Reby's Personal Name List

Russian, Ukrainian and Armenian form of Eve.

Russian form of Helen.

From the medieval Spanish name Velasco, which possibly meant "crow" in Basque. A famous bearer was the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama (c. 1460-1524), the first person to sail from Europe around Africa to India.

From Japanese 月 (tsuki) meaning "moon" and 子 (ko) meaning "child". Other combinations of kanji are possible.

From the English word, ultimately deriving from Old French tané, which means "light brown".

Variant of Rebecca.

Roman family name. The family had Samnite roots so the name probably originated from the Oscan language, likely meaning "fifth" (a cognate of Latin Quintus). Alternatively, it could be derived from the name of the ancient province of Pontus in Asia Minor, itself probably from Greek πόντος (pontos) meaning "sea". A notable bearer of this name was Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea who appears in the New Testament.

Diminutive of Giuseppe.

Means "night" in Sanskrit.

Irish form of Neil.

Short form of Geneva.

Alternate transcription of Persian نوید or Arabic نويد (see Navid).

Alternate transcription of Armenian Լուսինե (see Lusine).

Icelandic, Faroese and Finnish cognate of Lily.

Russian diminutive of Lidiya.

Means "heavenly flowers" or "royal child" from Hawaiian lei "flowers, lei, child" and lani "heaven, sky, royal, majesty".

Icelandic form of Laura.

Icelandic form of Iohannes (see John).

From the English word for the climbing plant with fragrant flowers that is used for making perfumes. It is derived via Arabic from Persian یاسمین (yasamin), which is also a Persian name. In the United States this name steadily grew in popularity from the 1970s, especially among African Americans [1]. It reached a peak in the early 1990s shortly after the release of the animated Disney movie Aladdin (1992), which featured a princess by this name.

From Ancient Greek ἴον (ion) meaning "violet flower". This was the name of a sea nymph in Greek mythology. It has been used as a given name in the English-speaking world since the 19th century, though perhaps based on the Greek place name Ionia, a region on the west coast of Asia Minor.

From Japanese 花 (hana) or 華 (hana) both meaning "flower". Other kanji or kanji combinations can form this name as well.

Italian form of Iohannes (see John). This name has been very common in Italy since the late Middle Ages, as with other equivalents of John in Europe. The Renaissance writer Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), the painter Giovanni Bellini (1430-1516) and the painter and sculptor Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) were famous bearers of the name.

Variant of Fay.

From an Old French name meaning "star", ultimately derived from Latin stella. It was rare in the English-speaking world in the Middle Ages, but it was revived in the 19th century, perhaps due to the character Estella Havisham in Charles Dickens' novel Great Expectations (1860).

Feminine form of Emiliano.

Probably from Aeliana, the feminine form of the Roman name Aelianus, which was derived from the Roman family name Aelius. This was the name of an obscure early saint and martyr from Amasea.

From an Irish surname, an Anglicized form of Ó Dubháin, itself derived from the given name Dubhán. Usage in America began around the start of the 20th century. It last appeared on the top 1000 rankings in 2002, though the variant Dwayne lingered a few years longer.

From a surname: either the English surname Delaney 1 or the Irish surname Delaney 2.

Cornish form of David.

From the Old Norse name Dagný, which was derived from the elements dagr "day" and nýr "new".

Medieval English form of Clara. The preferred spelling in the English-speaking world is now the French form Claire, though Clare has been fairly popular in the United Kingdom and Australia.

This is also the name of an Irish county, which was itself probably derived from Irish clár meaning "plank, level surface".

Italian form of Clara. Saint Chiara (commonly called Clare in English) was a follower of Saint Francis of Assisi.

Possibly means "God destroys" in Hebrew. In the Old Testament this is the name of the father of Rebecca.

Form of Antonius (see Anthony) used in various languages. A notable bearer was the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov (1860-1904).

Means "friendly" in Esperanto, ultimately from Latin amicus "friend".

From a surname that was derived from the Old English given name Ealdwine.