MaraMrvica's Personal Name List

Originally a short form of names beginning with the Old German element adal meaning "noble" (Proto-Germanic *aþalaz). Saint Adela was a 7th-century Frankish princess who founded a monastery at Pfazel in France. This name was also borne by a daughter of William the Conqueror.

Created by Russian author Aleksey Tolstoy for his science fiction novel Aelita (1923), where it belongs to a Martian princess. In the book, the name is said to mean "starlight seen for the last time" in the Martian language.

Means "the only one" in Finnish. In the Finnish epic the Kalevala this is the name of a girl who drowns herself when she finds out she must marry the old man Väinämöinen.

From the Greek name Ἄλεξις (Alexis) meaning "helper" or "defender", derived from Greek ἀλέξω (alexo) meaning "to defend, to help". This was the name of a 3rd-century BC Greek comic poet, and also of several saints. It is used somewhat interchangeably with the related name Ἀλέξιος or Alexius, borne by five Byzantine emperors.

In the English-speaking world this name is more commonly given to girls. This is due to the American actress Alexis Smith (1921-1993), who began appearing in movies in the early 1940s. It got a boost in popularity in the 1980s from a character on the soap opera Dynasty.

French form of Eleanor.

Norman feminine name of unknown etymology.

Younger form of Adalmut.

German feminine form of Aloysius.

Germanic name, in which the second element was derived from Old High German runa or Old Norse rún meaning "secret lore, rune" (Proto-Germanic *rūnō). Modern-day scholars consider it a younger form of the Old High German name Ailrun, in which the first element is agi "terror" (which quite often became ail- in names). At the same time, it is also a contracted form of Adelruna (or Adelrun, Adelrune), in which the first element is adal "noble". Lastly, those same academics also consider it a younger form of the Old Norse name Alfrún, in which the first element is alfr "elf".

The Old Norse cognate Ǫlrún occurs in the Eddic poem the Völundarkviða, belonging to a Valkyrie who marries the archer Egil. This form of the name was borne by an 11th-century Bavarian recluse, Alruna of Cham, a patron saint of pregnancy. Also see Aurinia. It coincides with the name of the mandrake plant, being alruna in Swedish, alrune in Danish and Norwegian and Alraune in German.

Danish form of Alfhild.

Perhaps based on the Italian word amoretto which is a representation of Cupid in a work of art. The word is based on amore meaning "love" combined with a diminutive suffix.

This name was used by Edmund Spenser in his poem 'The Faerie Queene' (1590), where it belongs to a sister of Belphoebe who allegorically represents married love and chastity.

Upper German and Luxembourgish contracted form of Annemarie.

Means "very beautiful" in Welsh, from the intensive prefix an- combined with gwen "white, blessed".

Means "lion of God" in Hebrew, from אֲרִי ('ari) meaning "lion" and אֵל ('el) meaning "God". In the Old Testament it is used as another name for the city of Jerusalem. Shakespeare utilized it for a spirit in his play The Tempest (1611) and Alexander Pope utilized it for a sylph in his poem The Rape of the Lock (1712), and one of the moons of Uranus bears this name in his honour. As an English name, it became more common for females in the 1980s, especially after it was used for the title character in the Disney film The Little Mermaid (1989).

Probably created by the 16th-century Italian poet Torquato Tasso for his epic poem Jerusalem Delivered (1580). In the poem Armida is a beautiful enchantress who bewitches many of the crusaders.

Variant of Arsinoé.

Old Norse, Icelandic and Faroese form of Åsa.

Feminine form of Audo (see Otto).

French variant of Awen. Saint Avénie was a sister of the 9th-century Achaean saint Benoît of Massérac.

Derived from Welsh and Breton awen "muse; (poetic) inspiration; poetic gift", ulitmately from the Indo-European root *-uel "to blow (wind)". As a given name it has been in use since the 19th century.

Means "doe, female deer, gazelle". It is taken from the Hebrew phrase אַיֶלֶת הַשַׁחַר ('ayelet hashachar), literally "gazelle of dawn", which is a name of the morning star.

Spanish form of Bethlehem, the name of the town in Judah where King David and Jesus were born. The town's name is from Hebrew בֵּית־לֶחֶם (Beit-lechem) meaning "house of bread".

French form of Berenice.

Latinized form of Βερενίκη (Berenike), the Macedonian form of the Greek name Φερενίκη (Pherenike), which meant "bringing victory" from φέρω (phero) meaning "to bring" and νίκη (nike) meaning "victory". This name was common among the Ptolemy ruling family of Egypt, a dynasty that was originally from Macedon. It occurs briefly in Acts in the New Testament (in most English bibles it is spelled Bernice) belonging to a sister of King Herod Agrippa II. As an English name, Berenice came into use after the Protestant Reformation.

Variant of Bleuenn.

Variant of Bleuzenn.

Variant of Bryony.

Seemingly derived from Welsh bron "breast" and gwen "white, blessed", though it has sometimes occurred as a variant spelling of the legendary name Branwen [1]. It has been used as a given name in Wales since the 19th century. It is borne by a character in Richard Llewellyn's 1939 novel How Green Was My Valley, as well as the 1941 movie adaptation.

Patronymic derived from Chryses. In Greek legend she was the daughter of Chryses, a priest of Apollo. After she was taken prisoner by the Greeks besieging Troy, Apollo sent a plague into their camp, forcing the Greeks to release her.

French feminine form of Clement. This is also the name of a variety of orange (fruit).

Modern Irish form of Étaín.

Feminine form of Ebbe.

Short form of Elizabeth.

French form of Eloise.

Spanish form of a Visigothic name, recorded from the 10th century in forms such as Geloyra or Giluira. It is of uncertain meaning, possibly composed of the Gothic element gails "happy" or gails "spear" combined with wers "friendly, agreeable, true". The name was borne by members of the royal families of León and Castille. This is also the name of a character in Mozart's opera Don Giovanni (1787).

Probably derived from Welsh enaid meaning "soul, spirit, life". In Arthurian tales she first appears in the 12th-century French poem Erec and Enide by Chrétien de Troyes, where she is the wife of Erec. In later adaptations she is typically the wife of Geraint. The name became more commonly used after the publication of Alfred Tennyson's Arthurian poem Enid in 1859, and it was fairly popular in Britain in the first half of the 20th century.

Hungarian form of Elizabeth. This is the native name of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary. It was also borne by the infamous Erzsébet Báthory (1560-1614), a countess and alleged murderer.

Form of Esther used in several languages.

Brazilian Portuguese form of Eugenia.

Feminine form of Eugenius (see Eugene). It was borne by a semi-legendary 3rd-century saint who escaped persecution by disguising herself as a man. The name was occasionally found in England during the Middle Ages, but it was not regularly used until the 19th century.

Portuguese and Slovak form of Eulalia.

Bulgarian form of Eugenia and an alternate transcription of Russian Евгения (see Yevgeniya).

As a full name it is derived directly from the German and Dutch word Fee meaning "fairy". It is also used as a nickname for Felicitas or Felicia. It was used on its own in Germany as early as in the 1920s.

Means "foxglove" in Welsh (species Digitalis purpurea). This is a recently created Welsh name.

Danish and Swedish form of Freya.

Variant of Frida 1.

German feminine form of Frederick.

German diminutive of Friederike.

From the Greek word γαῖα (gaia), a parallel form of γῆ (ge) meaning "earth". In Greek mythology Gaia was the mother goddess who presided over the earth. She was the mate of Uranus and the mother of the Titans and the Cyclopes.

Originally a Low German short form of names beginning with either of the Old High German elements gêr meaning "spear" (especially Gertrud) or gisil "pledge, hostage" (compare Giselle), this name is now generally considered a short form of Gertrud.

From Yiddish גאָלד (gold) meaning "gold". This is the name of Tevye's wife in the musical Fiddler on the Roof (1964). It was also borne by the Israeli prime minister Golda Meir (1898-1978).

From a Scottish surname that was derived from the given name Gregor.

Norwegian form of Gróa.

From Egyptian ḥꜣt-špswt meaning "foremost of noble women" [1]. This was the name of a pharaoh of the 18th dynasty (15th century BC), among the first women to take this title.

French form of Eloise.

Derived from Finnish ilma "air" combined with a feminine suffix. In Finnish mythology Ilmatar was a semi-androgynous goddess of the heavens. She was the mother of Ilmarinen, Väinämöinen and Lemminkäinen.

Latinized form of Iphigeneia.

Means "alone, unique, only", from Nahuatl icel.

Means "dew" in Korean.

Variant of Yseut.

Variant form of Zotik.

Spanish and Portuguese feminine form of Joseph.

Greek form of Calypso.

Variant of Carlotta.

Hungarian and Basque form of Katherine.

Form of Clara in various languages.

Greek form of Cleopatra.

Breton form of Creirwy. This was the name of an early Breton saint from Wales, a sister of Saint Guénolé.

German form of Constantia.

Derived from the Old German elements grimo "mask" and hilt "battle". Kriemhild was a beautiful heroine in the medieval German saga the Nibelungenlied, where she is the sister of Gunther and the wife of Siegfried. After her husband is killed by Hagen with the consent of Gunther, Kriemhild tragically exacts her revenge. She is called Gudrun in Norse versions of the tale.

Means "lark" in Danish.

Variant of Layla.

The name was popularized by the German singer and actress Lale Andersen, whose real name was Liese-Lotte Helene Berta Bunnenberg.

Means "tulip" in Persian.

Short form of Leeloominaï, which is revealed to mean "precious stones" in the (fictional) Divine Language. Leeloominaï, called Leeloo, is the heroine of the 1997 sci-fi movie "The Fifth Element". The name became popular in France after the release of the movie, usually spelled as Lilou and sometimes as Lylou or Leelou.

Variant of Layla, and the usual Persian transcription.

This spelling was used by Lord Byron for characters in The Giaour (1813) and Don Juan (1819), and it is through him that the name was introduced to the English-speaking world.

German diminutive of Helene or Magdalena.

German and Dutch diminutive of Elisabeth.

Means "lily" in Hungarian, from the Latin "lilium". This name has been used since the Árpád age (pre 1000 A.C.). It has history as a male name, such as in the play "Liliom" (1909) by Ferenc Molnár (which has inspired a 1934 film and the musical "Carousel"). However, it is more often used on females today.

Derived from Akkadian lilitu meaning "of the night". This was the name of a demon in ancient Assyrian myths. In Jewish tradition she was Adam's first wife, sent out of Eden and replaced by Eve because she would not submit to him. The offspring of Adam (or Samael) and Lilith were the evil spirits of the world.

Icelandic, Faroese and Finnish cognate of Lily.

Derived from Romani lillai, meaning both "spring" and "summer".

Possibly an elaboration of Lillie. This was the real name of Lita Grey.

Short form of Liselotte.

This name was (first?) used by Manfred Hausmann in his poem 'Lilofee' (1929), where it belongs to a Nixe or water fairy of the Mummelsee (a mountain lake in the Black Forest), the subject of an old German folk ballad who was unnamed in earlier stories, referred to simply as Lilienmädchen "lily-maiden". Perhaps it comes from a combination of the words Lilie "lily" and Fee "fairy" (from French fée).

German contracted form of Eleonore.

Swedish feminine form of Louis.

Norwegian feminine form of Louis.

Spanish form of Lucia. This is the most popular name for girls in Spain beginning in 2003.

Feminine form of Lucius. Saint Lucia was a 4th-century martyr from Syracuse. She was said to have had her eyes gouged out, and thus she is the patron saint of the blind. She was widely revered in the Middle Ages, and her name has been used throughout Christian Europe (in various spellings). It has been used in the England since the 12th century, usually in the spellings Lucy or Luce.

Short form of Guadalupe.

Means "daughter of flowers" in a Beleriandic dialect of Sindarin. his was the real name of Tinúviel in J. R. R. Tolkien's novels.

Frisian diminutive of Elisabeth. It also coincides with the French word for "lily".

Created as a German equivalent of Madicken for the German translation of Astrid Lindgren's books.

Bulgarian, Croatian, Alsatian, and German variant of Madeleine as well as a Hungarian borrowing of this name as well as a medieval German contracted and the Welsh regular form of Magdalena.

Anglicized form of the Irish name Medb meaning "intoxicating". In Irish legend this was the name of a warrior queen of Connacht. She and her husband Ailill fought against the Ulster king Conchobar and the hero Cúchulainn, as told in the Irish epic The Cattle Raid of Cooley.

Occitan form of Magdalene.

Diminutive of Maria.

French diminutive of Marie.

Contraction of María and Alma 1.

From the name of the flower, which comes from a combination of Mary and the English word gold.

Dutch form and English variant of Marlene.

Variant of Marlene.

Variant of Matilda.

Alternate transcription of Hindi/Marathi मीरा, Malayalam മീര, Tamil மீரா or Kannada ಮೀರಾ (see Mira 1).

Along with Juno, assured menstrual flow, and during pregnancy redirected its flow to feed the developing child.

Low German variant of Merete as well as a Swiss German short form of Emerentia and a Sami variant of Märet.

A well-known bearer of this name was artist Meret Oppenheim.

Combination of a mi kanji, like 美 meaning "beauty," 三 meaning "three," 実 meaning "seed; fruit" or 未, referring to the sign of the Sheep, and an e kanji, such as 枝 meaning "branch, bough," 江 meaning "inlet, bay," 恵 meaning "wisdom," 栄 meaning "glory, prosperity" or 重, normally used as a counter for layers in the hito-futa-mi counting system as seen in the combination 三重 meaning "triple, threefold, three-ply."

Bearers of this name include figure skating coach and former competitor Mie Hamada (濱田 美栄) (1959-), actress, voice actress and singer Mie Sonozaki (園崎 未恵) (1973-) and former actress Mie Hama (浜 美枝) (1943-).

Means "heaven, paradise" in Persian.

German diminutive of Maria.

Means "great" in Irish. This was a popular medieval Irish name. It was probably given in some cases as an alternative to Máire, which was considered too sacred for general use.

From the Old Welsh masculine name Morcant, which was possibly derived from Welsh mor "sea" and cant "circle". Since the 1980s in America Morgan has been more common for girls than boys, perhaps due to stories of Morgan le Fay or the fame of actress Morgan Fairchild (1950-).

From the name of a region in western Scotland, also called Morvern or in Gaelic A' Mhorbhairne, meaning "the big gap". This is the location of Fingal's kingdom in James Macpherson's 18th-century poems.

Means "gift" in Arabic.

Variant of Nele.

As an East Frisian name it was recorded from the 1500s onwards.

German, Polish, Czech and Slovak feminine form of Nicholas. Note, in Czech this is also a masculine name (see Nikola 1).

Alternate transcription of Persian نیلوفر (see Niloufar).

Modern Hebrew form of Noah 2, the daughter of Zelophehad in the Bible. It is also the form used in several other languages, as well as the spelling used in some English versions of the Old Testament.

The conventional German form of Nefertiti.

Dutch short form of Eleonora.

Alternate transcription of Arabic نور (see Nur).

From a Catalan title of the Virgin Mary, Nostra Senyora de Núria, meaning "Our Lady of Nuria". Nuria is a sanctuary in Spain in which there is a shrine containing a famous statue of Mary.

Derived from the Old German element uodil meaning "heritage" or ot meaning "wealth, fortune". Saint Odilia (or Odila) was an 8th-century nun who is considered the patron saint of Alsace. She was apparently born blind but gained sight when she was baptized.

Portuguese form of Ophelia.

Spanish and Italian form of Ophelia.

Derived from Greek ὠφέλεια (opheleia) meaning "help, advantage". This was a rare ancient Greek name, which was either rediscovered or recreated by the poet Jacopo Sannazaro for a character in his poem Arcadia (1480). It was borrowed by Shakespeare for his play Hamlet (1600), in which it belongs to the daughter of Polonius and the potential love interest of Hamlet. She eventually goes insane and drowns herself after Hamlet kills her father. In spite of this negative association, the name has been in use since the 19th century.

Swedish form of Odilia.

Karelian diminutive of Eudokia and Eudoxia.

Outi was very popular name for Finnish girls during the 1960s, 70s and 80s. It first appeared in Eastern Finland and Karelia in the 16th century.

French feminine form of Paulinus (see Paulino).

Derived from Latin perditus meaning "lost". Shakespeare created this name for the daughter of Hermione and Leontes in his play The Winter's Tale (1610). Abandoned as an infant by her father the king, she grows up to be a shepherdess and falls in love with with Florizel.

French and Yiddish cognate of Pearl. It is also used as a Yiddish vernacular form of Margalit.

Meaning unknown, probably of Pre-Greek origin, but perhaps related to Greek πέρθω (pertho) meaning "to destroy" and φόνος (phonos) meaning "murder". In Greek myth she was the daughter of Demeter and Zeus. She was abducted to the underworld by Hades, but was eventually allowed to return to the surface for part of the year. The result of her comings and goings is the changing of the seasons. With her mother she was worshipped in the Eleusinian Mysteries, which were secret rites practiced at the city of Eleusis near Athens.

Scandinavian form of Rachel.

Spanish and Portuguese form of Rachel.

Diminutive of Rosemarie or Rosemary.

Strictly feminine form of Ron 2.

From the French surname Rosamel.

From an Aramaic name that was related to the Hebrew word שָׁלוֹם (shalom) meaning "peace". According to the historian Josephus this was the name of the daughter of Herodias (the consort of Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee). In the New Testament, though a specific name is not given, it was a daughter of Herodias who danced for Herod and was rewarded with the head of John the Baptist, and thus Salome and the dancer have traditionally been equated.

As a Christian given name, Salome has been in occasional use since the Protestant Reformation. This was due to a second person of this name in the New Testament: one of the women who witnessed the crucifixion and later discovered that Jesus' tomb was empty. It is used in Georgia due to the 4th-century Salome of Ujarma, who is considered a saint in the Georgian Church.

Modern Scandinavian form of Signý.

Norwegian variant form of Signý.

Irish form of Jeanne or Jane.

Scottish Gaelic form of Jeanne or Jane.

Short form of Germanic given names that contain the element sinths meaning "way, path", such as Chlodosind, Rudesind (see Rosendo) and Sindbald. But in the case of female bearers, the name can also be a short form of any name that ends in -sine, such as Gesine and Jensine.

Breton variant of Solène used as both a masculine and feminine name.

Variant of Solen.

Means "buttercup (flower)" in Icelandic (genus Ranunculus), derived from sól "sun" and ey "island".

Portuguese (especially Brazilian) form of Thaïs.

From the Greek name Θάλεια (Thaleia), derived from θάλλω (thallo) meaning "to blossom". In Greek mythology she was one of the nine Muses, presiding over comedy and pastoral poetry. This was also the name of one of the three Graces or Χάριτες (Charites).

Short form of Dorothea, Theodora, Theresa and other names with a similar sound.

From the ancient Greek name Θεόκλεια (Theokleia), which meant "glory of God" from the Greek elements θεός (theos) meaning "god" and κλέος (kleos) meaning "glory". This was the name of a 1st-century saint, appearing (as Θέκλα) in the apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla. The story tells how Thecla listens to Paul speak about the virtues of chastity and decides to remain a virgin, angering both her mother and her suitor.

From the name of an ancient Greek town in Boeotia, itself supposedly named after a nymph. In a Greek legend (the oldest surviving version appearing in Latin in Ovid's Metamorphoses) this is the name of a young woman from Babylon. Believing her to be dead, her lover Pyramus kills himself, after which she does the same to herself. The splashes of blood from their suicides is the reason mulberry fruit are red.

Modern form of Þóra.

Diminutive of Matilda.

Modern form of Þóra.

Means "weaver" in Quenya. This was the name of one of the Valar in Tolkien's 'The Simarillion'. Vairë was the wife of Mandos and the weaver of all the stories of the world.

German, Scandinavian and Greek variant of Victoria. It is also an alternate transcription of Russian/Bulgarian Виктория or Ukrainian Вікторія (see Viktoriya) or Belarusian Вікторыя (see Viktoryia), as well as the usual Georgian transcription.

Dutch and German feminine form of Wilhelm. This name was borne by a queen of the Netherlands (1880-1962).

German feminine form of Wilhelm.

From the English word for the small songbird. It is ultimately derived from Old English wrenna.

Diminutive of Yente.

Means "dawn, aurora" in the South Slavic languages, as well as Czech and Slovak.