# Persian: Maya as a female name



## lcfatima

I am searching for meanings of the female name *Maya *in Arabic and Farsi. Can you provide various possible meanings based on different Farsi spellings which could be equivalated as Maya in English orthography? Please provide the Farsi spelling for whatever meanings you suggest.

I have a text source which suggests the name in Farsi means 

Maya: "Do not come" and "a woman's name"

Maayah: root, principle, wealth, King Faridoon's cow (I don't know who King Faridoon is) ---I am guessing this is a male's name

I suspect the female name may be connected to the word meaning alcohol/intoxicant (as in mai khaaneh), and a reference to spiritual intoxication.

An online Persian baby name site gives the meaning of the name as "flower" but I have no dictionary source to confirm this.

Thanks in advance for any information you can provide.


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## Faylasoof

Icf, the only Farsi word I know that comes close to this is _mayah / mayeh_ مایہ , means:

  1)origin, culture, capital, funds, stock 
  2) yeast, ferment, leaven 
  3) key, pitch (music)

  There is no mention of any flowers or a girl’s name in my dictionary but I suppose we can imagine how no. (1) meaning above could be used as a girl's name ! The only _Maya_s I know are Indian, not Iranian.


  [BTW, wine / liquor in Farsi is like written like this   مَی  ]

  …and King Faridoon / Faridun is from Firdowsi’s Shahnamah /Shahnameh. If you _google_ _Faridoon_ or _Faridun_ plus _Shahnamah_ or _Shahnameh_ you’ll get several hits. Some very nice paintings from the poem.


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## arsham

lcfatima said:


> I am searching for meanings of the female name *Maya *in Arabic and Farsi. Can you provide various possible meanings based on different Farsi spellings which could be equivalated as Maya in English orthography? Please provide the Farsi spelling for whatever meanings you suggest.
> 
> I have a text source which suggests the name in Farsi means
> 
> *Maya: "Do not come" and "a woman's name"*
> 
> Maayah: root, principle, wealth, King Faridoon's cow (I don't know who King Faridoon is) ---I am guessing this is a male's name
> 
> I suspect the female name may be connected to the word meaning alcohol/intoxicant (as in mai khaaneh), and a reference to spiritual intoxication.
> 
> An online Persian baby name site gives the meaning of the name as "flower" but I have no dictionary source to confirm this.
> 
> Thanks in advance for any information you can provide.


 
the Persian form of the "word" in red, is میا mayā, classical prohibitive form of āmadan (to come)!!

 in loghatnaameh
مایه has the following meanings
1- essence, substance 
2-ferment, leaven
3-capital; money
4-quantity, amount
5-vaccine (neology; hence مایه کوبی vaccination)
6-female camel
7- a form of برمایون/برمایه/مایون a mythical cow that took care of Fereydoon when he was a child


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## Faylasoof

Just to add to this.

  In Urdu also we use مایہ as:  

 مایہ = سر مایہ = capital (money), funds etc

  مایہ ناز _maya-e-naaz_ = cause of pride

   فُرو مایہ _furoo maayah_ = base / mean

 .. and I’ve also heard of  مایہ زدن =  to vaccinate - Farsi, of course.


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## panjabigator

And while we're at it, <maayaa> in Hindi refers to the illusory nature of life. Kabir famously rebukes <maayaa> throughout his _qalām _(English: oeuvre) _._


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## cold

"maya" as you said is a imperative verb and has nothing to do with mai khaane."mai" is an archaic word for "sharab" meaning wine in English.also,"maayah" with meaning of money is common in informal conversations.


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## Faylasoof

panjabigator said:


> And while we're at it, <maayaa> in Hindi refers to the illusory nature of life. Kabir famously rebukes <maayaa> throughout his _qalām _(English: oeuvre) _._



PG,
I did have this in mind but didn't bother mentioning it! But tell me is the name _Mayavati / Maayaavati_ in any way connected to <maayaa>? If so, what does it mean? 

I do like reading Kabir .. and btw we say _kalaam_ كلام.


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## panjabigator

Thanks for the correction!  Those qaafs and kaaf always get me!

No clue about Mayavati's name.  Maybe her name means "let's erect 5000 useless buildings and let the city go to ruins."  Just a thought...


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## lcfatima

Moderator: I was actually trying to avoid bringing up the Sanskrit meaning. Perhaps another thread about Maya as in Sanskrit can be made. It has a very rich meaning in Buddhism and Hinduism and even comes up in some famous pop-culture references, so it would be an interesting discussion there.


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## Illuminatus

For Sanskrit, Please continue here:
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?p=6293448


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## Illuminatus

Doesn't <mayya> mean water in Arabic?

<Ana aawiz mayya> would mean <I want water>, right?

OR
<Aawz ashrab mayah> I want to drink water.


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## lcfatima

Illuminatis, maa' means water in Standard Arabic, the sentence your produced, along with the pronunciation you gave for water is Egyptian. It sounds like muyya, not maa-yaa. In the Gulf people say mai.


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## Illuminatus

Yeah, the Arabic course I've been following teaches Egyptian Arabic. 

The course was the best I could get my hands on, but I am having serious doubts about being understood in any other Arabic speaking country, if at all I get to visit them


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## IMANAKBARI

lcfatima said:


> I am searching for meanings of the female name *Maya *in Arabic and Farsi. Can you provide various possible meanings based on different Farsi spellings which could be equivalated as Maya in English orthography? Please provide the Farsi spelling for whatever meanings you suggest.
> 
> I have a text source which suggests the name in Farsi means
> 
> Maya: "Do not come" and "a woman's name"
> 
> Maayah: root, principle, wealth, King Faridoon's cow (I don't know who King Faridoon is) ---I am guessing this is a male's name
> 
> I suspect the female name may be connected to the word meaning alcohol/intoxicant (as in mai khaaneh), and a reference to spiritual intoxication.
> 
> An online Persian baby name site gives the meaning of the name as "flower" but I have no dictionary source to confirm this.
> 
> Thanks in advance for any information you can provide.



Maya ?! female name ?!!  it's perhaps Mahya محیا


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## darush

Faylasoof said:


> .. and I’ve also heard of  مایہ زدن =  to vaccinate - Farsi, of course.


مایه کوبی: An old term for vaccination.


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## IMANAKBARI

Also we say تمدن مایا for Maya civilization !
Wikipedia


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