The name is formed from the Latin nox (“night”) and lucere (“to shine”). It is an obscure Roman epithet but may make the right choice for parents looking for a gothic, romantic and celestial appellation.
Noctiluca served as an epithet of Venus in ancient Rome. According to Ovid (Fasti 4.373–376), the Romans celebrated a festival to Venus Noctiluca (“Venus the Night-Shining”) on the Aventine Hill, where fires were lit in her honor.
The word was later borrowed into natural history as the name of a bioluminescent sea creature—Noctiluca scintillans—whose glowing waters inspired comparisons to stars reflected in the ocean.
Noctiluna is another variation that may be appealing to those who love Luna but want something more unique.
The nicknames Nockti, Nocktie, Nockty or Luca are options.
The name is from the Tagalog word, may-ari, meaning, “owner, master.”
In Filipino mythology, Mayari is the goddess of the moon, war, revolution, strength, weaponry, and beauty — and is celebrated as one of the most radiant and formidable deities in the Tagalog pantheon. She is the daughter of Bathala, the supreme god and creator of the world and was mothered by a mortal woman.
When Bathala died without naming an heir to rule his earthly domain, Mayari and her brother Apolaki, the god of the sun, fought for succession, using bamboo sticks as weapons. During their fierce duel, Apolaki struck out one of Mayari’s eyes. Realizing the cost of their conflict, the siblings reconciled and agreed to share rule over the world — Apolaki reigning over the day, and Mayari over the night.
Because of her single remaining eye, the moon’s light is dimmer than the sun’s. In some regional traditions, Mayari is also linked to Tala, the goddess of the stars — as her sister, or in alternate legends, as her mother.
The name is either derived from the Old Norse gandr (magic wand; magic staff), or the Old Norse gǫndul meaning, “magical animal; werewolf.”
In Norse Mythology, this is the name of one of the Valkyries. She appears in several early sources, including the Heimskringla, in which it is written:
“Gǫndul and Skögul sent out / to choose among kings.” Their presence seals Hákon’s fate, and they greet him after death — both destroyers and honour-givers.”
In the Poetic Edda, specifically Hákonarmál, she is again one of the Valkyries who welcome Hákon to Valhalla, confirming her dual role as harbinger of death and divine escort.
In the Norse sagas and Skaldic poetry, gǫndul can also function as a kenning (poetic metaphor) for “valkyrie” or “battle-witch,” used interchangeably with other names like Skögul, Hildr, and Mist.
Its rarely used these days in Nordic countries, but whose to say it won’t become popular with the rise of other Norse myth names. However, in modern Icelandic, it may sound a touch to close to the Icelandic slang term, göndull (cock, dick, penis), which yes, shares the same etymology as the name, referring to a staff or a wand, but other Nordic languages wouldn’t have the same associations.
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.
Bricta (also spelled Brixta) is an ancient Gaulish female name derived from the Celtic root brict– or brixt-, meaning “magic, spell, incantation.” It shares its etymology with the modern Spanish word bruja. It may also share an etymology or be linked with Bridget.
Bricta is historically attested as the name of a Celtic goddess worshiped in Gaul, particularly in the region of Luxovium (modern Luxeuil-les-Bains, France). In inscriptions, she appears alongside the local healing god Luxovius, who presided over the sacred thermal springs of the area.
This pairing suggests that Bricta was his consort or counterpart, a water and healing deity, perhaps embodying purification, fertility, and the magical powers of sacred springs.
Bricta is a bit clunky but there is something magical sounding about Brixta. Perhaps a modern and fresher take on Brenda.
The name has also appeared as Brixia.
I often wonder how this name would have survived into modern French, Brixie?
Naenia (nye-NEE-ah); More Common Nenia (nay-NEE-ah)
Naenia (also spelled Nenia) comes from the Latin word naenia, meaning “funeral song, dirge, lament.” In everyday Latin, naenia could simply mean a lullaby or simple song, but in a religious context it carried the specific sense of a funeral lament.
In Roman religion Naenia Dea was the personification—and later minor goddess—of funerary rites. She presided over the chants sung at funerals and was believed to ease the soul’s passage to the underworld. Varro (1st c. BCE) and later Christian authors such as Augustine mention her as a distinct deity. There was even a modest sacellum Naeniae (small shrine) outside the Porta Viminalis in Rome, emphasizing her association with burial grounds beyond the city walls.
Rostam is an ancient Persian name that likely descends from Old Persian or Sogdian roots. Its meaning is debated, but the most popular theory is that it derives from *rautas-taxma “strong like a river.”
The name is immortalized in Ferdowsi’s 10th-century Persian epic, the Shahnameh, where Rostam is the towering national hero described as:
a mighty warrior of the kingdom of Zabul.
tamer of the legendary horse Rakhsh.
defender of Iran against its enemies
and the tragic father of Sohrab in one of the most famous father-son duels in world literature.
Because of this epic, Rostam is to Persian culture what Hercules is to the Greek tradition.
Rostam has been a popular masculine name across Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Central Asia for over a thousand years. It also appears as Rustam in many languages of the region—Azerbaijani, Uzbek, Pashto, and even in parts of the Caucasus and South Asia.
The name Hecate (Greek: Ἑκάτη) is usually explained as “the far-reaching one,” from the Greek root hekatos (“far off” or “working from afar”).
Some scholars, however, note a possible Ancient Egyptian link: the Egyptian word ḥkꜣ (heka) means “magic” or “divine power”—the very force personified by the goddess Heka. Because Hecate is the Greek goddess of magic and sorcery, a few classicists have suggested that Greek worshippers encountering Egyptian religion may have blended or reinterpreted the name under this resonance.
It has also been suggested to be from a forgotten Carian etymology since her cult was the strongest in Caria.
Hecate is a liminal goddess of magic, night, and crossroads. Ancient Greeks honored her:
as a torch-bearing moon deity, guiding travelers and spirits,
as a guardian of thresholds and the underworld, and
as a patron of witchcraft and protective household magic.
Her cult spread from Asia Minor throughout the Greek world and later into Rome and the wider Mediterranean.
It has long been speculated that Hecate is the progenitor of the name, Catherine/Katherine but not proven.
Its pronunciation in the English-speaking world has fluctuated from the older HEK-it and HEH-cate to the more modern HEK-e-tee, appearing in English literature such as Macbeth by Shakespeare
As a given-name, it did not survive like the other pagan names of Greece and Rome, which mainly survived thanks to also being worn by converted Christian martyrs.
In the modern world, the name is often associated with the occult and to a certain extent, some followers of modern pagan religions. I have only been able to find records of Hecates from the 1990s onward.
This may make a more unexpected full name for a Cate, Kate or Katie.
An ancient Irish Gaelic female name composed of the Gaelic elements, fionn (fair, white, bright), and sīabar (phantom; spectre; ghost). It is the Irish cognate of Gwynhyvar or Guinevere
In the Ulster Cycle of early Irish legend, Fionnabhair (often anglicised as Findabair or Finnabair) is the daughter of Queen Medb and King Ailill of Connacht. She plays a pivotal role in the epic Táin Bó Cúailnge (Cattle Raid of Cooley), where her beauty and political marriages are central to the plot.
Pronunciation
The two main Gaelic pronunciations depending on the dialect are fin-NOR and FINNA-vare.
Variations & International Variations
Fionnúiris another form. The name appears in early English translations as Findabair and Finnabair. Also, there is Fennor (rhyme with Lenore), the Latinate Finora, and Finvarra.
A Maori name drawn from the word reinga, meaning “the leaping-off place; the spirit world; the afterlife, in Maori tradition, the far-northern headland of Cape Reinga (Te Rerenga Wairua) is the sacred point where the spirits of the dead begin their journey back to the ancestral homeland of Hawaiki.
It is also the name of a species of spider endemic to New Zealand.
It is used as a unisex name.
A notable bearer is New Zealand netball coach, Reinga Bloxham Te Huia.
