View Message

Sesan
Does anybody know anything about the meaning/origin of Sesan? I have encountered it twice this week. Once on a boy whose mother, Berhane, came from Africa (they didn't specify where) and once on a girl whose mother, Senait, I believe is Ethiopian. I have heard that Sesan is African, but I've also heard that it's Indian."It's the job that is never started that takes the longest to finish." - J.R.R. TolkienVOTE on my Name List
http://babynames.com/namelist/9415432
vote up1vote down

Replies

The same sound can be used in different parts of the world as a name, and can have completely different origins and meanings. In India, Sesan when used as a name originates in the Sanskrit: shiS (the sh- is palatal, like in English sugar, the S is retroflex sibilant, an s-like sound made with the tongue rolled up, and in later languages sometimes becomes a kh, other times becomes a simpler sh) means to leave, and sheSa means what is left, and symbolically eternity. It is often depicted as a thousand headed serpent holding up the plates that contain the seven underworlds and the seven higher regions (including this thing we call this earth). The serpent of the deep is a very old concept (ahirbudhnya in the Rgveda) and got assimilated into the mythic conception that called on this creation to be destroyed every so often (say every 4.32 billion years) after the dance of the destroyer shiva (swelling) and then recreated. During the intervening era of nonexistence of other creation, the universe is filled with water on which the maintainer viSNu (worker) sleeps and seSa covers him with his thousand headed canopy. Finally, from a lotus arising from the navel of viSNu, the creator brahmA (enlarger) is awoken to start the next cycle of creation. In any case, the sheSa gave rise to the name Sesan, used almost exclusively in South India today.
vote up1vote down
The same thought occured to me that Sesan is like Seshan from the name of T.N. Seshan, Chief Election Commissioner of India. :-)
vote up1vote down
Berhane as far as I know is Amharic (spoken in Ethiopia) and this site says Sesan is Yoruba from Nigeria, and a version of Ifasesan:
http://rjg42.tripod.com/NEWBOYI.htm
vote up1vote down