Browse Names - Behind the Name

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Abd ar-Rashid m Arabic
Means "servant of the rightly guided" from Arabic عبد ('abd) meaning "servant" combined with رشيد (rashid) meaning "rightly guided".

Anaya f English (Modern)
Meaning unknown, possibly from the Spanish surname Anaya (itself from the name of a Spanish town), used because of its similarity to Amaya.

Ayaan 1 m Hindi
From Sanskrit अयान (ayana) meaning "not moving" or "natural disposition" or अयन (ayana) meaning "path" or "precession".

Ayan 1 m Bengali
Means "road, path, solar path" in Bengali, from Sanskrit अयन (ayana) meaning "path" or "precession".

Bidane f Basque
Means "way" in Basque.

Chibuzo m & f Igbo
Means "God is the way" in Igbo.

Do-Yun m Korean
From Sino-Korean 道 (do) meaning "path, road, way" and 允 (yun) meaning "allow, consent", as well as other hanja character combinations.

Euodia f Ancient Greek, Biblical Greek, Biblical
Derived from Greek εὐοδία (euodia) meaning "a good journey", a derivative of εὖ (eu) meaning "good" and ὁδός (hodos) meaning "road, way, journey". This name is mentioned briefly in Paul's epistle to the Philippians in the New Testament.

Fang f & m Chinese
From Chinese 芳 (fāng) meaning "fragrant, virtuous, beautiful" or other characters with a similar pronunciation.

Keala f & m Hawaiian
Means "the path" from Hawaiian ke, a definite article, and ala "path".

Lane m English
From an English surname, meaning "lane, path", which originally belonged to a person who lived near a lane.

Methodius m Late Greek (Latinized)
Latinized form of the Greek name Μεθόδιος (Methodios), derived from Greek μέθοδος (methodos) meaning "pursuit" or "method", ultimately from μετά (meta) meaning "with" and ὁδός (hodos) meaning "road, way, journey". Saint Methodius was a Greek missionary to the Slavs who developed the Cyrillic alphabet (with his brother Cyril) in order to translate the Bible into Slavic.

Michi 1 m & f Japanese
From Japanese 道 (michi) meaning "path". Other kanji can also form this name.

Narayana m Hinduism, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil
Means "path of man" in Sanskrit. In Hindu belief this is the name of the god of creation, later synonymous with the god Brahma, and even later with Vishnu.

Olwen f Welsh, Welsh Mythology, Arthurian Cycle
Means "white footprint" from Welsh ol "footprint, track" and gwen "white, blessed". In the Welsh tale Culhwch and Olwen she was a beautiful maiden, the lover of Culhwch and the daughter of the giant Yspaddaden. Her father insisted that Culhwch complete several seemingly impossible tasks before he would allow them to marry.

Phương f Vietnamese
From Sino-Vietnamese 方 (phương) meaning "direction, way".

Quasimodo m Literature
From the name of the Sunday that follows Easter, called Quasimodo Sunday, which gets its name from the opening words of the Latin chant quasi modo (geniti infantes...) meaning "like the way (that newborn infants do...)". It was used by Victor Hugo for his novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831), in which Quasimodo is a hunchbacked bellringer at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. He was named thus by Archdeacon Frollo because he was abandoned as a baby at the cathedral on Quasimodo Sunday, though Hugo states that Frollo may have been inspired by the alternate meaning for quasi "almost", referring to the almost-complete appearance of the foundling.

Rushd m Arabic
Means "following the right path" in Arabic, from the root رشد (rashada) meaning "to be on the right path".

Shania f English (Modern)
In the case of singer Shania Twain (1965-), who chose it as her stage name, it was apparently based on an Ojibwe phrase meaning "on my way".

Stigr m Old Norse
Means "path" in Old Norse.

Uzochi m & f Igbo
Means "way of God" in Igbo.

Uzoma m & f Igbo
Means "good way" in Igbo.

Wanjiru f Kikuyu
Possibly from Kikuyu njĩra meaning "way, path". In the Kikuyu origin legend this is the name of one of the nine daughters of Mumbi.

Wolfgang m German, Germanic
Derived from the Old German elements wolf meaning "wolf" and gang meaning "path, way". Saint Wolfgang was a 10th-century bishop of Regensburg. Two other famous bearers of this name were Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) and German novelist and poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832).

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