Hana (花 or 華) is the direct, everyday Japanese word for flower, and it’s also one of the most common and well documented Japanese given names, used on its own and as the core of dozens of real compound names, Hanako, Hanae, Hanami, and many more. Unlike some Japanese naming themes, flower names are a…
Peregrine, Saira, and Journey are among the clearest names that mean traveler. Peregrine is Latin for “traveler,” “pilgrim,” or “foreigner,” a genuine, well documented English name. Saira is an Arabic and Urdu name meaning “traveler.” Journey is a modern English name taken directly from the word, genuinely popular, ranking among the 1,000 most used US…
Nakam, Intiqam, and Vrezh are among the clearest names that directly mean revenge. Nakam is Hebrew for “revenge,” Intiqam (also spelled İntiqam) is Arabic and Azerbaijani for “revenge” or “vengeance” and is used as a real given name, and Vrezh is Armenian for “vengeance.” Muntaqim, meaning “the Avenger,” is one of the 99 names of…
Jabez, Ben-oni, and Dolores are among the clearest real names that mean pain. Jabez is Hebrew, from the Book of Chronicles, where his mother named him because she bore him “in pain.” Ben-oni is Hebrew for “son of my sorrow,” the name Rachel gave her son with her dying breath in the Book of Genesis,…
Perdita is the clearest real name tied to this theme, genuine Latin for “lost one” or “the lost girl,” popularized by Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale for a child abandoned as a baby and later reunited with her family. There isn’t a name in any major language that directly translates to the combined phrase “lost soul,”…
Pinkie, Gulabi, and Hong are among the clearest names that directly mean pink. Pinkie is a genuine English given name, historically among the 1,000 most popular US girls’ names between 1880 and 1935, taken directly from a diminutive of the color word. Gulabi is Hindi and Urdu for “pink,” and Hong is Vietnamese for “pink”…
Jagoda, Eper, and Fraise are among the clearest real names that mean strawberry. Jagoda is South Slavic, used across Poland, Croatia, Serbia, and Macedonia, genuinely meaning “strawberry” (and “berry” more broadly in Polish). Eper is Hungarian for strawberry, and Fraise is the French word for strawberry, used occasionally as a given name. This turns out…
Maya (from the Sanskrit māyā) is the clearest and most well known name that means illusion, and it’s also a genuinely rich concept in Hindu philosophy, referring to the idea that the visible world is not quite what it appears to be, a “magic show” reality behind which a deeper truth exists. Related Sanskrit names…
Aithalos, Dhumavati, and Duhan are among the clearest real names that mean smoke. Aithalos is Ancient Greek for “thick smoke, smoky flame.” Dhumavati is Sanskrit, meaning “resembling smoke, smoky,” and is also the name of a Hindu goddess, one of the ten Mahavidyas. Duhan is Turkish, from the Arabic word for smoke, and is also…
Auðr, Eadberht, and Olusola are among the clearest, best documented names that genuinely mean wealth. Auðr is Old Norse, meaning simply “wealth, fortune.” Eadberht is Anglo-Saxon, combining ead (“wealth, fortune”) with beorht (“bright”), the same root behind Edward, Edwin, and Edgar. Olusola is a Yoruba name meaning “the Lord makes wealth,” one of a large,…