# Etymology of Shaha



## astropais

Can anyone give me a definitive origin and meaning of the name Shaha? Shahar, Sheher, have all been offered to me. It's a name given to males and females in my family for over a century, spelling seems to be optional! it rhymes with 'haha' in pronunciation.

Any clues to various possible meanings?


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## Frank06

Hi,

Welcome to EHL!



astropais said:


> Can anyone give me a definitive origin and meaning of the name Shaha? Shahar, Sheher, have all been offered to me. It's a name given to males and females in my family for over a century, spelling seems to be optional! it rhymes with 'haha' in pronunciation.


This site gives no result for Shaha nor Sheher. For Shahar I found "variant transcription of Schahar", which in its turn is explained as "dawn" in Hebrew (שַׁחַר).

I hope this helps.

Groetjes,

Frank


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## astropais

Argh!!! It is definitly NOT Hebrew! There are no Jewish people in my family tree. No offence of course to Jewish people, but I come from a devout Muslim background.


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## Frank06

Hi,


astropais said:


> Argh!!! it is definitly NOT hebrew!


It is really no use to tell us what it is not, or what you _think_ it is not (it's not Swahili, not Tupi, not pre-Classic Mayan, and we can go on for a while). Please  tell us where you think the name *does* come from, and substantiate your claim.



> There are no Jewish people in my family tree.


That's not really an argument. We're talking about names, not about family trees and or members. If one of my family members would have an originally Irish name, that wouldn't mean that we have Irish people in the family.



> No offence of course to Jewish people, but I come from a devout Muslim background.


That's not really an argument either. Being a devout Muslim has nothing to do with the origins of names. 
Oh, by the way, you'd be surprised how many devout Muslims have names that come straight from the Jewish traditions, or don't you have any Ibrahims or Sarahs in the family either?

Groetjes,

Frank


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## Maroseika

As far as I know, Sahra is "desert" in Arabian.
As for the Hebrew version, I'd recommend to consider it more thoroughly, for Arabic and Hebrew are both Semitic and a lot of their roots coincide.
By the way, Shekherezada also could be a dauther of some Shekher, for "-zade" is a common patronimic suffix in Iranian languages, and the name could be Arabian due to the common religion.
Have you ever heard of this honourable demsil in your family legends?


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## Mahaodeh

From Arabic, the options may be:

*Sahar* = as a noun it is the hour just before dawn, as a "masdar" it is to stay up until dawn; it is usually a female name.
*Sahraa* = desert (as in the sandy area not the sweets you eat after dinner). never heard of it used as a proper name.
*Shaheer* = famous (what it means) used as a male proper name, feminine form would be *Shaheera*
*Shahar* = month, the a's are short vowels so an optional spelling would be Sheher. However, never heard of it used as a proper name.


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## mkh

Hi,
There are few words near Shaha, Shahar, Shehe:
شاه (shah) in Persian means king,
شهر (shahr) in Persian means city,
َشوهر (shohar) in Persian means husband,
شهر (shahr) in Arabic means month,
شهیر (shahir) in Arabic means famous,
سحر (sahar) in Arabic means time of before sunrise,
سحر (sehr) in Arabic means magic,
صحرا (sahra) in Arabic means sahara or desert.


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## Frank06

mkh said:


> Hi,
> There are few words near Shaha, Shahar, Shehe:
> شاه (shah) in Persian means king,
> شهر (shahr) in Persian means city,
> َشوهر (shohar) in Persian means husband,
> شهر (shahr) in Arabic means month,
> شهیر (shahir) in Arabic means famous,
> سحر (sahar) in Arabic means time of before sunrise,
> سحر (sehr) in Arabic means magic,
> صحرا (sahra) in Arabic means sahara or desert.


Can you please explain how this helps us in finding the etymology of Shaha, which happens to be the topic of this thread.

Thanks in advance,

Frank


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## Asgaard

Hi,
In Swahili - shaha - storyteller, chief, king, composer, minstrel, leader
( which resonates with sage)
Turkmen - shaha - branch

_Astropais wrote_:"Can anyone give me a definitive origin and meaning of the name Shaha? Shahar, Sheher, have all been offered to me. It's a name given to males and females in my family for over a century, spelling seems to be optional! it rhymes with 'haha' in pronunciation.
Any clues to various possible meanings?"

Can you give us more info about the roots of your family? 
It will be helpful, for "shaha" as  you can see appears  in many languages not necessarily related ... .

Regards,
Asgaard


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## mkh

Frank06 said:


> Hi,
> 
> Oh, by the way, you'd be surprised how many devout Muslims have names that come straight from the Jewish traditions, or don't you have any Ibrahims or Sarahs in the family either?
> 
> Groetjes,
> 
> Frank



Arab Muslims (in مکه Mecca) progenitor is اسمائیل (Ishmael), son of ابراهیم (Ibrahim) from هاجر (Hajar).
Jewish progenitor is  اسحاق (Isac) son of Ibrahim from ساره (Sarah).
Ibrahim lived very older than Jewish, so Ibrahim was not Jewish. 
Ibrahim progenitor is Sam the son of Noah.
Family of languages spoken by Semitic peoples includes Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic,  Akkadian, Ethiopic, and Phoenician.


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## mkh

Frank06 said:


> Can you please explain how this helps us in finding the etymology of Shaha, which happens to be the topic of this thread.
> Frank



The question is:



astropais said:


> Can anyone give me a definitive origin and meaning of the name Shaha? Shahar, Sheher, have all been offered to me. I
> 
> Any clues to various possible meanings?



that, wants the meaning of these words and any clues.


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## Mahaodeh

mkh said:


> progenitor is اسمائیل (Ishmael), son of ابراهیم (Ibrahim) from هاجر (Hajar).


 
His name is إسماعيل.


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## berndf

mkh said:


> Arab Muslims (in مکه Mecca) progenitor is اسمائیل (Ishmael), son of ابراهیم (Ibrahim) from هاجر (Hajar).
> Jewish progenitor is اسحاق (Isac) son of Ibrahim from ساره (Sarah).
> Ibrahim lived very older than Jewish, so Ibrahim was not Jewish.
> Ibrahim progenitor is Sam the son of Noah.
> Family of languages spoken by Semitic peoples includes Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, Akkadian, Ethiopic, and Phoenician.


 
Ishmael is also Avraham's son in the Jewish tradition. According to the Torah, Avraham had sons with both, Sarah and Hagar. That Ibrahim is the Arabized version of Avraham is beyond a shadow of a doubt. But, if I understand you correctly, you don't deny that.

It is correct to say that Avraham/Ibrahim lived before Ya'aqov (Jacob) who is the progenitor of the people of Israel. But it is evident that Islam is, not exclusively but also, based on Jewish tradition. If you have problems with Avraham as an example then take the name "Yusuf" which is the Arabized form of Yoseph or Yehoseph (Joseph) who was a son of Ya'aqov, i.e. a "son of Israel" (and a grand-grandson of Avraham).


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## shannenms

To mkh 
I am happy that I could at last find someone from my country in this forum!!!!!!
Things you posted are completely true and I agree with them.
I think *shahr *in the sense of city is likely close to what this thread is looking for. I should add to mkh that shahr has Avestan root, *xsathr*, which means *rule*, compare with arkhein in Greek.
Probably, the name shaher means ruler or commander.


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## Mahaodeh

I agree with you guys, it's probably Persian especially that shahar is used in some Persian names (at least in medival or classical times such as sherezad and shehrayar) while it's never used in Arabic and if someone was to use it, it would seem like a very strange name and people would be tempted to think it's a Persian name.


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## shannenms

Mahaodeh said:


> I agree with you guys, it's probably Persian especially that shahar is used in some Persian names (at least in medival or classical times such as sherezad and shehrayar) while it's never used in Arabic and if someone was to use it, it would seem like a very strange name and people would be tempted to think it's a Persian name.


 
Yes, but when I was reading Holy Quran on Qadr I found shahr meaning month, though it seems irrelevent to this topic I like to know its etymology. Shokran


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## shaha

in arabic Beduin culture "shaha" means the daughter of a falcon "alsheehanah" it is the fastest most beautiful falcon in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait it has wide eyes that most of their poetry talks about it referring to beauty and nobility coz not every one can own "shaha" and she only eats what she hunt.

also it has another meaning in arabic the nobel lady

in farsi also india shah means king shaha means the queen of the kings


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