Bluma

• Origin:  Yiddish בלומאַ
• Meaning: “flower.”
• Variation: Blima (Eastern Yiddish)

The name is derived from the Yiddish בלומע (Blume), meaning “flower.” The name has much older linguistic relatives outside the Ashkenazi-Jewish community, however, with flower-related names appearing among Germanic Christians as early as the 6th century. The earlier Germanic female, Pleuna, the masculine Gothic Blumarit and the Dutch Bloemhard, further suggests that names formed from this Germanic “flower” element have a history of use outside the European Jewish community.

In the English-speaking world, Bluma was often Anglicized to Belle among Jewish immigrants

An Eastern Yiddish variation was Blima.

Sources

• Förstemann, Ernst Wilhelm. Altdeutsches Namenbuch. Vol. 1, Personennamen. 2nd ed. Bonn: P. Hanstein, 1900.
• https://www.behindthename.com/name/bluma