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ArchivesRe: Meaning of Names
in reply to a message by SUMITHA
Sumitha is using the South Indian transliteration scheme for what in North India would be transcribed as Sumita. In south India the contrast between dental (th) and retroflex (t) are distinguished in the transcription, whereas North Indians discriminate between aspiration (th) versus lack of it (t) when writing in the Roman script. Both make the voiced (d/dh) unvoiced (t/th) distinction. The name needs a dental unaspirated consonant. I will use the North Indian usage only because it comes more naturally to me and I will make fewer mistakes this way.
The word Sumita (the last syllable is indeterminate short closed for the male name, long open for female) is very old (found in the Rgveda), and means `well measured' or `well fixed' from the prefix su (originally an adverbial particle, becoming clitic in later language) meaning excellent and the participles of the verbal roots ma (which has cognates in many Indo european languages) or mi meaning to measure or to erect/found/establish respectively. mita alone also appears as a name in the ancient period.
The sanskrit mitra, meaning friend and an old divine name, in India and in Persia (there, Mithra) and derived from the verb mith meaning to unite, (shades of a mid, which normally means to be fat or prosper, are also seen in some words) becomes mita in some languages like Bengali, especially the feminine form. So, naming a girl Sumita by modern parents may have been influenced by this meaning in these modern languages.
Sue, I won't comment on. Look it up in the database; it is a very common name, short form of a ultimately semitic root meaning lily.
Pravesh I haven't heard as a name, but is a common word. Pra is a prefix, cognate with English fore for example, meaning before, forth, excessively, etc., vish (again with cognates in other Indo European languages) is a verb meaning to enter, settle down, or pervade. From this one has Pravesh which means to enter or penetrate, a very common word used since antiquity, but probably not as a name.
There is another possible derivation which I have not seen attested. The verbal root va (cognate with English wind) means to blow, and Prava appears as a name (and a word) meaning blowing forth or yielding a scent. In modern name formations, one often appends an Isha (from Ish meaning to possess) to other words, and Pravesh (the a and i would combine into an e), in Sanskrit, *can* be used to mean Master of blowing forth (or husband of Prava). Also note that in many Indian languages Prava and Prabha would sound similar, and the latter exists as a feminine name to this day and derives from bha (again Indo European), to shine. I do not imply that Prabhesh can be used as a name, just that folk etymology can arise.
In contrast to the above confusing forms, Rakesh is easy. Raka, probably related to ranj (with Greek cognates) meaning to dye, and to ra meaning to bestow, means the goddess presiding over the day of the full moon, imagined as the full moon's consort; ultimately the meaning became full moon itself. Rakesh is therefore the master of the consort of full moon, or the full moon itself; or it can be the master of the moon, a reference to Shiva, the so-called destroyer, and the most easily pleased, kind, ascetic, and artistic of the Hindu trinity, who holds moon on his forehead. Both meanings are attested.
The word Sumita (the last syllable is indeterminate short closed for the male name, long open for female) is very old (found in the Rgveda), and means `well measured' or `well fixed' from the prefix su (originally an adverbial particle, becoming clitic in later language) meaning excellent and the participles of the verbal roots ma (which has cognates in many Indo european languages) or mi meaning to measure or to erect/found/establish respectively. mita alone also appears as a name in the ancient period.
The sanskrit mitra, meaning friend and an old divine name, in India and in Persia (there, Mithra) and derived from the verb mith meaning to unite, (shades of a mid, which normally means to be fat or prosper, are also seen in some words) becomes mita in some languages like Bengali, especially the feminine form. So, naming a girl Sumita by modern parents may have been influenced by this meaning in these modern languages.
Sue, I won't comment on. Look it up in the database; it is a very common name, short form of a ultimately semitic root meaning lily.
Pravesh I haven't heard as a name, but is a common word. Pra is a prefix, cognate with English fore for example, meaning before, forth, excessively, etc., vish (again with cognates in other Indo European languages) is a verb meaning to enter, settle down, or pervade. From this one has Pravesh which means to enter or penetrate, a very common word used since antiquity, but probably not as a name.
There is another possible derivation which I have not seen attested. The verbal root va (cognate with English wind) means to blow, and Prava appears as a name (and a word) meaning blowing forth or yielding a scent. In modern name formations, one often appends an Isha (from Ish meaning to possess) to other words, and Pravesh (the a and i would combine into an e), in Sanskrit, *can* be used to mean Master of blowing forth (or husband of Prava). Also note that in many Indian languages Prava and Prabha would sound similar, and the latter exists as a feminine name to this day and derives from bha (again Indo European), to shine. I do not imply that Prabhesh can be used as a name, just that folk etymology can arise.
In contrast to the above confusing forms, Rakesh is easy. Raka, probably related to ranj (with Greek cognates) meaning to dye, and to ra meaning to bestow, means the goddess presiding over the day of the full moon, imagined as the full moon's consort; ultimately the meaning became full moon itself. Rakesh is therefore the master of the consort of full moon, or the full moon itself; or it can be the master of the moon, a reference to Shiva, the so-called destroyer, and the most easily pleased, kind, ascetic, and artistic of the Hindu trinity, who holds moon on his forehead. Both meanings are attested.
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