?


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## maxiogee

Not now. 
Names used in Ireland tended to be Saints' names, and prior to that, and to the introduction of the concept of a 'family name' or surname, they tended to be descriptive of the person or their place, or their work.
My first name - Anthony - says nothing about me, or about my parent's wishes, hopes or dreams for me when I was born. The surname I got when I was born says little about me except that somewhere along the ancestral line there was someone called Grady and we (O'Grady) are their (his) descendants. Upon marriage I did the unheard of thing (in Ireland) of adding my wife's family name to mine and that tells no-one anything about me. I called my son Adam because I have always liked the name. It carries no meaning for us.


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## ekhlewagastiR

ameana7 said:


> Hi,
> 
> In Turkey, choosing a name for a new-born baby is a very important thing, because names have meanings. For instance, my name means "love" and i like my name very much.  Sometimes names get some meanings very odd, like "Suna". It is a common girl name in Turkey and according to TDK it means both " nice, beautiful" and "a male duck"! So parents have to be careful! I think it is an interesting thing. I have Venezulan friends, they say that their names haven't meanings. So in your language names also have meanings like we have in Turkey?


 
every name in every language has its meaning, in Venezuela it´s the same 
some names are from the origin of this country (f.ex. a Slavic country - a Slavic name with its meaning), many names are "imported" from the Latin or Greek languages, there is a lot of other origins of the names, and OF COURSE every name has its history and MEANING.
Sometimes though it´s not so often the meaning is lost but normally you always know it.


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## Livives

There is a lot of female names in Spain, with a meaning. As an example : Dolores, Milagros, Soledad.........
They all belong to the Holy Virgin Mary, depending on her "situation".


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## ekhlewagastiR

Livives said:


> There is a lot of female names in Spain, with a meaning. As an example : Dolores, Milagros, Soledad.........
> They all belong to the Holy Virgin Mary, depending on her "situation".


 
yes, as well as in other languages. and if you don´t know the meaning of your name because it´s not so evident, you always can find it easily in internet.

another aspect is whether the parents choose the name knowing its meaning or not. a lot of times they choose the name just because they like it or have somebody in the family with this name etc...


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## Chazzwozzer

ameana7 said:


> Hi,
> 
> In Turkey, choosing a name for a new-born baby is a very important thing, because names have meanings. For instance, my name means "love" and i like my name very much.  Sometimes names get some meanings very odd, like "Suna". It is a common girl name in Turkey and according to TDK it means both " nice, beautiful" and "a male duck"! So parents have to be careful! I think it is an interesting thing. I have Venezulan friends, they say that their names haven't meanings. So in your language names also have meanings like we have in Turkey?



I wonder if we can trace Suna back to our homeland, Central Asia. Because I heard that suna is also a word in Japanese. I'm not sure if it means male duck, but I recall it is sand.

Is Чингис (Genghis-Cengiz) a popular name in Mongolia? He is thought to be Turkic as well as Mongolian, that's why he's known as one of the best ancient emperors in our history, a popular male name for that reason. Atilla (Attila the Hun) is given name by Turks as well.

P.S: amena, your name is "sevgi" not "aşk" or something else, right?


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## ameana7

You are right, my name is Sevgi but i don't know how i can explain the difference between "sevgi" and "aşk" in English. Is there a specific word to emphasize the difference?


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## ireney

maxiogee said:


> Not now.
> My first name - Anthony - says nothing about me, or about my parent's wishes, hopes or dreams for me when I was born. .



Boy are you 'unlucky' (not really, it's a lovely name isn't it?)! It's one of the few names that we know we all got from the Latin Antonius but no one knows exactly what it means (I think they believe it may come from the Etruscann language).

Now, anyone called Maria or Juan, Catherina or Eugenio has a name with a meaning, whether he/she knows what that is or not  (or even if we don't know in general)



ameana7 said:


> You are right, my name is Sevgi but i don't know how i can explain the difference between "sevgi" and "aşk" in English. Is there a specific word to emphasize the difference?



I know this is off topic but does "sevgi" have anything to do with "sevda"?

And does "sevgi" and "ask" something like being in love and love? Eros and Agape?


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## maxiogee

ireney said:


> Boy are you 'unlucky' (not really, it's a lovely name isn't it?)!


Yea, so lovely that I changed it to Tony as soon as I got the chance.




> It's one of the few names that we know we all got from the Latin Antonius but no one knows exactly what it means (I think they believe it may come from the Etruscann language).
> 
> Now, anyone called Maria or Juan, Catherina or Eugenio has a name with a meaning, whether he/she knows what that is or not  (or even if we don't know in general)



Those names then fall in with mine, into the category of 'meaningless'.
When we give our children names, if we don't know what those name mean, then whether they mean anything or not, they are meaningless — at least as the names of those people.


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## ireney

maxiogee said:


> Yea, so lovely that I changed it to Tony as soon as I got the chance.



One of the attributes of a really nice name is that it has nice abbreviated forms too




> Those names then fall in with mine, into the category of 'meaningless'.
> When we give our children names, if we don't know what those name mean, then whether they mean anything or not, they are meaningless — at least as the names of those people.



I respectfully disagree (I don't know what came over me, I am usually not respectful at all when disagreeing). The names have a meaning whether one knows them or not. One could say that they are not chosen based to their meaning but their meaning remains there. 
I have no idea what Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's name means but it still means something!


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## Chazzwozzer

ameana7 said:


> You are right, my name is Sevgi but i don't know how i can explain the difference between "sevgi" and "aşk" in English. Is there a specific word to emphasize the difference?


Maybe we can say sevgi is affection and aşk is love.



ireney said:


> I know this is off topic but does "sevgi" have anything to do with "sevda"?
> 
> And does "sevgi" and "ask" something like being in love and love? Eros and Agape?



Sevda is aşk, can also mean but not exactly: sevgi.

Sevda and aşk mean eros whereas sevgi is agape. I don't know well about how you use these two words, what I know eros is sexual but agape is not. Hope I'm not mistaken. 



ireney said:


> I have no idea what Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's name means but it still means something!


It does indeed. But we never use these words in daily life. So I've just checked a name dictionary:
Recep(his first name): Showy
Tayyip(his second name): Nice
Erdoğan(his last name): Hero-born


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## Outsider

ameana7 said:


> I have Venezulan friends, they say that their names haven't meanings. So in your language names also have meanings like we have in Turkey?


In Romance languages, most names have only an ancient meaning, in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, or Old Germanic, of which people are not aware anymore, but they have no clear meaning in today's language. There are also names whose origin is unknown. However, a few names do mean something in the contemporary language.


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## janek

I guess this discussion is impossible to solve. The names both have meaning (originally) and they don't (to parents and the name-bearers). I know the meanings of most of names of people around me, but only because I was interested in their origins, whereas most of parents decide on their kids' names for many different reasons: usually because the name reminds them about somebody or sounds nice/cool to their ears. We have very few names that actually MEAN something in modern Polish.


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## maxiogee

ireney said:


> I respectfully disagree (I don't know what came over me, I am usually not respectful at all when disagreeing). The names have a meaning whether one knows them or not. One could say that they are not chosen based to their meaning but their meaning remains there.
> I have no idea what Recep Tayyip Erdo?an's name means but it still means something!



Respectful is good, and I'll maintain the process.
People's names are like geographic ones. They mean something.
However, when time has passed the meaning of the names can be lost.

Many people who left Europe and went to north America founded villages, towns and cities which they named after places where they had come from. This meant that there were places called Dublin (which comes from the Irish for 'black pool') which had no pools of any colour near them. There are also places called Killarney (which means "church of the sloes") which had no church and no blackthorn bushes either. 

These placenames then, uprooted from their origins, were meaningless. So too, names which are used in languages other than those in which they were established, and in which they had meaning, are meaningless. 
It is said that Éoin and Seán are the Irish equivalents of John, and that the Russian equivalent is Ivan. Now I don't know what language had the original 'John', but I'd hazard a guess that these 'equivalents' don't bear any relation, in their own languages, to whatever 'John' originally meant.


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## beclija

I think many Slavic names are way more transparent than Germanic names (I'll use Serbian/Croatian, but I guess it works similarly for Polish):
Božidar - božji dar - god's present
Ljubica - ljubica - violet
Miloš - mil+suff. - dear
Dragan - dragan - darling
Dražena - dražena - endeared
Vjekoslav - vječna slava - long fame (not all work as nicely, of course)

For most Germanic names, I actually have to look up an etymological dictionory or at least to consciously undo a few sound changes to guess what they mean: Richard (rich heart) would be Reichherz in modern German, which is not a possible name, and for Norbert I don't actually have a clue. Some are easier, like Gottfried and they like, but these are mostly 18th century coinages after Roman/Greek names (Theodor in this case if I'm not mistaken). 

In general I would say that we in Austria have more Biblical names than "local" ones, and in either case most people are not much concerned with the meaning. It sometimes even seems to me that some Romance countries have larger percentages of (male) Germanic names than we do: Ever noticed all these Ricardos, Robertos, Carlos, Ronaldos, Gennaros, Luigis, Guglielmos, Enricos, what not?


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## danielfranco

I'm sure all names had a meaning somewhere along the line... And I'd like to think my momma chose my name because it sounded cool to her, instead of thinking that she chose it to indict me, somehow:

Daniel = God is my judge (yikes...)


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## jazyk

Some Portuguese surnames that come to mind at the moment that have a meaning: Oliveira (olive tree), Nogueira (nut tree), Pereira (pear tree), Macieira (apple tree), Laranjeira (orange tree), Branco (white) and Lago (lake).


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## Heba

In Egypt, people are very careful about chosing the names of their children. The moment parents know about pregnancy, they chose a male name (in case the baby is a boy) and a female one (in case the baby is a girl). I even heard that there are now books with lists of names from which parents can choose the names they like!! 

For most of the parents here, the name of the child carries a meaning.Many of the names reflect certain characteristics which the parents want to see in their children in the future. Some of the names have to do with their impression about these children. My name- Heba- means ''gift'' in Arabic.


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## Victoria32

maxiogee said:


> Yea, so lovely that I changed it to Tony as soon as I got the chance.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Those names then fall in with mine, into the category of 'meaningless'.
> When we give our children names, if we don't know what those name mean, then whether they mean anything or not, they are meaningless — at least as the names of those people.


I know the meaning of the names of my children - and chose the names for other reasons... I think my mother thought about the meaning of the names of my sisters, (though I like to think, not mine! My real name that is.)
My sons : Gerard (Dutch version of Gerhard, spear something - (meaningless as he's a big softie) 
Leon (lion) Diego (Sp for James afaik) Konrad (ruler?) Ross (his father - island I think in Scots or Irish) James (again).
The meaningful thing is that he was named as his father and I decided, after a singer (Leon Russell) and a writer (Joseph Conrad). 
A girl would have been Catherine, currently the most popular name among his girl friends, so he dodged a bullet there! 
What matters is what names _really_ mean - what association they have now - as Britney means chav, and to me, Leon means swot!


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## Brioche

Generally speaking, most parents in Australia give their children names because they like the sound of them.

The names may _theoretically_ have meanings, but nobody pays any attention to them.  

Blond children may be called _Ebony, Melanie _or_ Douglas_, despite the names' meaning _black_.

A dark-haired or dark-skinned child might be called _Blanche, Gwen_ or _Whitney, _despite all the names coming from_ white._


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## bianconera

My husband 's name is Xavier - brilliant in Arabic if I am not mistaken.  

Other names with obvious English meaning would be 

Violet, Rose, Summer, Amber, Ivy, April, ect... 

That reminds me ... many Hatians use names such as Lovely 
Savoire, Waterloo, and others that at the moment I am too tired to think about.


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## CrazyIvan

Names in Chinese culture society carry lots of meaning....

1. People believe that a child is born with certain destiny. Therefore, a good name to fit his/her destiny is very important. Some of us apply Taoism ideas about five elements/essentials in nature. (they may use it but did realize they just have that idea in names.) And if this kid is in lack of certain elements (in his life), the parents will just add it into their name.

There are 金(Metal)木(wood)水(water)火(fire)土(dirt). So, you can just put these element into names with words such as 鑫, 森, 泳,輝,塗.

2. For some prominent families, they have a very strict tradition to name thier kids. They have a poem and everyboday's name is out of that poem. a simple but not real sample as followed.

 "白日依山盡,黃河入海流,欲窮千里目,更上一層樓" This is a poem. And if my generation has the first character 白 in the middle of my name, my son/daughter will use 日 in their generation, then my grandson use 依 in their generation...etc..

3. Names are so important that even there is a profession as name-making. And people believe in that !!! Some people blame the failure of marriage or business in their name and change their name in middle-age. 

Mmmm...I think I can come up with more ideas but above is quite enough for a post


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## CrazyIvan

bianconera said:


> My husband 's name is Xavier - brilliant in Arabic if I am not mistaken.


 
I thought Xavier is a typical Catalan name.... ?!

My friends family in total got 3 Xavier... That is just interesting to see this name to be called in the same house...


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## Tsoman

My name is Irish, O'Brien.

Hell if I know what it means


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## badgrammar

ameana7 said:


> Hi,
> 
> In Turkey, choosing a name for a new-born baby is a very important thing, because names have meanings. For instance, my name means "love" and i like my name very much.  Sometimes names get some meanings very odd, like "Suna". It is a common girl name in Turkey and according to TDK it means both " nice, beautiful" and "a male duck"! So parents have to be careful! I think it is an interesting thing. I have Venezulan friends, they say that their names haven't meanings. So in your language names also have meanings like we have in Turkey?



I think very often in predominantly Judeo-Christian countries, names are associated with their biblical character, as opposed to their original meaning.  For example, I was at the social security office in the states the other day and an older woman struck up a conversation with me.  I told her my name and she said "Aaahhhh, the wife of Abraham...." and then expounded on my "namesake".  

So names like mine will generally first be associated with the biblical equivalent in these cultures, and not with their meaning.  Although in countries like Turkey, I assume both things are associated - for example "Ali" means both "sublime, lofty", and is also indissociable from the namesake - cousin of the Prophet.  Is that correct?


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## Dr. Quizá

Most Spanish female names have a meaning in Spanish, but most male names mean nothing but in their original languages. Indeed, most people don't know what do their names mean. My name comes from the goth for "guard of all"  but means nothing in Spanish.



bianconera said:


> My husband 's name is Xavier - brilliant in Arabic if I am not mistaken.



It's origin is Basque and means "new house" (yep, pretty weird).


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## ameana7

> So names like mine will generally first be associated with the biblical equivalent in these cultures, and not with their meaning. Although in countries like Turkey, I assume both things are associated - for example "Ali" means both "sublime, lofty", and is also indissociable from the namesake - cousin of the Prophet. Is that correct?


 
It is correct. "Ali, Ayşe, Muhammed" etc are names originally from Arabic and they are related to Islam. "Ali" also means "sublime" but it isn't a word we use in daily life. But in Turkish, there is a lot of name which can use in daily life as well. For example, "Doruk" is a boy name which means "the highest point of a mountain, peak"


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## Sallyb36

My name Sally means Princess.  It's a diminutive of Sarah.

Lots of English names appear to be chosen because of the latest celebrity/pop star.  It used to be that they were chosen after members of the royal family, but it's less that way nowadays.
Quite a few biblical names are still common in England (Rachel, Deborah etc.)


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## Outsider

jazyk said:


> Some Portuguese surnames that come to mind at the moment that have a meaning: Oliveira (olive tree), Nogueira (nut tree), Pereira (pear tree), Macieira (apple tree), Laranjeira (orange tree), Branco (white) and Lago (lake).


But those are surnames. I think the original post asked about given names.


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## ameana7

> But those are surnames. I think the original post asked about given names.


 Yes, i have asked about the names, but also the surnames have meanings in Turkey, so it is okay


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## ireney

Oh surnames always have a meaning too. In fact it is usually easier to find what your surname means. For instance, knowing what John means maybe problematic but there's no such problem with Smith, Smithson, Thacher, Bishop etc


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## bianconera

hi Crazy Ivan ...  you are correct.  I found this on a web site ( behind the name ) 

*XAVIER* 
*Gender:* Masculine *Usage:* English, French, Portuguese, Catalan *Pronounced:* ZAY-vee-ur *(English)*, ZAY-vyur *(English)*, ig-ZAY-vee-ur *(English)*, za-VYAY *(French)* [key] 
Derived from the Basque place name _Etxabier_ meaning "the new house". Saint Francis Xavier was the Jesuit priest who popularized the name. He was a missionary to India, Japan, China, and other areas in eastern Asia. He is the patron saint of the Orient and missionaries.


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## bianconera

Quote:
Originally Posted by *bianconera* 

 
My husband 's name is Xavier - brilliant in Arabic if I am not mistaken.




> It's origin is Basque and means "new house" (yep, pretty weird).


Dr. Q
you are also right.  I didn't notice your response until after my posting.


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## sound shift

I don't think every name has a meaning. I believe that Darren, for instance, is a 20th-century creation possessing neither Judaeo-Christian roots nor a meaning. But it's just my impression; I haven't looked deeply into the matter.


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## don maico

Here in England some names denoted someones trade such as Smith( the most common name) is short for balcksmith Turner would have been a woodturner and Baker someone who makes bread.Others would have been the son of  a christian name such John son, Peter son etc My own name is quite common around europe although spelt differently . Sometimes its used as a christian name others as a surname and its derived from Dyonisius who was the Greek god of wine which seems very apt to me as I love the stuff


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## Hakro

In Finland, most of the family names are place names (lake, river, hill etc.) and very few are profession names (smith etc.). Less than 200 years ago farmer families used to change their last name when they got a new farm – they took the name of the place for their family name.

  There are other types of family names, too, and then there are "made-up" names, often changed from a Swedish name.

 As EkhlewagastiR and Danielfranco said, every name in every language has its meaning, although it's sometimes difficult to see the origins. I have read a list of biblical names – all very popular in Christian countries – and explanations of their original meanings. But it may be difficult to see that for example the German name Hans is the same as the English name John and the Russian Ivan – and what was again its original Hebrew form?

Most of the Finnish first names are "borrowed" from other languages, if not directly from the Bible, but the "international" names can be difficult to recognize. There are also original Finnish names, both very old and quite new, that have a clear meaning: a boy can be Otso (bear) or Urho (brave) and a girl may have names like Suvi (summer), Satu (fairy tale) or Marja (berry).


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## Setwale_Charm

I think names have meaning in practically every language of the world. Here are some links for you: http://www.behindthename.com/


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## .   1

Setwale_Charm said:


> I think names have meaning in practically every language of the world. Here are some links for you: http://www.behindthename.com/


I agree but most of those meanings are long forgotten.
In Australia children are named after ancestors.  I am named for my two grandfathers.
I dislike nicknames and my wife is a migrant so she had no attachment to any 'skip' name and we didn't bother to try to translate some of her ancestors names.  My mum has a French name that is clumsy in English.

We named our daughter Lisa because we liked the susurrus and to try to stop nicknames but she still has Liz and Li to contend with.

.,,


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## Setwale_Charm

Matter of fact, I know many parents who aimed at stopping nicknames when giving names to their children, but I suppose it`s useless. One can find something for each name.

 My parents gave me an exotic name which means "eyes of an angel" in one of the Polynesian tongues. They happened to be there at the time and wanted to show of, I guess.  Or, probably, the legend about "the Woman of the Moon" so much worked on their fancy.

  A bit Later my grandmother renamed me officially after a British prime-minister.  Also because the Polynesian name sounded similar.


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## don maico

I'd love to knolw the origins of  my family at least those associated with my surname to see where we came from.Unfortunately the name, Dennis, is common in Germany France and ,apparently, Russia


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## Setwale_Charm

This is quite possible to find out.
 In my case, it didn`t even take any effort  as long as my granparents (particularly, grandmother) could trace their family back to God knows how many centuries - the advantage of living in the same place for yonks.
 But do search on the Internet, that type of services is most definitely available.

  Ah, in Russia it is Denis with the stress on i: like Denees.


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## tzae

I´m from Mexico and a lot of the names and lastnames here come from the conquest. For example mine is Manuel López. But some native names and last names are still in use(I think this is great, I wish I'd had some of those). Xochitl wich means flower, Tonatiuh, Atzin, Coyotecatl, Xochihua and many others.


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## Fernando

There are two topics here:

- Every men in every language has an original meaning. No word is invented (except "gas", I was said)

- The interesting thing is whether or not that meaning (origin, actually) has any importance nowadays. 

At least in Western films (a very reliable source, I admit) Indians (I mean, First Nations) named their children according to a particular totemic animal or a particular characteristic. I do not know if that is true or whether that is true for someone.

In Spain, as said before, names have lost their original meaning. When I speak about "Dolores" I do not longer think in "pains" ("dolores"). At most I will think in the Virgen de los Dolores. Incidentally, Spanish women destroy any connection converting Dolores in "Lola". How "Dolores" has suffered this (painful indeed) process is unknown to me.

Children are named according to the name of the relatives (usually parents or grandparents), the saint's say (old-fashioned) or (vast majority) just what the parents think it is "nice". 

I must say my name is an exception. I was named because of a rare body mark. In Sururoa-Bandalanda islands "Fernando"  means "Huge reproductive organs".


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## zooz

Yes, in Arabic language almost all names do have meanings/roots. Actually, that's how we distinguish the Arabian names from the borrowed ones.

By the way, Ameana, your name, which I believe is taken from the Arabic, means either 'peaceful' or 'trustworthy' (depending on the way it's pronounced).


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## Setwale_Charm

zooz said:


> Yes, in Arabic language almost all names do have meanings/roots. Actually, that's how we distinguish the Arabian names from the borrowed ones.
> 
> By the way, Ameana, your name, which I believe is taken from the Arabic, means either 'peaceful' or 'trustworthy' (depending on the way it's pronounced).


 
 Sometimes she is peaceful, sometimes trustworthy, depending on how you address her. 
 By the way, I have observed an interesting thing: many Central Asian Islamic nations had been borrowing Arabic names but then, evidently due to the suppression of Islamic traditions for a long time and no Arabic teaching the names changed slightly and now you can see where they come from but also that they have no sensible meaning in Arabic the way they are these days.


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## Chaska Ñawi

Fernando said:


> At least in Western films (a very reliable source, I admit) Indians (I mean, First Nations) named their children according to a particular totemic animal or a particular characteristic. I do not know if that is true or whether that is true for someone.



Frequently First Nations people had (and in some areas still have) two names:  one public and one private, the second one often only known to the person who gave them that name.

In the area of Bolivia where I lived, indigenous children often did not receive their names until they turned around five and it looked as if they would probably survive.  THEN they would have their naming ceremony.


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## ameana7

zooz said:


> By the way, Ameana, your name, which I believe is taken from the Arabic, means either 'peaceful' or 'trustworthy' (depending on the way it's pronounced).


   Actually, my name is originally Turkish because it isn't "Aşk" which i believe comes from Arabic or Farsi. My name is "Sevgi" which comes from the Turkish verb "sevmek". It can mean both "love" and "the feeling between a mother and her child." We can use the word between lovers too but there is a little difference.


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## Fernando

Chaska Ñawi said:


> Frequently First Nations people had (and in some areas still have) two names:  one public and one private, the second one often only known to the person who gave them that name.



Thank you for the info. I have been told that the "private" name is hold secrete to avoid others to harm you. If your enemies know your name can attack you using it.

In classical times, there is at least a similar example. The city of Rome had a secrete name (maybe it was AMOR (love) < ROMA). A Roman citizen was punished for screaming such secrete name in the middle of the Forum (I mean, Forum Romanorum).


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## Chazzwozzer

zooz said:


> By the way, Ameana, your name, which I believe is taken from the Arabic, means either 'peaceful' or 'trustworthy' (depending on the way it's pronounced).


Sevgi is pure Turkish. Sev is the verb root and -gi is the suffix. Three/two-letter words in Turkish are usually left us from our Turkic-speaking ancestors. 



ameana7 said:


> Actually, my name is originally Turkish because it isn't "Aşk" which i believe comes from Arabic or Farsi. My name is "Sevgi" which comes from the Turkish verb "sevmek". It can mean both "love" and "the feeling between a mother and her child." We can use the word between lovers too but there is a little difference.


Interestingly, we have actually a pure Turkish equivalent to aşk in the language. That's *sevi*, which is only used by handful of Turkish speakers. I've recently learnt it.  Neither is given to babies, I suppose.


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## Outsider

Here's a case study.


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## ireney

(moaning, grunting and pointing my new avatar to Outsider: I'll get you for that!) 

Note to all others: Disregard my innane comments and mistakes on that thread. 

Since Portuguese came up, I should note that, just yesterday, I learnt that there is at least one name that doesn't seem to have a meaning in any language (Marli) so I stand corrected (see my previous posts on this issue)


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## hohodicestu

I think all names have a meaning even though we may not know it. Some names are so obvious to know their meanings. For instance, "Rosa", "Luz", "Victoria", etc. In addition to that, most of the chinese names have a meaning. I have a friend who is from China and his name is translated as "big stone" and his little sister is called "small flower".


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## zooz

ameana7 said:


> Actually, my name is originally Turkish because it isn't "Aşk" which i believe comes from Arabic or Farsi. My name is "Sevgi" which comes from the Turkish verb "sevmek". It can mean both "love" and "the feeling between a mother and her child." We can use the word between lovers too but there is a little difference.



I was refering to your handle (Ameana). I didn't know your real name at that point bacuase I didn't read reply no.7.


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## coconutpalm

Yes, surely our names have certain meanings. Generally, it conveys good expectation parents have on their newborn babies.
In the old times, girls were discriminated against boys, so sometimes their names were discriminated. e.g. 招弟 means (the girl) that will bring in a boy.
and in the ancient times, married women didn't have names. when they were dead, all remained of them were their family names, that is, the family names of their fathers and brothers. Pitiful fact.


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## Setwale_Charm

For the same reason you can still meet older Azeri, Turkish or Turkmen, Uzbek women having names with the meanings like 'enough', ' no more;, 'stop' etc.


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## Lugubert

Like in Finland, many Swedish surnames are picked from nature. There's Blom (flower, bloom), Gran (pine), Gren (branch), Vikström (bay-stream) etc.

Colours seem to be absent unless combined. We have no equivalents to Brown, Leblanc and similar, but for example Grönfält (greenfield).

Given names are often non-transparent. Few would know that Margareta relates to Greek margaron (pearl) or that Anders is related to Greek words for man, manliness etc. But we also have some nature: Björn (bear), Ulf (cf. Eng. wolf). For other transparencies , I always pitied girls named Lillemor (little mother). Cute for a baby, but for a retired person?

I don't think that the authorities would allow a given name that is identical to the name of a weekday (like in Eng. Tuesday, Wednesday) to be registered for an infant.


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## Chazzwozzer

Setwale_Charm said:


> For the same reason you can still meet older Azeri, Turkish or Turkmen, Uzbek women having names with the meanings like 'enough', ' no more;, 'stop' etc.


I didn't know that. 

I've just checked dictionary of Turkish names for yeter(enough) and here's definition:

_A name given to babies that wished to be last._

It must be a common names among families with so many children, huh?


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## ameana7

> For the same reason you can still meet older Azeri, Turkish or Turkmen, Uzbek women having names with the meanings like 'enough', ' no more;, 'stop' etc.


In Turkish there are some names too which mean "enough" or something like that. In my opinion the most interesting one is "Satılmış" which means "it has already been sold". But there is a reason to name a baby like this. A friend of mine told me that when a family's all new-born children die, they think that the devil takes the children. Therefore they name the last child as "satılmış" to betray the devil. 
I don't know if it is true, but it is the story..


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## Hakro

ireney said:


> Since Portuguese came up, I should note that, just yesterday, I learnt that there is at least one name that doesn't seem to have a meaning in any language (Marli) so I stand corrected (see my previous posts on this issue)


Marli is a well-known company name in Finland. Marli is using Finnish berries (*mar*ja) to produce wines and *li*quors.


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## cherine

ameana7 said:


> A friend of mine told me that when a family's all new-born children die, they think that the devil takes the children. Therefore they name the last child as "satılmış" to betray the devil.
> I don't know if it is true, but it is the story..


This is interesting, I don't know if it exists in other countries/cultures. But I heard it was a habit in Egypt too (I don't hear of it in current days, but it seems to be a known one in older days) : when a family experienced the loss of its children, they try to "betray the devil" as ameana said, or "drive away the bad eye" as we say here, by giving their children ugly names, realy ugly ones. Thus we have men with names like : el-a'war (=the one-eyed), el-a'rak (=the cripple) .... I don't know if this technique worked every time, but the existence of these persons may mean something 

No, seriously, I hate that practice, but it's just a indice on how people can think sometimes.

So, back to the topic of the thread : yes, names in Arabic countries have meanings, even if the meanings are forgotten, specially with Arabic names. I mean, many persons have non-Arabic names, so it's more common not to know the meaning of those foreign names, but it happens also some Arabic names need to be looked in a dictionary.


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## Chazzwozzer

ameana7 said:


> In Turkish there are some names too which mean "enough" or something like that. In my opinion the most interesting one is "Satılmış" which means "it has already been sold". But there is a reason to name a baby like this. A friend of mine told me that when a family's all new-born children die, they think that the devil takes the children. Therefore they name the last child as "satılmış" to betray the devil.
> I don't know if it is true, but it is the story..


If it's the story why his family gave this name, then I'd call it true because it's what they believe. When it comes to names, I don't think people should stick to TDK's definitions, right?

I must admit that it's a fantastic story, even more than TDK's:

*Satılmış:*
_A boy offered to heavenly hosts before he is born in order that he lives long._


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## Aldin

All Muslim names have meaning,mine Aldin means faith
AL-DEEN
In Bosnia Bosniaks give Muslim names(Arabic,Turkish,Persian)
Croats(mostly international names(variety) and common Slavic names)
Serbs(Greek names and common slavic names)

But in Bosnian some names have very stupid meaning.
e.g.

Nisvet,male name meaning FEMALE
Irhad,male name meaning TOILET


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## pejeman

Some first or given names in México, from the náhuatl language:

Citlalli = Estrella-Star-Zvezda?

Cuauhtémoc= Aguila que se abate, Falling eagle

Tonátiuh = El Sol, el Dios Sol - The Sun The Sun God

Xóchitl = Flor, Flower, Fleur

Saludos


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## CriHart

Brioche said:


> Generally speaking, most parents in Australia give their children names because they like the sound of them.
> 
> The names may _theoretically_ have meanings, but nobody pays any attention to them.


 
It's the same here, in Romania. Theoretically yes, all the names have meanings, but I can bet that in all countries there are names (taken from other languages for example) that people don't know their meanings.


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