Supriya
One of my favourite bands, Bright Eyes, has a song called Supriya.
Because of its similarity to Sabriyya, I figured it was Indian or Hindi and a quick Google search shows it is obviously fairly well known there.
It's female.Any idea what it means? Is Supri (or some form) a male name?
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Supriya is unrelated to sabriyya, etymologically, and in its meaning and distribution within India. supriYA (the capitals denote length, etc., not stress: most of the modern Indian languages are not stressed) is a Sanskrit origin name, common in both North and South India. su- is a word which in classical sanskrit was used as a prefix indicating a positive sense, roughly meaning good, proper, easy etc., roughly the semantic equivalent of greek eu-. The root prI is cognate with the root of English friend, and means to be pleased, and prIYa/prIYA (m. and f.) are the common words for the loved one.supriyA, therefore, is a very pleasant girl, a lovely woman, or a loved wife, and both the masculine and the feminine forms are attested as names from very early in the classical Sanskrit literature; so they are probably at least a couple of millenia old.
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Thank you very much.
I knew someone around here would know all the etymology.
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From Wiktionary:
Supriya: A female given name, given to Hindu girls. It means "loved by all".
I can't find any reference for Supri.
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