New Post
Search
Help
ArchivesName meanings: Bhavisha, Elnieke, Neshalin & Hunwoo
Hello - I'm a schoolteacher and I thought it would be a nice end-of-year gift to my homeroom students to make each of them a card with a picture representing the meaning of their name. I have been able to find the meanings of most of them but four elude me. I would ask the students themselves, but I want the cards to be a surprise.
If you know for certain the meanings and origins of any of the following names, please email me at missdove (at) gmail (dot) com. I am grateful for the information.
Bhavisha (female) - I believe the origin is Indian but do not know whether her family is Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or what. I have found a reference to a sacred Muslim text called the Bhavisha Purana but have not been able to find out what the word means in that context.
Elnieke (female) - origin unknown but possibly Dutch/Afrikaans. She is 'coloured' South African.
Neshalin (male) - origin probably Indian and probably Hindu. He is Indian South African.
Hunwoo (male) - origin Korean. He is... Korean :)
Thank you for taking the time to read this message, and I hope some of you can help me.
If you know for certain the meanings and origins of any of the following names, please email me at missdove (at) gmail (dot) com. I am grateful for the information.
Bhavisha (female) - I believe the origin is Indian but do not know whether her family is Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or what. I have found a reference to a sacred Muslim text called the Bhavisha Purana but have not been able to find out what the word means in that context.
Elnieke (female) - origin unknown but possibly Dutch/Afrikaans. She is 'coloured' South African.
Neshalin (male) - origin probably Indian and probably Hindu. He is Indian South African.
Hunwoo (male) - origin Korean. He is... Korean :)
Thank you for taking the time to read this message, and I hope some of you can help me.
1
Replies
You will probably have to call up Hunwoo's parents to ask them what his name means. Most Korean names, like most Chinese and Japanese names, are created from words in the Korean language by the parents, but there are so many homonyms in those languages that those of us who don't know the languages can't easily interpret what the parents wanted the name to mean without asking them.
In The Penguin Book of Hindu Names by Maneka Gandhi, Bhavisha is said to mean "striving to exist, lord of existence" and is another name for the god Shiva. However, it's listed only as a male name in that book.
I would guess that Elnieke is simply an Afrikaans pet form of Elna, which itself is one of the many shortened forms of Helena. But that would need to be confirmed further to be sure.
I can't find anything like Neshalin in my reference books tonight.
In The Penguin Book of Hindu Names by Maneka Gandhi, Bhavisha is said to mean "striving to exist, lord of existence" and is another name for the god Shiva. However, it's listed only as a male name in that book.
I would guess that Elnieke is simply an Afrikaans pet form of Elna, which itself is one of the many shortened forms of Helena. But that would need to be confirmed further to be sure.
I can't find anything like Neshalin in my reference books tonight.
1
Is there any more detail for the Indian name? It is obviously being derived from bhU, to exist, cognate with English `be'. But, that's as far as I can figure out: the usual grammatical form (to the extent anything is usual with such a meaning) of `desire to exist' is the word bibhaviSA of feminine gender. A lot of words for `lord of ...' end in Isha, which is using a different sibilant than the S in the previous word.
My guess, in the absence of your evidence, would have been that if this is a transliteration of male name of Indian origin, it may not be a Sanskrit coinage, but rather one in a NIA language from Sanskrit bhava (existence, world, a name for an old divine figure later identified with Shiva) + Isha (master, lord), which in Sanskrit would have given bhavesha instead of bhavIsha.
My guess, in the absence of your evidence, would have been that if this is a transliteration of male name of Indian origin, it may not be a Sanskrit coinage, but rather one in a NIA language from Sanskrit bhava (existence, world, a name for an old divine figure later identified with Shiva) + Isha (master, lord), which in Sanskrit would have given bhavesha instead of bhavIsha.
1
I'm sorry I can't give any more detail about Bhavisha - telling you her family name might give you some hints but it wouldn't be right to give my student's full name online without her knowledge and permission. I guess it's possible that her parents decided to be a bit unusual by giving her a name that's normally masculine.
1
The full entry:
Bhaviþa (Sanskrit) (Male) 1. striving to exist; lord of existence 3. Another name for Shiva.
The "s" in Bhavisa has a dot under it, but I couldn't find exactly that orthographic variation so I did the best I could. The program I am getting my non-Roman characters from obviously is not compatible with the one this site uses. :)
Bhaviþa (Sanskrit) (Male) 1. striving to exist; lord of existence 3. Another name for Shiva.
The "s" in Bhavisa has a dot under it, but I couldn't find exactly that orthographic variation so I did the best I could. The program I am getting my non-Roman characters from obviously is not compatible with the one this site uses. :)
This message was edited 11/30/2006, 10:30 AM
1
To parse, I need an example of something I know containing a s with a dot below. Two sibilants in Sanskrit are used in the name santoSa (satisfaction), and the third one appears in shiva (the name of the phallic god of destruction etymologically probably related to a root for swelling): is the s with dot below any of these?
Thanks once more.
Thanks once more.
1
Thank you very much! I think I'd better check in with their parents.
1