Shayna

Shayna is a feminine given name of multiple origins. The pronunciation of the name varies depending upon the context and source.

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According to Bruce Lansky, Shayna occurs as a familiar diminutive or form of Shannon, a Gaelic name, meaning "small and wise." It relates to the longest river in Ireland, the Shannon, which earned its namesake from Celtic goddess Sionna, who sought the enchanted hazelnuts of wisdom. Legends vary about the creation of the river, but they all recount the drowning of the Sionna, granddaughter of the great sea god Lir, usually at an undersea well. Some derive the denomination of the name Shannon, known by the Irish as Sionnain, from the phrase sean-amhan or "old river." An alternate spelling for Shayna is Shana.

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Beyond its Irish roots, Shayna is also often used as a nickname for Shoshana, an ancient form of Susannah, and means "lily" or "rose" in Hebrew. The name Shaina, sometimes spelled Shayna or Shana, is of Yiddish origin, and implies "beautiful."

The name Shayna is also a Sanskrit name that also means beautiful. It does not belong to just one culture.

It means nice/ beautiful.

Shayna is not Hebrew, it's Yiddish. There is a huge misconception that since this is a Jewish name then that would make it Hebrew. The Hebrew equivalent for Shayna is Yaffa.

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Yiddish is a Germanic language, spoken by Jews in central and Eastern Europe and Shayna has more in common with the modern German word for beautiful (schon) then it does with any Hebrew word.

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Other spellings include the Polish Szejna and the nicknames Szejnusia (Polish) Shaynusha (Russian) Szejnka (Polish), and Sonia is sometimes used as a nickname among Russian Jews. Among Russian Jews, Sofiya is sometimes used as the Russian equivalent, even if Sofiya has no etymological relation with Shayna whatsoever.