The name comes directly from the Persian کیوان, which is the Persian word for the planet Saturn. It is ultimately derived from the Sumerian designation of the planet, Kaimanu.
In Zoroastrianism, the planet Saturn was viewed as the planet of strength, endurance, loyalty and patience. The Mandaic version of the name is Kiwan ࡊࡉࡅࡀࡍ.
Despite its pre-Islamic associations, the name is still popularly used in Iran and is still used among Zoroastrian families.
The Syriac version of Kewan ܟܝ݂ܘܢ is used among Assyrian Christians.
Poetic, bold and well, grim, it is an obsolete Medievel gem which is composed of the Germanic elements, ebur (boar) and grim (bold; fierce; grim).
Source
S.L. Uckelman. “Evergrim”. In S.L. Uckelman, ed. The Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources, Edition 2023, no. 1. http://dmnes.org/2023/1/name/Evergrim.
Craft is a Latinate form of the German, Kraft (power; strength). It was in use as a male given-name in Medieval Germanic countries but is today obsolete. A variant Latinate form is Crafto.
This may make the perfect name for a Halloween baby.
Sources
S.L. Uckelman. “Craft”. In S.L. Uckelman, ed. The Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources, Edition 2023, no. 1. http://dmnes.org/2023/1/name/Craft.
Socin, Adolf. Mittelhochdeutsches Namenbuch: Nach oberrheinischen Quellen des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts. Basel: Helbing & Lichtenhahn, 1903. Digitized by the Bavarian State Library. Accessed October 29, 2025. https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/view/bsb10931113
A 19th-century gem and late 20th-century vampiric monikor, the name is of uncertain meaning but has its origins in Medieval Spain. It is likely of Visigothic origins, possibly derived from Gailawera or Geloyra, which stem from gails (happy) or (spear); and wers (friendly, agreeable, true).
It should be noted that Elvira (Latin: Iliberri or Iliberis) was an ancient Iberian and later Roman city located near present-day Granada, in Andalusia, southern Spain. However, in this case, it is likely derived from an Iberian source, meaning “new town.”
It was a popular female name among the royal family of Castille & León, producing two queens who bore this name, Elvira of Castile, Queen of León (965–1017) and Elvira of Castile, Queen of Sicily (c. 1100–1135).
It was later used in Mozart’s 1787 opera Don Giovanni (libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte), in which Donna Elvira is one of Don Giovanni’s former lovers. This likely popularized the name outside of the Iberian peninsula.
By the turn of the 20th-century, Elvira was not unknown in the United States, though never overly popular, it peaked at #254 in 1914, but fell out the Top 1000 by 1981, the same year Elvira, Mistress of the Dark came on the scene.
The real Halloween link began in 1981, when actress Cassandra Peterson created the camp-horror TV hostess Elvira, Mistress of the Dark for a Los Angeles late-night show (Movie Macabre).
Dressed in a plunging black gown with a beehive of jet hair, Elvira presented old horror movies with sardonic humor — blending Gothic sex appeal, irony, and B-movie kitsch.
The character became a pop-culture icon: Halloween TV specials, films, pinball machines, comic books, and even perfume lines immortalized her as the Queen of Halloween.
Outside the United States, this name does not have such associations. In Sweden, it has been among the top 100 girls’ since 1998 and peaked at #25 in 2014. As of 2024, it came in at #40.
It’s a popular name in the Balkans, even spinning off a male form of Elvir (Bosnian and Albanian).
Other forms include:
Elbire (Basque)
Elvíra (Czech/Slovakian)
Elviira (Estonian, Finnish)
Elvire (French)
Elwira (Polish, also an alternate Swedish spelling, Sorbian)
Elvīra (Latvian)
Elvyra (Lithuanian)
Obscure Lithuanian male forms are the Lithuanian, Elvyras; the Polish, Elwir(o), and the Italian Elviro.
Name days: August 25 (Austria), July 16 (Croatia), February 10 (Hungary), January 25 (Spain), March 1 (Sweden), November 21 (Slovakia), August 13 (Latvia).
Sources
Withycombe, E. G. The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1950.
A name forever haunted by legend and scripture, Ichabod carries an aura of solemnity and old-world eeriness. Though seldom used today, its deep Biblical roots and literary afterlife make it a quintessential Halloween name with legitimate historical pedigree.
The name appears in the Old Testament (Hebrew: אִי־כָבוֹד, ’I-Kavod), meaning “no glory” or “the glory has departed.” It is first recorded in 1 Samuel 4:21, where Phinehas’s wife, upon hearing of the Ark of the Covenant’s capture and her husband’s death, names her newborn son Ichabod to mark Israel’s loss of divine favor.
In the English-speaking world, the name came into use in the 17th-century, mainly among Puritan families.
In colonial America, one of the best-known bearers was Reverend Ichabod Wiswall (1637–1700) of Massachusetts.
The name’s haunting reputation was sealed by Washington Irving’s 1820 short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Its lanky, superstitious schoolmaster, Ichabod Crane, pursued by the Headless Horseman, transformed the Biblical lament into a symbol of American Gothic folklore.
Irving is believed to have drawn the name from a real historical figure, Colonel Ichabod Bennett Crane (1787–1857), an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps whom the author reportedly met while stationed at Fort Pike, New York. The coincidence of name and temperament lent the fictional character an extra layer of realism — and ensured that Ichabod would forever echo through ghostly New England legend.
It is borne by several other famous early American personages,
Traditional short forms in the 18th-19th centuries were Cabe, Bud, and Buddy.
Lollius (pronounced LOH-lee-us) was an old Roman nomen gentilicium — that is, a family name identifying the gens Lollia, a plebeian family attested since the late Republic. The feminine form, Lollia (LOH-lee-ah), denoted women of that lineage.
The etymology is not entirely certain, scholars have proposed that it could derive from a Latin word, lolium, meaning (“darnel grass”), while others suggest a Sabine or Oscan origin of unknown meaning.
Notable bearers from antiquity include:
Marcus Lollius (M. Lollius) – Roman consul in 21 BC, a confidant of Augustus, later disgraced after a military defeat in Germany.
Lollia Paulina (15 BC – 49 AD) – renowned for her beauty and extravagance, she was briefly the wife of Emperor Caligula and later courted by Claudius before being exiled and forced to commit suicide by Agrippina the Younger for witchcraft.
Lollius Urbicus (2nd century AD) – a distinguished Roman governor of Britain under Antoninus Pius, remembered in inscriptions on the Antonine Wall in Scotland.
Other historical forms include:
Lòl·lia (Catalan)
Lollie (French)
Lolia (Portuguese, Spanish)
While Lollius remains primarily of scholarly or historical interest, Lollia has quiet potential as a revival name. It resembles fashionable names like Lola, Luna, and Lilia, yet carries an authentic Roman pedigree.
Pronounced LOH-lee-ah or LOH-lyah, it has a lilting, floral sound that feels simultaneously ancient and elegant.
Pran is a male Indian given-name derived from the Sanskrit प्राण (prana), meaning, “breath; breath of life,” “life force” or, “vital energy.”
In Indian philosophy and yoga, prāṇa represents the universal life energy that animates all living beings.
The Thai feminine form Prani (ปราณี) combines this same Sanskrit root with the suffix -i, creating a meaning closer to “kind,” “merciful,” or “gracious.” In Thai and Pali contexts, Prani can also mean “a living being” or “one endowed with breath.” It is sometimes transcribed as Pranee.
The Ancient Egyptian word and name Heka (transliterated ḥkꜣ, later Hkȝ) literally means “magic,” “sorcery,” or “divine power.” It derives from the root ḥk — “to work magic” — and the ending ꜣ (the Egyptian aleph) which functions as a nominal element.
In Egyptian cosmology, heka was not mere illusion or trickery, but a primordial creative force — the divine energy that allowed both gods and humans to act, heal, and give life. The term is thus best understood as “creative power made manifest,” and shares a root with the Ancient Egyptian ka, roughly translating to “soul.”
Heka was also deified as a god embodying magic itself. He appears as a male deity in Old Kingdom Pyramid Texts (c. 2500 BCE) and remained important through the Greco-Roman period.
In theology, Heka was said to have existed before all other gods — the power through which even the creator gods shaped the universe. The Coffin Texts describe him as:
“I am Heka, the magic, the child of Atum… before the gods came into being, I was.”
In later periods, he was depicted as a man holding two entwined serpents, sometimes accompanying deities such as Khnum and Neith, and invoked by priests and physicians in medical papyri. His power was integral to Egyptian medicine and ritual; magic (heka) was considered a sacred technology given by the gods for healing and protection.
The Coptic form is Hik, it is not used as a name among contemporary Copts but may make an interesting revival.
It is speculated that Hecate’s name and cult may have its roots in the Ancient Egyptian god.
Panagiotis is masculine and derived from the Greek, panagia Παναγία (all-holy), a title used in reference to the Virgin Mary in the Greek Orthodox Church.
Its feminine form is Panagiota.
It’s name-day on August 15th, the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.
In the English-speaking world, many Greek immigrants anglicized Panagiotis to Peter even though the two names are not related.
Male Diminutives
Panagis/Panayis (Παναγής)
Panos (Πάνος)
Panikos (Πανίκος)
Pit (Πιτ)
Notis (Νότης)
Takis (Τάκης)
Female diminutives are: Giota, Yiota (Γιώτα), and Nota (Νότα).
