Behind the Name: crawreb's Personal Name List

Anahita

Gender: Feminine

Usage: Persian, Persian Mythology

Other Scripts: آناهیتا(Persian) 𐎠𐎴𐏃𐎡𐎫(Old Persian)

Pronounced: aw-naw-hee-TAW(Persian)

Rating: 100% based on 1 vote

Means "immaculate, undefiled" in Old Persian, from the Old Iranian prefix *an- "not" combined with *āhita "unclean, dirty". This was the name of an Iranian goddess of fertility and water. In the Zoroastrian religious texts the Avesta she is called 𐬀𐬭𐬆𐬛𐬎𐬎𐬍 (Arəduuī) in Avestan, with 𐬀𐬥𐬁𐬵𐬌𐬙𐬀 (anāhita) appearing only as a descriptive epithet [1]. In origin she is possibly identical to the Indian goddess Saraswati. She has historically been identified with the Semitic goddess Ishtar and the Greek goddess Artemis.

Iliona

Gender: Feminine

Usage: Greek Mythology (Latinized)

Other Scripts: Ἰλίωνα, Ἰλιόνη(Ancient Greek)

Latinized form of Ilione, as well as the Italian, French, Russian and Ukrainian form. Alternatively, it might be spelled Ἰλίωνα (Iliona) in Greek. In Greek myth Iliona or Ilione was a Trojan princess, a daughter of Priam and Hecuba and wife of Polymestor, a king in Thrace.

Izara

Gender: Feminine

Usage: Basque (Rare), French (Rare), Spanish (Latin American, Rare)

In the Basque country and French-speaking areas, this name is now generally considered a variant of Izar and Izarra. There is, however, another theory which derives Izara from izar, the Pyrenean French cognate of French isard "chamois".
Whichever theory might be true, this name is extremely rare in the French-speaking world with 7 births in France between 1916 and 1990 and 5 births in French-speaking Belgium from 2002 to present.

Kiran

Gender: Feminine & Masculine

Usage: Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil, Gujarati, Nepali, Urdu

Other Scripts: किरण(Hindi, Marathi, Nepali) ಕಿರಣ್(Kannada) కిరణ్(Telugu) കിരൺ(Malayalam) கிரண்(Tamil) કિરણ(Gujarati) کرن(Urdu)

Derived from Sanskrit किरण (kirana), which can mean "dust" or "thread" or "sunbeam".

Lamara

Gender: Feminine

Usage: Literature, Svan, Georgian

Other Scripts: ლამარა(Georgian)

This is a relatively new name, as it was invented by the Georgian writer and playwright Grigol Robakidze (1880-1962) for his famous play Lamara (1928). He took the name from უშგულის ლამარია (Ushgulis Lamaria), the name of a medieval church in the Ushguli community in the Georgian region of Svaneti. The church's name literally means "Lamaria of Ushguli", and Lamaria itself means "of Mary", which is not surprising since the church is dedicated to Mary, the mother of Jesus.

The name Lamara is said to be etymologically related to the name of the Georgian goddess Lamaria, which is also of Svan origin.

A notable bearer of this name is the prominent Georgian soprano Lamara Chqonia (b. 1930).

Lilaea

Gender: Feminine

Usage: Greek Mythology (Latinized)

Other Scripts: Λίλαια(Ancient Greek)

Pronounced: lie-LEE-ə

Directly taken from Greek λιλαία meaning "lilac". In Greek mythology, Lilaea was a Naiad of a spring of the same name, daughter of the river god Cephissus. The ancient city of Lilaea and the modern village of Lilaia in Phocis are named after her.

Marzana

Gender: Feminine

Usage: Russian, Slavic Mythology, Baltic Mythology

Baltic and Slavic goddess associated with seasonal agrarian rites based on the idea of death and rebirth of nature, Marzana is often referred to as a goddess of death.

In medieval (Christian) written sources, she is mentioned as early as the 9th century, although her exact function seems to be somewhat disputed. The medieval encyclopedical dictionary Mater Verborum (also called Glosa Salomonis), written around 1240, compares her to the Greek goddess Hecate, associating her with sorcery, while 15th-century Polish chronicler Jan Długosz likened her to Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture.
Either way, to this day in some regions of Poland, there is a festival held where an effigy of Marzanna is made in the month of March, and is burned to symbolize the triumph of springtime over winter. This is known as The Burning and Drowning Ritual of Marzanna.

The origin and meaning of her name is also a source of dispute.
Some scholars derive her name from the same Indo-European root word that gave us Latin mors "death" and Russian mor "pestilence", emphasizing the death aspect of the goddess.
Others argue that her name might be related to a Slavic root word meaning "to freeze" or "frozen", in accordance with her function as a goddess of winter, while some scholars point out that mara is a Russian dialect word meaning "phantom; vision; hallucination", linking her to mare, an evil spirit in Germanic and Slavic folklore, associated with nightmares and sleep paralysis.
Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov and Vladimir Toporov, however, supposed that her name was derived from the same root as the name of the Roman god of war Mars, who was originally an agricultural deity (a theory that some academics like to back up by the fact that the Polish word for "(the month of) March" is marzec).

Radha

Gender: Feminine & Masculine

Usage: Hinduism, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Hindi, Marathi

Other Scripts: राधा(Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi) రాధా(Telugu) ராதா(Tamil) ರಾಧಾ(Kannada)

Means "success, prosperity" in Sanskrit. This is the name of the favourite consort of the Hindu god Krishna. She is associated with beauty and compassion, and is considered an avatar of Lakshmi.

Tamar

Gender: Feminine

Usage: Hebrew, Georgian, Biblical, Biblical Hebrew

Other Scripts: תָּמָר(Hebrew) თამარ(Georgian)

Pronounced: TAHM-ahr(English) TAY-mahr(English)

Means "date palm" in Hebrew. According to the Old Testament Tamar was the daughter-in-law of Judah and later his wife. This was also the name of a daughter of King David. She was raped by her half-brother Amnon, leading to his murder by her brother Absalom. The name was borne by a 12th-century ruling queen of Georgia who presided over the kingdom at the peak of its power.