The name is derived from the Arabic word اَشْھَل (ashal) meaning, “bluish black eyes.” The name is also used in Iran, Afghanistan and among South-Asian Muslims.
Other forms include:
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The name comes directly from the Arabic word for “sun.” It was the name of a Pre-Islamic South Arabian sun goddess, the equivalent of the North Arabian diety, Nuha.
A strictly feminine form is Shamsa شمسة
Maghrebi spellings are Chams and Chamsa, a Comorian feminine form is Chamsia. Turkish forms are Şems and Şemsa.
The name shares an etymological link with the Hebrew male name, Samson.
It was borne by Shams Pahlavi, one of the sisters of (1917-1996), a member of the Iranian royal family.
In recent years, it has become particularly trendy among females in the Gulf Arab countries
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The name comes directly from the Arabic word شَوْق, which is ultimately from the Aramaic Shuqa (שׁוּקָא) of the same meaning.
It is mainly used in Gulf Arab countries and is occasionally used among the Muslim South-Asian community.
Other transliterations include: Shawq, and Shouk.
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Suhail or sometimes transliterated as Suhayl, is derived from the Arabic word سَھْل (sahl) meaning “level; even; smooth, easy.” It is the Arabic name of the second brightest star known in the western world as Canopus. It’s appearance in the skies have traditionally been linked with the end of summer in the Arab world. It is the name of a few other stars.
It was also borne by one of the contemporaries of the Prophet Mohammed, known as Suhayl ibn ʿAmr (6th-century C.E).
Suhail appeared in the U.K. Top 1000 between 1996-2002, peaking at #694 in 1997. Its Urdu form of Sohail appeared in the U.K. Top 1000 between 1996-2007 and peaked at #305 in 1997.
Other forms include:
It’s feminine form is Suhaila or Suhayla سهيلة
Other forms include:
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The name is from the classical Greek, related to Apollo. It was borne by several early Christian saints. The most notable being St. Apollinaris of Ravenna, a Syrian Christian missionary to Ravenna who was martyred there and thereafter became the city’s patron saint.
The French form Apollinaire is linked to the Franco-Polish poet, Guillaume Apollinaire. He lived from 1880 to 1918. He was born Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki.
Apolinary was common in Poland during the late 19th-century and early 20th-centuries, it is now obsolete. Diminutives include: Apolinek, Apollinek, Apolin, Apollin, Polin, Polinary, Polinarek, Polinaruś, Poli, and Polik.
In Italy, Apollinare was mainly used in the Romagna region due to it being the name of their patrion saint, but it has since fallen out of use.
Apollinaire sporadically appeared in the French Top 1000 between 1900 and 1926 and peaked at #403 in 1923. In 2024, 5 babies were given this name.
Neither its masculine form nor its feminine form had much usage in the English-speaking world. It was mostly used in families of Greek or Eastern European background during the late 19th-century.
Designated name-days include July 20th, July 23rd, and September 12th
Other forms include
Its feminine form is Apollinaria, which is also borne by an early Christian saint.
Other feminine forms include:
A traditional feminine diminutive form in Russian is Polina. Polish diminutives include: Apollinka, Apollina, Apolinka, Apolla, Apola, Pola, Polka, Polcia, Polina, and Polinka. Modern Greek diminutives include: Nαρία (Naría), Πόλλα (Pólla), or Λίνα (Lina). Potential English short forms would include: Apple, Pollie, Polly, and Narey, or Narie.
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The name has come into recent use in India. It is most likely derived from the Sanskrit word स्मय (smaya), meaning “smile, wonder; surprise; astonishment.” Yet, it can also mean “arrogance; pride.” It is from the same Indo-European root as the English word, “smile.” The Danish female name, Smilla, is also related. All of these are ultimately derived from Indo-European root *smey- (to laugh, be glad, wonder).
It’s mainly used as a female name, but it does appear as the name of male character in the Purana.
It can also be a variant transliteration of the Arabic female name, Sumeyya.
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The name comes from the Greek Ποιμήν (poimen) meaning, “shepherd.”
In Greek Mythology, the earlier form of Poemenius is known as the name of a satyr. He led the god Dionysos’ satyr troops in a war against India.
It was borne by a 4th-century desert father and Christian saint, known in the Coptic Church as Abba Poemen.
Other forms include:
In Poland, the designated name-day is September 9th
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Zenobia is composed of the Greek elements, Zeus (Zeus) and bios (life). It was notably borne by a 1st-century Armenian queen of Georgian descent and later a 3rd-Century Queen of Palmyra who tried to expand into Roman territory but was defeated by Emperor Aurelian.
Zenobia of Palmyra’s name might have been a Hellenized form of her birth name, Bat-Zabbai, which is from the Aramaic meaning “daughter of Zabbai.” Zabbai itself is an Aramaic male name. It seems to be a theophoric name, meaning “gift of–.” The latter part refers to an unknown deity. It may have actually been an Aramaic form of the Hebrew female name, Bathsheba.
Speculation has also linked it with the Arabic female name Zaynab, which can either mean “father’s beauty” or be from the name of a type of flowering tree.
It was borne by the 3rd-century martyrs, Ss. Zenobia and Zenobius, two early Christians who were siblings and beheaded under Emperor Diocletian. Their feast and name-day is October 30.
In the English-speaking world, it is first recorded in Cornwall and Devon, England in the 16th-century. Early English forms of Synibie, Sinobie, Senobie, Cenobie, and Cenoby (Sen-e-bee; SIN-e-bee), would make interesting revivals in the spirit of Sydney and Willoughby. A common English diminutive was Nobby.
Zenobia appeared in the U.S. Top 1000 Most Popular Female names between 1881-1925, peaking at #669 in 1909.
Zenobia is no stranger to English literature, it is the name of a character in Nathaniel Hawthorn’s The Blithedale Romance (1852); Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome (1911); and is even used by Anne Rice in her the eighth book of her vampire series, Blood and Gold (2001).
Zenobia “Nobby” Hawthorne appears as a character in the P.G. Wodehouse series, Jeeves.
Tina Fey used this as the middle name of daughter, Alice Zenobia.
Other forms include
Diminutives
Masculine forms include
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The name is derived from the Arabic rootز-ب- د (z-b-d), which pertains to “cream, foam, butter,” along with the Arabic feminine diminutive suffix, roughly translating to “little cream” or “little butter,” having the same sense as “cream of the crop.”
This was the sobriquet of Zubaidah bint Ja’far (766–831), the wife of Harun al-Rashid. Borne as Sukhainah or Amat al-‘Aziz, she was known for her construction of wells and reservoirs along the pilgramage routes to Mecca and is featured in The Thousand and One Nights. Her life was later the inspiration behind the character of Zobeide in the German opera Abu Hassan by Carl Maria von Weber.
The Turkish form of the name, Zübeyde, was borne by an Ottoman princess, the daughter of Sultan Ahmed II, who lived from 1728 to 1756. It was also carried by Zübeyde Hanım (1856–1923), the mother of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The name appeared in the Top 100 most popular female names in Turkey between 1980 and 1986, peaking at #70 in 1981
It is also the name of an asteroid.
Other forms include
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The name comes directly from the Arabic جبّار (jabbar), meaning “mighty; powerful.” In Islam, the term الجبّار (al-jabbar) is one of the 99 names of Allah.
Another variation is Abd-al-Jabbar (عبد الجبار), meaning “servant of the Almighty.”
Jabbar has appeared in the U.S. Top 1000 Most Popular Male Names in 1972, coming in as the 910th most popular male name. Its Swahili form of Jabari became common in the African-American community in the 1970s. It is currently the 920th most popular male name in the United States.
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