| SEBASTIAN m German, English, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Polish, Finnish, Romanian, Czech | Feb 27th |
| From the Latin name Sebastianus, which meant "from Sebaste". Sebaste was the name a town in Asia Minor, its name deriving from Greek σεβαστός (sebastos) meaning "venerable" (a translation of Latin Augustus, the title of the Roman emperors). | |
| MARTHA f English, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, German, Greek, Biblical, Old Church Slavic, Biblical Latin, Biblical Greek | Feb 26th |
| From Aramaic מַרְתָּא (marta') meaning "the lady, the mistress", feminine form of מַר (mar) meaning "master". In the New Testament this is the name of the sister of Lazarus and Mary of Bethany (who is sometimes identified with Mary Magdalene). She was a witness to Jesus restoring her dead brother to life. | |
| JUPITER m Roman Mythology (Anglicized) | Feb 25th |
| From Latin Iuppiter, which was ultimately derived from the Indo-European *Dyeu-pater, composed of the elements Dyeus (see ZEUS) and pater "father". Jupiter was the supreme god in Roman mythology. He presided over the heavens and light, and was responsible for the protection and laws of the Roman state. | |
| WU m & f Chinese | Feb 24th |
| From Chinese 武 (wǔ) meaning "military, martial" (which is generally only masculine) or 务 (wù) meaning "affairs, business", as well as other characters that are pronounced similarly. This was the name of several Chinese rulers, including the 2nd-century BC emperor Wu of Han (name spelled 武) who expanded the empire and made Confucianism the state philosophy. | |
| MARK m English, Russian, Dutch, Danish, Biblical | Feb 23rd |
| Form of Latin MARCUS used in several languages. Saint Mark was the author of the second gospel in the New Testament. Though the author's identity is not certain, some traditions hold him to be the same person as the John Mark who appears in the Book of Acts. | |
| BARUCH m Biblical, Hebrew | Feb 22nd |
| Means "blessed" in Hebrew. In the Old Testament this is the name of a companion of the prophet Jeremiah, acting as his scribe and assistant. The deuterocanonical Book of Baruch was supposedly written by him. A famous bearer was Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677), a Dutch-Jewish rationalist philosopher. | |
| LARISA f Russian, Ukrainian, Romanian, Latvian, Greek Mythology | Feb 21st |
| Possibly derived from the name of the ancient city of Larisa in Thessaly, which meant "citadel". In Greek legends, the nymph Larisa was either a daughter or mother of Pelasgus, the ancestor of the mythical Pelasgians. | |