This is a reply within a larger thread: view the whole thread

Re: Anamika, extended meanings of a user submitted name
It indeed means nameless in Sanskrit, from the privative a- (like in Greek) attached to the stem nAman (cognate with English name) with the possesive suffix -aka/-ikA (depending on the gender). The masculine and neuter do not have nice name meanings (unmentionable, dishonourable, intercalary month, hemorrhoids, etc.), and the feminine does mean the ring finger (what a paradox: the others have names: old finger, scolding/threatening finger, middle finger, little finger, so this one has no name, oh sorry, it has a name: the nameless finger). It has also been used as a name for long. The connection to Goddess comes from the fact that one of her epithets is that she is unknowable, she is prior to all knowledge, so she is unnameable either. Do not know how long back that concept goes, but it is at least a thousand years old.
vote up1vote down

No replies