What's Your Name's Meaning??? Etymology and history of Names
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SolarMother said:
It's OK, actually you find out one of Slavic linguistically specificums; names with suffix ka, most of the time are related to: diminutive form, for example Sashka is small Sasha, Majka (English Mom) is small Mom, Baka (English Grand Mother) is small Grand Mother, this kind of diminutive it does not represent something small by proportions but close to the heart, calling someone with diminutive suffix ka relate to showing someone affection; to country; Slovenka, to person; Sashka or to family member; Majka.
On other hand other Slavic spefificum is suffix ca (again one variation of diminutive), most of the times we could notice it in personal names: Marica, Jelica, Ivica, Brankica, Ljubica, but as well in lot of international compound words transmuted to Slavic languages like: matrica (matrix), tvornica (factory), ulica (street), although in this case they do not show actuall diminutive but the new word, or in regular diminutives of all kinds like: pjesmica (little song), planinica (small mauntin)....,... on this way, Ljubica is actually small love, so you are correct.
Personal names are important, they define us all, but perhaps the most important names in human history are the names given to deity and the name explaining non plus ultra being. Lets take a look in this material:
According to contemporary linguistic; over the last 3,000 years or so, the community of Indo-European speakers splintered off, to Iran and India (where their idiom developed into the sister languages, Old Persian and Sanskrit, (I'm not pretty happy with explanation that Sanskrit is mid derivate, it would be probably one of most oldest languages on the world, science should be rewritten in many fields but we'll leave Sanskrit for some other time) and elsewhere in many other directions, mainly westward.
The farther a field they ranged, the farther their ancestral manner of speaking the diverged. The old national name, Aryan (meaning “noble”), survived in both Persia and India and is in fact the source of the present day Iran.
Within a few hundred years after the primeval Aryan community started breaking up, there were already several Indo-European languages where there had once been only one.
Derivative idioms grew even farther apart, so that by the dawn of recorded history a dozen branches of the Indo-European language family overspread most of western Eurasia from the Himalayas to the Atlantic. The most important of these branches are:
• Indo-Iranian (comprising-in Iran-Persian and-in India-Sanskrit, together with the derivative Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, and other languages including Romany, the language of the Gypsies)
• Slavic (Russian, Polish, etc.)
• Hellenic (Greek)
• Italic (Latin and derivative Romance languages such as French and Italian)
• Celtic (Gaelic, Welsh, Breton, etc.)
• Germanic (English, Dutch, German, Yiddish, and the Scandinavian languages).
To illustrate the family relationship of these languages, here are the words for mother and brother in languages belonging to the above-mentioned branches and also in the common ancestor tongue, Indo-European:
English mother brother
German mutter bruder
Gaelic mathair braithair
Latin mater frater
Greek meter phrater
Old Church Slavonic mati bratu
Sanskrit matr bhratr
Indo-European * mater- *bhrater
Anglo Saxon - Germanic variations for the word god:
GOD
Gothic = guth
German = gott
Dutch = god
Anglo-Saxon = god
Icelandic (Old Norse) = goth
The Hebrew Semitic word, “gadhadh,” is transliterated to an English sound, “gawd-hehd,” and almost identical in sound to, “godhead.” Though the word is translated as, “troop,” in most Bible versions, a synonym for ‘troop’ using a modern thesaurus means the word could be rendered, “a multitude,” or even stricter, “a group.” The underlying meaning of a “troop” implies more than one individual ‘united’ for one purpose.
Two cognates of Gad spelled in the Hebrew transliteration gudh and gadhadh; gadhadh is rendered as, “troop,” or as, “marauding band,” in most Bible versions and gudh, literally means, "to press." Most scholars agree that ‘troop’ is not a valid translation for Gad. Below is the etymological path for both Hebrew and Aramaic versions of the word Gad.
HEBREW & ARAMAIC god: Gad in Old testament:
“Gad” = OT: 1410 Gad (“gawd”); from OT: 1464; Gad, a son of Jacob, including his tribe and its territory; also a prophet;
OT: 1464 guwd (goode); a primitive root [akin to OT: 1413]; to crowd upon, i.e. attack;
OT: 1413 gadad (gaw-dad'); a primitive root [compare OT: 1464]; to crowd; also to gash (as if by pressing into)
OT: 1414 gedad (Aramaic) (ghed-ad'); corresponding to OT: 1413; to cut down: -hew down.
OT: 1415 gadah (gaw-daw'); from an unused root (meaning to cut off); a border of a river (as cut into by the stream)
OT: 1416 geduwd (ghed-ood'); from OT: 1413; a crowd (especially of soldiers): -army, band (of men), company, troop (of robbers).
OT: 1417 geduwd (ghed-ood'); or (feminine) gedudah (ghed-oo-daw'); from OT: 1413; a furrow (as cut)
OT: 1418 geduwdah (ghed-oo-daw'); feminine participle passive of OT: 1413; an incision
OT:1419 gadowl (gaw-dole'); or (shortened) gadol (gaw-dole'); from OT:1431; great (in any sense); hence, older; also insolent
OT: 1431 gadal (gaw-dal'); a primitive root; properly, to twist [compare OT: 1434], i.e. to be (causatively make) large (in various senses, as in body, mind, estate or honor, also in pride)
OT: 1433 godel (go'-del); from OT: 1431; magnitude (literally or figuratively): -greatness, stout (-ness).
OT: 1434 gedil (ghed-eel'); from OT: 1431 (in the sense of twisting); thread, i.e. a tassel or festoon
The etymology of the word ‘God’ or ‘god’ is a difficult path to follow because the English is a compilation and blending of several different dialects, including but not limited to Latin, German, Greek, Anglo-Saxon, Indo-European and even Hebrew. It was recently pointed out to me by my friend Rex that the Hebrew proper name of, “Gad,” in the Old Testament is actually pronounced as, “gawd.” This caught my attention and motivated me to do some serious digging.
In the Old Testament, the Hebrews used proper names in a much different way than we do in western culture. Our modern names are primarily for personal identification, whereas the Biblical names are also descriptive, often prophetic, and nearly always of spiritual significance. Hebrew parents related the name of newborn infants to ‘God’ and some did so by openly announcing the child’s consecration to Him.
Jacob’s twelve sons the tribe of Gad became a warlike nomadic people that fought against the Assyrians, Romans and other fierce and dangerous opponents. Jacob’s prophetic blessing upon Gad is observable in the tribe’s behavioral characteristics throughout history until many centuries later. In modern history, the descendents of Gad are among the Gauthie, Gauls, Goths, and Celts speaking Gadhelic and other Teutonic dialects of the Old Norse period. Note throughout this study there are inconsistencies in the spelling of various dialects and ethnicities and my choice was American style contemporary; this is a mute point as long as the truth is conveyed. Hence, the word, “God,” is found laced in the dialects of some later peoples that ventured into Breton, Scotland, Brittany, Iceland, etc.
Theos {theh'-os} is by far the most common Greek word that we translate as God or god. Below are the possible meanings of the word 'theos'.
1) a god or goddess, a general name of deities or divinities
2) the Godhead
3) spoken of the only and true God
3a) refers to the things of God
3b) his counsels, interests, things due to him
4) whatever can in any respect be likened unto God, or resemble him in any way
4a) God's representative or viceregent
4a1) of magistrates and judges
Tribal names of the GOD
A significant number of scholars have connected this root with the names of three related Germanic tribes: the Geats, the Goths and the Gutar. These names may be derived from an eponymous chieftain Gaut, who was subsequently deified.[citation needed] He also sometimes appears in early Medieval sagas as a name of Odin or one of his descendants, a former king of the Geats (Gaut(i)), an ancestor of the Gutar (Guti), of the Goths (Gothus) and of the royal line of Wessex (Geats) and as a previous hero of the Goths (Gapt). Some variant forms of the name Odin such as the Lombardic Godan may point in the direction that the Lombardic form actually comes from Proto-Germanic *ǥuđánaz
Germanic etymology
The Proto-Germanic meaning of *ǥuđán and its etymology is uncertain. It is generally agreed that it derives from a Proto-Indo-European neuter passive perfect participle *ǵʰu-tó-m. This form within (late) Proto-Indo-European itself was possibly ambiguous, and thought to derive from a root *ǵʰeu̯- "to pour, libate" (Sanskrit huta, see hotṛ), or from a root *ǵʰau̯- (*ǵʰeu̯h2-) "to call, to invoke" (Sanskrit hūta). Sanskrit hutá = "having been sacrificed", from the verb root hu = "sacrifice", but a smallish shift of meaning could give the meaning "one to whom sacrifices are made."
Depending on which possibility is preferred, the pre-Christian meaning of the Germanic term may either have been (in the "pouring" case) "libation" or "that which is libated upon, idol" — or, as Watkins[1] opines in the light of Greek χυτη γαια "poured earth" meaning "tumulus", "the Germanic form may have referred in the first instance to the spirit immanent in a burial mound" — or (in the "invoke" case) "invocation, prayer" (compare the meanings of Sanskrit brahman) or "that which is invoked".
Armenian di-k` "gods". Alternative suggestions (e.g. by De Saussure) connect *dhu̯es- "smoke, spirit", attested in Baltic and Germanic words for "spook," and ultimately cognate with Latin fumus "smoke." The earliest attested form of the word is the Mycenaean Greek te-o [8] (plural te-o-i [9]), written in Linear B syllabic script.
Khuda or Khoda ( خدا ) is the Persian word for "Lord" or "(monotheistic) God", formerly used of Ahura Mazda, today mostly of God in Islam by Persian speakers, and as a loanword also by speakers of Hindi and Urdu. The term is originally from a Middle Persian honorific.
Etymology
The term derives from Middle Iranian xvatay, xwadag meaning "lord", "ruler", "master" (written as Parthian kwdy, Middle Persian kwdy, Sogdian kwdy, etc.). It is the Middle Iranian reflex of Avestan xva-dhata- "self-defined; autocrat", an epithet of Ahura Mazda.. Sanskrit has the cognate root noun sva-dhā "self-power, inherent power". The Pashto cognate is Khwdai (خدای).
Prosaic usage is found for example in the Sassanid title katak-xvatay to denote the head of a clan or extended household, or in the title of the 6th century Khwaday Namag "Book of lords", from which the tales of Kayanian kings as found in the Shahnameh ("Book of kings") derive.
Semi-religious usage appears for example in the epithet zaman-i derang xvatay "time of the long dominion", as found in the Menog-i Khirad. The fourth and eighty-sixth entry of the Pazand prayer titled Sad-o-yak nam-i-khoda ("101 Names of God"), reading, Harvesp-Khoda "Lord of All" and Khudawand "Lord of the Universe", respectively, are compounds involving Khuda.[1] Application of khuda as "the Lord" (Ahura Mazda) is represented in the first entry in the medieval Frahang-i Pahlavig.
[edit] Islamic usage
In Islamic times the term came to be used for God in Islam, paralleling the Arabic name of God Al-Malik "King, Lord, Master".
The phrase Khuda Hafiz (meaning May God be your Guardian) is a parting phrase commonly used in Persian, Urdu, and Kurdish, as well as among South Asian Muslims and Afghans.
It also exists as a loanword, used for God by Muslims in Urdu and Hindi (ख़ुदा), although the Arabic word Allah is becoming more common.
Deus (Latin pronunciation: /ˈdeːʊs/) is the Latin for "god" or "deity". Latin deus and dīvus "divine", are descended from Proto-Indo-European *deiwos, from the same root as *Dyēus, the reconstructed chief god of the Proto-Indo-European pantheon.
In Classical Latin it was a general noun referring to any divine figure. In Late Latin, it came to be used mostly of the Christian God. It is inherited directly in the Romance languages, as French dieu, Spanish dios, Portuguese deus, Italian dio, etc.
Latin deus consistently translates Greek θεός theos in both the Vetus Latina and Jerome's Vulgate. In the Septuagint, Greek theos in turn renders Hebrew Elohim (אֱלוֹהִים , אלהים)
The word "Deus," through "Dei," is the root of deism, pandeism, panendeism, and polydeism, ironically all of which are theories in which any divine figure is absent from intervening in human affairs. This curious circumstance originates from the use of the word "deism" in the 17th and 18th centuries as a contrast to the prevailing "theism", belief in an actively intervening God.
Cognate forms are found throughout the Semitic languages. They include Ugaritic ʾil, pl. ʾlm; Phoenician ʾl pl. ʾlm; Hebrew ʾēl, pl. ʾēlîm; Aramaic ʾl; Akkadian ilu, pl. ilānu.
In Northwest Semitic usage ʾl was both a generic word for any "god" and the special name or title of a particular god who was distinguished from other gods as being "the god", or in the monotheistic sense, God.[3] Ēli is listed at the head of many pantheons. Eli was the father god among the Canaanites.
However, because the word sometimes refers to a god other than the great god Ēli, it is frequently ambiguous as to whether Ēli followed by another name means the great god Ēli with a particular epithet applied or refers to another god entirely. For example, in the Ugaritic texts ʾil mlk is understood to mean "Ēli the King" but ʾil hd as "the god Hadad".
The Semitic root ʾlh (Arabic ʾilāh, Aramaic 'alāh, 'elāh, Hebrew 'elōah) may be ʾlu with a parasitic h. In Ugaritic the plural form meaning "gods" is ʾilhm, equivalent to Hebrew ʾelōhîm "gods". But in Hebrew this word is also regularly used for semantically singular "God" or "god".
The stem ʾl is found prominently in the earliest strata of east Semitic, northwest Semitic, and south Semitic groups. Personal names including the stem ʾl are found with similar patterns both in Amorite and South Arabic which indicates that probably already in Proto-Semitic ʾl was both a generic term for "god" and the common name or title of a single particular "god" or "God".
Also in Northwest Semitic the typical belief and thought for El is that he controls the Moon and the Sun. In the myth, while he controls them they often fight for a place as his favorite. The results, day, night, day, night, are often explained as following. When it is day, the Sun has beaten the Moon. When it is night, the Moon has beaten the sun. When this myth formed it was not known that one part of the planet was in night and one in day. They said that no heavenly body won twice in a row, except on the days of the eclipse.
Within Hinduism, there are a number of names of God which are generally in Sanskrit, each supported by a different tradition within the religion. Brahman, Bhagavan, Ishvara, and Paramatma are among the most commonly used terms for God in the scriptures of Hinduism.
* Adi Purush (ādi-puruṣ) means "Timeless Being", "Primordial Lord", "First Person".
* Bhagwaan (Bhagwan) means "God".
* Ishvar (īśvar) means "Cosmic Controller" or "Lord".
* Maheshvar (mahā-īśhvar) means "Great Lord", used as an attribute of god Shiva within Shaivism traditions.
* Para Brahman (para-brahma), an ineffable entity, best translated as "The Absolute Truth", Supreme Brahman, or Supreme Cosmic Spirit.
* Paramatma (parama-ātman) means "Supreme Soul".
* Parameshvar (parama-īśvara) means "Supreme Lord".
* Vishnu is seen as Para Brahman within Vaishnava traditions, and the Vishnu Sahasranama enumerates 1000 names of Vishnu, each name eulogizing one of His countless great attributes. The names of Vishnu's Dasavatara in particular are considered divine names.
* Krishna (Kṛṣṇa) is associated with Vishnu and certain Vaishnava traditions also regard Him as Para Brahman and Svayam Bhagavan (svayambhagavān) or the Lord Himself.[15] In Krishna-centered schools of Vaishnavism, which includes the Nimbarka, Vallabha and Caitanya schools Krishna is held as the Supreme Personality of Godhead[16] based on the descriptions of Him within the Bhagavata Purana and Mahabharata, with particular reference to the Bhagavad-Gita.[17]
* Rama (Rāma) is associated with Vishnu and is especially venerated in bhakti literature, such as that of Kabir and Ravidas, and more recently in the writings of Mohandas Gandhi.
There are multiple names for God in Sikhism. Some of the popular names for God in Sikhism are:
* Waheguru, meaning Wonderful Teacher bringing light to remove darkness, this name is considered the greatest among Sikhs, and it is known as "Gurmantar", the Guru's Word.
* Ek Onkar, ek meaning "one", emphasizes the singularity of God. It is the beginning of the Sikh Mool Mantra.
* Satnam meaning True Name, some are of the opinion that this is a name for God in itself, others believe that this is an adjective used to describe the "Gurmantar", Waheguru (See below)
* Nirankar, meaning formless One
* Akal Purakh, meaning timeless One
In the older Japanese religion Tenrikyo, God is referred to as Tenri-O-no-Mikoto, Tsukihi, or Oya
The earliest written form of the Germanic word god comes from the 6th century Christian Codex Argenteus. The English word itself is derived from the Proto-Germanic * ǥuđan. Most linguists agree that the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European form * ǵhu-tó-m was based on the root * ǵhau(ə)-, which meant either "to call" or "to invoke". The Germanic words for god were originally neuter—applying to both genders—but during the process of the Christianization of the Germanic peoples from their indigenous Germanic paganism, the word became a masculine syntactic form.
The capitalized form God was first used in Ulfilas's Gothic translation of the New Testament, to represent the Greek Theos. In the English language, the capitalization continues to represent a distinction between monotheistic "God" and "gods" in polytheism. In spite of significant differences between religions such as Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, the Bahá'í Faith, and Judaism, the term "God" remains an English translation common to all. The name may signify any related or similar monotheistic deities, such as the early monotheism of Akhenaten and Zoroastrianism.
When used in English within a community with a common monotheistic background, "God" always refers to the deity they share. Those with a background in different Abrahamic religions will usually agree on the deity they share, while still differing on details of belief and doctrine—they will disagree about attributes of [the] God, rather than thinking in terms of "my God" and "your (different) God".
When spoken God on English it sounds: Gaad, the word "gad" on Slavic languages - the fonetic languages (Serbian, Bosnian, Montenegrin, Macedonian, Croatian) is: "scoundrel", pretty interesting, no?
On Southern Slavic languages god is: "Bog" in English; to get stuck or a wetland of mosses or lichens over waterlogged peat the Bog.
In South Slavic languages one of the names for female godess is: Boginja, other meaning of the word is: singular for: variola vera (Lat) or: pox, as well archaic verb in SSL (Sauth Slavic language) boginja, means that someone is of poor health or ill of pox.
Other word for godess in SSL languages is: božica; the prefix bo, taken from god and interesting suffix „žica“ with meaning wire, so božica is connected or wired to something, it would be interesting to find what this connection really means.
Last but not the least is permutation of the word god; if you read god from behind it will be: dog ( interpreted in stellar charts: Dog star is Sirius, and it is located in the constellation Alpha Canis Majoris. It is the brightest star in the night sky, with 22 times the luminosity of the sun. Canis major is at the heel of the constellation Orion), Dog Star aka Sirius is connected to: Biblical Gods, Greek Gods, descendants of Israel & the Middle East. Sirius was astronomically the foundation of the Egyptian religious system. It was the embodiment of Isis, wife and consort of the god Osiris, who appeared in the sky as Orion. Ancient Egyptians called Sirius the 'Dog Star', after their god Osiris, whose head in pictograms resembled that of a dog.
Picture of Sirius and Orion attached.
According to contemporary linguistic; over the last 3,000 years or so, the community of Indo-European speakers splintered off, to Iran and India (where their idiom developed into the sister languages, Old Persian and Sanskrit, (I'm not pretty happy with explanation that Sanskrit is mid derivate, it would be probably one of most oldest languages on the world, science should be rewritten in many fields but we'll leave Sanskrit for some other time) and elsewhere in many other directions, mainly westward.
The farther a field they ranged, the farther their ancestral manner of speaking the diverged. The old national name, Aryan (meaning “noble”), survived in both Persia and India and is in fact the source of the present day Iran.
Within a few hundred years after the primeval Aryan community started breaking up, there were already several Indo-European languages where there had once been only one.
Derivative idioms grew even farther apart, so that by the dawn of recorded history a dozen branches of the Indo-European language family overspread most of western Eurasia from the Himalayas to the Atlantic. The most important of these branches are:
• Indo-Iranian (comprising-in Iran-Persian and-in India-Sanskrit, together with the derivative Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, and other languages including Romany, the language of the Gypsies)
• Slavic (Russian, Polish, etc.)
• Hellenic (Greek)
• Italic (Latin and derivative Romance languages such as French and Italian)
• Celtic (Gaelic, Welsh, Breton, etc.)
• Germanic (English, Dutch, German, Yiddish, and the Scandinavian languages).
To illustrate the family relationship of these languages, here are the words for mother and brother in languages belonging to the above-mentioned branches and also in the common ancestor tongue, Indo-European:
English mother brother
German mutter bruder
Gaelic mathair braithair
Latin mater frater
Greek meter phrater
Old Church Slavonic mati bratu
Sanskrit matr bhratr
Indo-European * mater- *bhrater
Anglo Saxon - Germanic variations for the word god:
GOD
Gothic = guth
German = gott
Dutch = god
Anglo-Saxon = god
Icelandic (Old Norse) = goth
The Hebrew Semitic word, “gadhadh,” is transliterated to an English sound, “gawd-hehd,” and almost identical in sound to, “godhead.” Though the word is translated as, “troop,” in most Bible versions, a synonym for ‘troop’ using a modern thesaurus means the word could be rendered, “a multitude,” or even stricter, “a group.” The underlying meaning of a “troop” implies more than one individual ‘united’ for one purpose.
Two cognates of Gad spelled in the Hebrew transliteration gudh and gadhadh; gadhadh is rendered as, “troop,” or as, “marauding band,” in most Bible versions and gudh, literally means, "to press." Most scholars agree that ‘troop’ is not a valid translation for Gad. Below is the etymological path for both Hebrew and Aramaic versions of the word Gad.
HEBREW & ARAMAIC god: Gad in Old testament:
“Gad” = OT: 1410 Gad (“gawd”); from OT: 1464; Gad, a son of Jacob, including his tribe and its territory; also a prophet;
OT: 1464 guwd (goode); a primitive root [akin to OT: 1413]; to crowd upon, i.e. attack;
OT: 1413 gadad (gaw-dad'); a primitive root [compare OT: 1464]; to crowd; also to gash (as if by pressing into)
OT: 1414 gedad (Aramaic) (ghed-ad'); corresponding to OT: 1413; to cut down: -hew down.
OT: 1415 gadah (gaw-daw'); from an unused root (meaning to cut off); a border of a river (as cut into by the stream)
OT: 1416 geduwd (ghed-ood'); from OT: 1413; a crowd (especially of soldiers): -army, band (of men), company, troop (of robbers).
OT: 1417 geduwd (ghed-ood'); or (feminine) gedudah (ghed-oo-daw'); from OT: 1413; a furrow (as cut)
OT: 1418 geduwdah (ghed-oo-daw'); feminine participle passive of OT: 1413; an incision
OT:1419 gadowl (gaw-dole'); or (shortened) gadol (gaw-dole'); from OT:1431; great (in any sense); hence, older; also insolent
OT: 1431 gadal (gaw-dal'); a primitive root; properly, to twist [compare OT: 1434], i.e. to be (causatively make) large (in various senses, as in body, mind, estate or honor, also in pride)
OT: 1433 godel (go'-del); from OT: 1431; magnitude (literally or figuratively): -greatness, stout (-ness).
OT: 1434 gedil (ghed-eel'); from OT: 1431 (in the sense of twisting); thread, i.e. a tassel or festoon
The etymology of the word ‘God’ or ‘god’ is a difficult path to follow because the English is a compilation and blending of several different dialects, including but not limited to Latin, German, Greek, Anglo-Saxon, Indo-European and even Hebrew. It was recently pointed out to me by my friend Rex that the Hebrew proper name of, “Gad,” in the Old Testament is actually pronounced as, “gawd.” This caught my attention and motivated me to do some serious digging.
In the Old Testament, the Hebrews used proper names in a much different way than we do in western culture. Our modern names are primarily for personal identification, whereas the Biblical names are also descriptive, often prophetic, and nearly always of spiritual significance. Hebrew parents related the name of newborn infants to ‘God’ and some did so by openly announcing the child’s consecration to Him.
Jacob’s twelve sons the tribe of Gad became a warlike nomadic people that fought against the Assyrians, Romans and other fierce and dangerous opponents. Jacob’s prophetic blessing upon Gad is observable in the tribe’s behavioral characteristics throughout history until many centuries later. In modern history, the descendents of Gad are among the Gauthie, Gauls, Goths, and Celts speaking Gadhelic and other Teutonic dialects of the Old Norse period. Note throughout this study there are inconsistencies in the spelling of various dialects and ethnicities and my choice was American style contemporary; this is a mute point as long as the truth is conveyed. Hence, the word, “God,” is found laced in the dialects of some later peoples that ventured into Breton, Scotland, Brittany, Iceland, etc.
Theos {theh'-os} is by far the most common Greek word that we translate as God or god. Below are the possible meanings of the word 'theos'.
1) a god or goddess, a general name of deities or divinities
2) the Godhead
3) spoken of the only and true God
3a) refers to the things of God
3b) his counsels, interests, things due to him
4) whatever can in any respect be likened unto God, or resemble him in any way
4a) God's representative or viceregent
4a1) of magistrates and judges
Tribal names of the GOD
A significant number of scholars have connected this root with the names of three related Germanic tribes: the Geats, the Goths and the Gutar. These names may be derived from an eponymous chieftain Gaut, who was subsequently deified.[citation needed] He also sometimes appears in early Medieval sagas as a name of Odin or one of his descendants, a former king of the Geats (Gaut(i)), an ancestor of the Gutar (Guti), of the Goths (Gothus) and of the royal line of Wessex (Geats) and as a previous hero of the Goths (Gapt). Some variant forms of the name Odin such as the Lombardic Godan may point in the direction that the Lombardic form actually comes from Proto-Germanic *ǥuđánaz
Germanic etymology
The Proto-Germanic meaning of *ǥuđán and its etymology is uncertain. It is generally agreed that it derives from a Proto-Indo-European neuter passive perfect participle *ǵʰu-tó-m. This form within (late) Proto-Indo-European itself was possibly ambiguous, and thought to derive from a root *ǵʰeu̯- "to pour, libate" (Sanskrit huta, see hotṛ), or from a root *ǵʰau̯- (*ǵʰeu̯h2-) "to call, to invoke" (Sanskrit hūta). Sanskrit hutá = "having been sacrificed", from the verb root hu = "sacrifice", but a smallish shift of meaning could give the meaning "one to whom sacrifices are made."
Depending on which possibility is preferred, the pre-Christian meaning of the Germanic term may either have been (in the "pouring" case) "libation" or "that which is libated upon, idol" — or, as Watkins[1] opines in the light of Greek χυτη γαια "poured earth" meaning "tumulus", "the Germanic form may have referred in the first instance to the spirit immanent in a burial mound" — or (in the "invoke" case) "invocation, prayer" (compare the meanings of Sanskrit brahman) or "that which is invoked".
Armenian di-k` "gods". Alternative suggestions (e.g. by De Saussure) connect *dhu̯es- "smoke, spirit", attested in Baltic and Germanic words for "spook," and ultimately cognate with Latin fumus "smoke." The earliest attested form of the word is the Mycenaean Greek te-o [8] (plural te-o-i [9]), written in Linear B syllabic script.
Khuda or Khoda ( خدا ) is the Persian word for "Lord" or "(monotheistic) God", formerly used of Ahura Mazda, today mostly of God in Islam by Persian speakers, and as a loanword also by speakers of Hindi and Urdu. The term is originally from a Middle Persian honorific.
Etymology
The term derives from Middle Iranian xvatay, xwadag meaning "lord", "ruler", "master" (written as Parthian kwdy, Middle Persian kwdy, Sogdian kwdy, etc.). It is the Middle Iranian reflex of Avestan xva-dhata- "self-defined; autocrat", an epithet of Ahura Mazda.. Sanskrit has the cognate root noun sva-dhā "self-power, inherent power". The Pashto cognate is Khwdai (خدای).
Prosaic usage is found for example in the Sassanid title katak-xvatay to denote the head of a clan or extended household, or in the title of the 6th century Khwaday Namag "Book of lords", from which the tales of Kayanian kings as found in the Shahnameh ("Book of kings") derive.
Semi-religious usage appears for example in the epithet zaman-i derang xvatay "time of the long dominion", as found in the Menog-i Khirad. The fourth and eighty-sixth entry of the Pazand prayer titled Sad-o-yak nam-i-khoda ("101 Names of God"), reading, Harvesp-Khoda "Lord of All" and Khudawand "Lord of the Universe", respectively, are compounds involving Khuda.[1] Application of khuda as "the Lord" (Ahura Mazda) is represented in the first entry in the medieval Frahang-i Pahlavig.
[edit] Islamic usage
In Islamic times the term came to be used for God in Islam, paralleling the Arabic name of God Al-Malik "King, Lord, Master".
The phrase Khuda Hafiz (meaning May God be your Guardian) is a parting phrase commonly used in Persian, Urdu, and Kurdish, as well as among South Asian Muslims and Afghans.
It also exists as a loanword, used for God by Muslims in Urdu and Hindi (ख़ुदा), although the Arabic word Allah is becoming more common.
Deus (Latin pronunciation: /ˈdeːʊs/) is the Latin for "god" or "deity". Latin deus and dīvus "divine", are descended from Proto-Indo-European *deiwos, from the same root as *Dyēus, the reconstructed chief god of the Proto-Indo-European pantheon.
In Classical Latin it was a general noun referring to any divine figure. In Late Latin, it came to be used mostly of the Christian God. It is inherited directly in the Romance languages, as French dieu, Spanish dios, Portuguese deus, Italian dio, etc.
Latin deus consistently translates Greek θεός theos in both the Vetus Latina and Jerome's Vulgate. In the Septuagint, Greek theos in turn renders Hebrew Elohim (אֱלוֹהִים , אלהים)
The word "Deus," through "Dei," is the root of deism, pandeism, panendeism, and polydeism, ironically all of which are theories in which any divine figure is absent from intervening in human affairs. This curious circumstance originates from the use of the word "deism" in the 17th and 18th centuries as a contrast to the prevailing "theism", belief in an actively intervening God.
Cognate forms are found throughout the Semitic languages. They include Ugaritic ʾil, pl. ʾlm; Phoenician ʾl pl. ʾlm; Hebrew ʾēl, pl. ʾēlîm; Aramaic ʾl; Akkadian ilu, pl. ilānu.
In Northwest Semitic usage ʾl was both a generic word for any "god" and the special name or title of a particular god who was distinguished from other gods as being "the god", or in the monotheistic sense, God.[3] Ēli is listed at the head of many pantheons. Eli was the father god among the Canaanites.
However, because the word sometimes refers to a god other than the great god Ēli, it is frequently ambiguous as to whether Ēli followed by another name means the great god Ēli with a particular epithet applied or refers to another god entirely. For example, in the Ugaritic texts ʾil mlk is understood to mean "Ēli the King" but ʾil hd as "the god Hadad".
The Semitic root ʾlh (Arabic ʾilāh, Aramaic 'alāh, 'elāh, Hebrew 'elōah) may be ʾlu with a parasitic h. In Ugaritic the plural form meaning "gods" is ʾilhm, equivalent to Hebrew ʾelōhîm "gods". But in Hebrew this word is also regularly used for semantically singular "God" or "god".
The stem ʾl is found prominently in the earliest strata of east Semitic, northwest Semitic, and south Semitic groups. Personal names including the stem ʾl are found with similar patterns both in Amorite and South Arabic which indicates that probably already in Proto-Semitic ʾl was both a generic term for "god" and the common name or title of a single particular "god" or "God".
Also in Northwest Semitic the typical belief and thought for El is that he controls the Moon and the Sun. In the myth, while he controls them they often fight for a place as his favorite. The results, day, night, day, night, are often explained as following. When it is day, the Sun has beaten the Moon. When it is night, the Moon has beaten the sun. When this myth formed it was not known that one part of the planet was in night and one in day. They said that no heavenly body won twice in a row, except on the days of the eclipse.
Within Hinduism, there are a number of names of God which are generally in Sanskrit, each supported by a different tradition within the religion. Brahman, Bhagavan, Ishvara, and Paramatma are among the most commonly used terms for God in the scriptures of Hinduism.
* Adi Purush (ādi-puruṣ) means "Timeless Being", "Primordial Lord", "First Person".
* Bhagwaan (Bhagwan) means "God".
* Ishvar (īśvar) means "Cosmic Controller" or "Lord".
* Maheshvar (mahā-īśhvar) means "Great Lord", used as an attribute of god Shiva within Shaivism traditions.
* Para Brahman (para-brahma), an ineffable entity, best translated as "The Absolute Truth", Supreme Brahman, or Supreme Cosmic Spirit.
* Paramatma (parama-ātman) means "Supreme Soul".
* Parameshvar (parama-īśvara) means "Supreme Lord".
* Vishnu is seen as Para Brahman within Vaishnava traditions, and the Vishnu Sahasranama enumerates 1000 names of Vishnu, each name eulogizing one of His countless great attributes. The names of Vishnu's Dasavatara in particular are considered divine names.
* Krishna (Kṛṣṇa) is associated with Vishnu and certain Vaishnava traditions also regard Him as Para Brahman and Svayam Bhagavan (svayambhagavān) or the Lord Himself.[15] In Krishna-centered schools of Vaishnavism, which includes the Nimbarka, Vallabha and Caitanya schools Krishna is held as the Supreme Personality of Godhead[16] based on the descriptions of Him within the Bhagavata Purana and Mahabharata, with particular reference to the Bhagavad-Gita.[17]
* Rama (Rāma) is associated with Vishnu and is especially venerated in bhakti literature, such as that of Kabir and Ravidas, and more recently in the writings of Mohandas Gandhi.
There are multiple names for God in Sikhism. Some of the popular names for God in Sikhism are:
* Waheguru, meaning Wonderful Teacher bringing light to remove darkness, this name is considered the greatest among Sikhs, and it is known as "Gurmantar", the Guru's Word.
* Ek Onkar, ek meaning "one", emphasizes the singularity of God. It is the beginning of the Sikh Mool Mantra.
* Satnam meaning True Name, some are of the opinion that this is a name for God in itself, others believe that this is an adjective used to describe the "Gurmantar", Waheguru (See below)
* Nirankar, meaning formless One
* Akal Purakh, meaning timeless One
In the older Japanese religion Tenrikyo, God is referred to as Tenri-O-no-Mikoto, Tsukihi, or Oya
The earliest written form of the Germanic word god comes from the 6th century Christian Codex Argenteus. The English word itself is derived from the Proto-Germanic * ǥuđan. Most linguists agree that the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European form * ǵhu-tó-m was based on the root * ǵhau(ə)-, which meant either "to call" or "to invoke". The Germanic words for god were originally neuter—applying to both genders—but during the process of the Christianization of the Germanic peoples from their indigenous Germanic paganism, the word became a masculine syntactic form.
The capitalized form God was first used in Ulfilas's Gothic translation of the New Testament, to represent the Greek Theos. In the English language, the capitalization continues to represent a distinction between monotheistic "God" and "gods" in polytheism. In spite of significant differences between religions such as Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, the Bahá'í Faith, and Judaism, the term "God" remains an English translation common to all. The name may signify any related or similar monotheistic deities, such as the early monotheism of Akhenaten and Zoroastrianism.
When used in English within a community with a common monotheistic background, "God" always refers to the deity they share. Those with a background in different Abrahamic religions will usually agree on the deity they share, while still differing on details of belief and doctrine—they will disagree about attributes of [the] God, rather than thinking in terms of "my God" and "your (different) God".
When spoken God on English it sounds: Gaad, the word "gad" on Slavic languages - the fonetic languages (Serbian, Bosnian, Montenegrin, Macedonian, Croatian) is: "scoundrel", pretty interesting, no?
On Southern Slavic languages god is: "Bog" in English; to get stuck or a wetland of mosses or lichens over waterlogged peat the Bog.
In South Slavic languages one of the names for female godess is: Boginja, other meaning of the word is: singular for: variola vera (Lat) or: pox, as well archaic verb in SSL (Sauth Slavic language) boginja, means that someone is of poor health or ill of pox.
Other word for godess in SSL languages is: božica; the prefix bo, taken from god and interesting suffix „žica“ with meaning wire, so božica is connected or wired to something, it would be interesting to find what this connection really means.
Last but not the least is permutation of the word god; if you read god from behind it will be: dog ( interpreted in stellar charts: Dog star is Sirius, and it is located in the constellation Alpha Canis Majoris. It is the brightest star in the night sky, with 22 times the luminosity of the sun. Canis major is at the heel of the constellation Orion), Dog Star aka Sirius is connected to: Biblical Gods, Greek Gods, descendants of Israel & the Middle East. Sirius was astronomically the foundation of the Egyptian religious system. It was the embodiment of Isis, wife and consort of the god Osiris, who appeared in the sky as Orion. Ancient Egyptians called Sirius the 'Dog Star', after their god Osiris, whose head in pictograms resembled that of a dog.
Picture of Sirius and Orion attached.
Attachments
Interesting thread, I always enjoyed reading about names origins and meanings,
thanks Jube ( this usual Dalmatian dialect short for Ljubica :) )
Just don't forget names are usually attached to our personality not our essence therefore I would take your statement that names define us with a grain of salt at least when someone is set on vanquishing false personality and ego ;)
thanks Jube ( this usual Dalmatian dialect short for Ljubica :) )
Just don't forget names are usually attached to our personality not our essence therefore I would take your statement that names define us with a grain of salt at least when someone is set on vanquishing false personality and ego ;)
Herr Eisenheim said:
Agree with that 100%, my point was, that what ever is written on our ID, passport, or driving licence, could in sense attract certain feelings or influence on us on direct or more subliminal way; straiting with personal names, family names, country of origin's name, etc. Even if we exclude personal inputs about meanings of the names or names of the places or countries, there are other more subtle influences of the words (names) like numeric, cultural, etymological, allegorical, and not to forget frequency of the words (names) and so on ;).
One of the most popular female names in the past (and it's still among 10 the most popular female names in western culture) is female name: Elizabeth or Elisabeth. The girl's name Elizabeth \e-lizabe-th,
or el(i)-za-beth\ is pronounced ee-LIZ-a-beth.
It is of Hebrew origin, and the meaning of Elizabeth is "God's promise; God is my oath". This name is extremely popular name since the 16th-century reign of queen Elisabeth I. Elisabeth is Greek translation of the Hebrew name Elisheva, although most of the time translations means: "God's promise," "oath of God," but additional free translation is: "I am God’s daughter."
Elizabeth and Elisabeth has over 152 variant forms: Alixyveth, Babette, Belita, Bell, Bella, Belle, Bess, Bessie, Bessy, Bet, Beta, Beth, Bethie, Betina, Betsey, Betsie, Betsy, Bett, Betta, Bette, Betti, Bettina, Bettine, Betty, Bettye, Bit, Bizzy, Buffy, Eilis, Eilish, Eleisa, Eliesse, Elisa, Elisabet, Elisabeth, Elisabethe, Elisabetta, Elisah, Elise, Elissa, Eliszabeth, Elixyveth, Eliz, Eliza, Elizabet, Elizabeth, Elizabett, Elizabette, Elizabiff, Elizabith, Elize, Elizebeth, Elle, Ellissa, Elliza, Ellsa, Ellse, Ellsee, Ellsey, Ellsi, Ellspet, Ellyse, Ellyssa, Ellyza, Elsa, Elsabeth, Else, Elsee, Elsie, Elspet, Elspeth, Elsy, Elyse, Elyssa, Elyza, Elyzza, Elzabeth, Elzbieta, Esabeau, Helsa, Ilsa, Ilse, Isabel, Isabella, Isabelle, Isobel, Leasa, Leesa, Leeza, Leisa, Leizel, Lib, Libbey, Libbi, Libbie, Libby, Libbye, Liese, Liesel, Lilibet, Lilibeth, Lisa, Lisabeth, Lisbet, Lisbeth, Lisbett, Lisbetta, Lisbette, Lise, Lisette, Lisel, Lisl, Lissa, Lissette, Lissi, Lissie, Lissy, Liz, Liza, Lizabeth, Lizbet, Lizbeth, Lizbett, Lizeth, Lizette, Lizveth, Lizy, Lizz, Lizzi, Lizzie, Lizzy, Lusa, Lysa, Lysbet, Lysbeth, Lysbette, Lyse, Lyssa, Lyssi, Lyssie, Lyza, Lyzbet, Lyzbeth, Lyzbette, Lyzette, Tetty, Veta, Ylisabet, Ylisabette, Ysabel, Ysabella and Yzabelle. Lisa, and Lilly, and Ella; Elsa, Isabel and Isabella.
Elisheva or Elisheba (אֱלִישֶׁבַע in Hebrew) was the wife of Aaron, the forefather of The Kohanim, the Jewish priests, in The Bible. According to later Jewish tradition, she is buried in the Tomb of the Matriarchs in Tiberias. The character of the wife of Aaron (Harun in Arabic) is also mentioned in the Qur'an, albeit unnamed. She is known as Alishahda in Islamic tradition.
In Hebrew, Eli means "my God". Sheva can mean either "oath" or "sustenance". ("Sheva" also means seven in Hebrew, this is really interesting seems like gods at first were giving combined code names and numbers to their models, like model: 1a, model 2b and model we like and we made, model number 7, Elisheva) The name Elisheva means either "My God is my oath" (I swear by my God) or "My God is my sustenance". According to some interpretations, Elisheva was the same as Puah, one of the righteous midwives mentioned in Exodus Chapter One. Those who hold this interpretation believe that her position as ancestress of the priestly caste was a reward for saving the Hebrew children,...,...
Elspeth or (rarely) Elspet is a feminine given name. It is the Scottish form of Elizabeth. It means 'chosen by God' or 'consecrated by God, interesting, no?
A bit more about Elisabeth from the Bible:
Elisheba, consists of two parts. The first part is el (El 93), the common abbreviation of Elohim, the genus God.
The second part is identical to the name Sheba II, and comes from either shaba (sheba 2318), meaning seven, or shaba (shaba 2319), meaning oath, swear, adjure.
These two meanings are very closely related. First of all, they are spelled the same, but a kinship is readily acknowledged in the playful use of both meanings:In Genesis 21:22-34 Abraham and Abimelech swear and oath concerning a well, and seal it by a gift of seven ewes. The well becomes known as Beersheba; well of the oath.
There's only one Elizabeth in the Bible: the wife of Zacharias and the mother of John the Baptist (Luke 1:5). Elizabeth is a Levite, like her husband, and the cousin of Mary, the mother of Jesus (Luke 1:36).
BDB Theological Dictionary and NOBS Study Bible Name List translate the name with God Is An Oath, but that seems a bit awkward. People in the Bible may swear by God or to God, but God and the oath never become the same; God is not an oath.
The alternative - God Is Seven - is down right heretic if the 'seven' is read as strictly numerical designation. God, after all, is One (Deuteronomy 6:4). The solution may be a meaning of the Hebrew root shaba that lies fundament to both meanings 'seven' and 'oath.
The number seven occurs in the Bible either as a quantity without any other meaning, or as a symbol for a cyclic whole. The most famous seven is probably the week, and most notable is the creation week. All other units of time have a cosmological counterpart; the year is the time between this summer-solstice and the next; a month is the time between this full moon and the next; a day is the time between this dawn and the next. And the hours of a day (twelve of them) correspond to the months of the year, as during the year the sun goes up and down and back again, just like during the day. But the week is completely unaccounted for.
The week is completely 'artificial' or better yet, exists by itself; is its own reason to exist. And perhaps that is what the number seven most fundamentally denotes: something unprecedented that has no greater cause than itself.
more on: http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Elizabeth.html
Hmmm, I'm not hapy with this meaning of seven, perhaps I could dig for some more...,...
Other interesting name is: Eve
Eve is the wife of Adam; traditionally the first human female, but that tradition is presently under attack. See for more info the Chaotic Set Theory. Legends that are much younger than the sources of our book Genesis report of a predecessor of Eve, named Lilith.
Most (if not all) translators and interpreters derive the name Eve from the verb haya (ha-i-a), meaning live or have life. In Genesis 3:20 it reads that Eve was named this way because she was em kal hay; mother of all life. The Hebrew word em ('em 115a), mother, comes from the same root as amma ('amma), mother city, cubit, tribe/ people; hence the phrases Mother Babylon and Mother Jerusalem. The phrase 'all life' returns six times in Scriptures and never just mankind is meant (show me). Hence the 'mother of all life' is the biosphere; all living things.
And hence the NOBS Study Bible Name List, Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names, and even BDB Theological Dictionary report in dubious unison that the name Eve means Life.
But note the difference between the verb that means to live and the name Eve: haya and Eve. The verb is spelled with a yod but the name is spelled with a waw. These two letter sometimes interchange - and mostly when they're both vowels, which they both aren't in this case - but this verb, and all its many derivations are always spelled with a yod.
So yes, Eve is the mother of all life, but her name simply doesn't mean life.
It's a leap of critical neglect to assume, that when parents call their baby Bob, and say, "because that was the name of our dog," they are doing this because they mean to propone that the name Bob means dog.
The name Eve is identical to the Hebrew root group Eve (hwh 617-619):
• The root Eve (hwh) is unused in the Bible, so we don't exactly know what it means. But BDB Theological Dictionary reports of a identical verb in Arabic that means to collect or gather. The derivative Eve (hawwa 617), meaning tent or village (Deuteronomy, Joshua 13:30) is identical to the name Eve.
• The verb Eve (hawa) meaning to show, tell, make known. This Hebrew verb occurs six times in the Bible (mostly in Job: Job 15:17, 32:6) but the Aramaic equivalent occurs fourteen times in Daniel (3:32, 5:7). Its obvious derivative ahwa (ahwah 618), meaning declaration, occurs once, in Job 13:17.
• The verb Eve (hawa) meaning to prostrate oneself, specifically out of sheer politeness (Genesis 18:2, 23:7), in submission to a superior (Exodus 11:8, Ester 3:2) or in worship of God (Judges 7:15, 1 Chronicles 29:20).
Eve does not mean 'the girl of the two,' and is also not the model for all wives (Keil and Delitzsch' Commentary on the Old Testament) bound to goof up. Man and woman are both under label Adam, and their drive to group up lodge in Eve. The name Eve denotes the collectivity that is so common to the behavior of living things. We should never forget that multicellular creatures, even humans, are in fact a highly efficient colony of single cellular creatures.
The name Eve means Gathering, Declaration or Humility, because she was the mother of all of life.
The name Eve is strikingly similar to the name Hivite. The name Hivite possibly means Villagers (BDB Theological Dictionary). The Hivites are descendant of Canaan, son of Noah but, According to traditional Hebrew sources, the name "Hivites" is related to the Aramaic word "Khiv'va" (HVVA), meaning "snake", since they sniffed the ground like snakes looking for fertile land.
Scholars have sought to identify the biblical Hivites with (a) the Greek Achaeans known from Homer; (b) the Hurrians – one of the most important peoples in the ancient Near East – who are otherwise unmentioned in the Hebrew Bible; or (c) settlers, who went to Shechem and the other locations from Cilicia, a region in Asia Minor, which is called Kue in the Bible.
Several key features can be inferred about the cultural distinctiveness of the Hivite peoples.
First, in Genesis 34:2 it is mentioned that Shechem the son of Hamor was a Hivite. In Genesis 34:14, we find that the Hivites did not practice male circumcision, one of the few peoples living in the land of Canaan that did not. Circumcision, as a practice was quite common among the peoples existing in the land of Canaan. Egyptians, Edomites, Ammonites, Moabites, and other various proto-Canaanite tribes practiced male circumcision along with the Hebrews. Other than Israel’s arch-nemesis – the Philistines – the Hivites appear to be an exception to the rule of circumcision which does lend them quite a distinction among the tribes of Canaan during this time period.
Deuteronomy 7:3 forbade Israelites from marrying Hivites, because they followed other gods; but it is not clear how strictly the prohibition was observed.
It appears that the Hivite cultural distinctiveness ceased before the Assyrian conquest of the northern Kingdom of Israel in the 8th century BCE, and the Babylonian conquest of the southern Kingdom of Judah in the 6th century BCE, each with consequential population deportations.
or el(i)-za-beth\ is pronounced ee-LIZ-a-beth.
It is of Hebrew origin, and the meaning of Elizabeth is "God's promise; God is my oath". This name is extremely popular name since the 16th-century reign of queen Elisabeth I. Elisabeth is Greek translation of the Hebrew name Elisheva, although most of the time translations means: "God's promise," "oath of God," but additional free translation is: "I am God’s daughter."
Elizabeth and Elisabeth has over 152 variant forms: Alixyveth, Babette, Belita, Bell, Bella, Belle, Bess, Bessie, Bessy, Bet, Beta, Beth, Bethie, Betina, Betsey, Betsie, Betsy, Bett, Betta, Bette, Betti, Bettina, Bettine, Betty, Bettye, Bit, Bizzy, Buffy, Eilis, Eilish, Eleisa, Eliesse, Elisa, Elisabet, Elisabeth, Elisabethe, Elisabetta, Elisah, Elise, Elissa, Eliszabeth, Elixyveth, Eliz, Eliza, Elizabet, Elizabeth, Elizabett, Elizabette, Elizabiff, Elizabith, Elize, Elizebeth, Elle, Ellissa, Elliza, Ellsa, Ellse, Ellsee, Ellsey, Ellsi, Ellspet, Ellyse, Ellyssa, Ellyza, Elsa, Elsabeth, Else, Elsee, Elsie, Elspet, Elspeth, Elsy, Elyse, Elyssa, Elyza, Elyzza, Elzabeth, Elzbieta, Esabeau, Helsa, Ilsa, Ilse, Isabel, Isabella, Isabelle, Isobel, Leasa, Leesa, Leeza, Leisa, Leizel, Lib, Libbey, Libbi, Libbie, Libby, Libbye, Liese, Liesel, Lilibet, Lilibeth, Lisa, Lisabeth, Lisbet, Lisbeth, Lisbett, Lisbetta, Lisbette, Lise, Lisette, Lisel, Lisl, Lissa, Lissette, Lissi, Lissie, Lissy, Liz, Liza, Lizabeth, Lizbet, Lizbeth, Lizbett, Lizeth, Lizette, Lizveth, Lizy, Lizz, Lizzi, Lizzie, Lizzy, Lusa, Lysa, Lysbet, Lysbeth, Lysbette, Lyse, Lyssa, Lyssi, Lyssie, Lyza, Lyzbet, Lyzbeth, Lyzbette, Lyzette, Tetty, Veta, Ylisabet, Ylisabette, Ysabel, Ysabella and Yzabelle. Lisa, and Lilly, and Ella; Elsa, Isabel and Isabella.
Elisheva or Elisheba (אֱלִישֶׁבַע in Hebrew) was the wife of Aaron, the forefather of The Kohanim, the Jewish priests, in The Bible. According to later Jewish tradition, she is buried in the Tomb of the Matriarchs in Tiberias. The character of the wife of Aaron (Harun in Arabic) is also mentioned in the Qur'an, albeit unnamed. She is known as Alishahda in Islamic tradition.
In Hebrew, Eli means "my God". Sheva can mean either "oath" or "sustenance". ("Sheva" also means seven in Hebrew, this is really interesting seems like gods at first were giving combined code names and numbers to their models, like model: 1a, model 2b and model we like and we made, model number 7, Elisheva) The name Elisheva means either "My God is my oath" (I swear by my God) or "My God is my sustenance". According to some interpretations, Elisheva was the same as Puah, one of the righteous midwives mentioned in Exodus Chapter One. Those who hold this interpretation believe that her position as ancestress of the priestly caste was a reward for saving the Hebrew children,...,...
Elspeth or (rarely) Elspet is a feminine given name. It is the Scottish form of Elizabeth. It means 'chosen by God' or 'consecrated by God, interesting, no?
A bit more about Elisabeth from the Bible:
Elisheba, consists of two parts. The first part is el (El 93), the common abbreviation of Elohim, the genus God.
The second part is identical to the name Sheba II, and comes from either shaba (sheba 2318), meaning seven, or shaba (shaba 2319), meaning oath, swear, adjure.
These two meanings are very closely related. First of all, they are spelled the same, but a kinship is readily acknowledged in the playful use of both meanings:In Genesis 21:22-34 Abraham and Abimelech swear and oath concerning a well, and seal it by a gift of seven ewes. The well becomes known as Beersheba; well of the oath.
There's only one Elizabeth in the Bible: the wife of Zacharias and the mother of John the Baptist (Luke 1:5). Elizabeth is a Levite, like her husband, and the cousin of Mary, the mother of Jesus (Luke 1:36).
BDB Theological Dictionary and NOBS Study Bible Name List translate the name with God Is An Oath, but that seems a bit awkward. People in the Bible may swear by God or to God, but God and the oath never become the same; God is not an oath.
The alternative - God Is Seven - is down right heretic if the 'seven' is read as strictly numerical designation. God, after all, is One (Deuteronomy 6:4). The solution may be a meaning of the Hebrew root shaba that lies fundament to both meanings 'seven' and 'oath.
The number seven occurs in the Bible either as a quantity without any other meaning, or as a symbol for a cyclic whole. The most famous seven is probably the week, and most notable is the creation week. All other units of time have a cosmological counterpart; the year is the time between this summer-solstice and the next; a month is the time between this full moon and the next; a day is the time between this dawn and the next. And the hours of a day (twelve of them) correspond to the months of the year, as during the year the sun goes up and down and back again, just like during the day. But the week is completely unaccounted for.
The week is completely 'artificial' or better yet, exists by itself; is its own reason to exist. And perhaps that is what the number seven most fundamentally denotes: something unprecedented that has no greater cause than itself.
more on: http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Elizabeth.html
Hmmm, I'm not hapy with this meaning of seven, perhaps I could dig for some more...,...
Other interesting name is: Eve
Eve is the wife of Adam; traditionally the first human female, but that tradition is presently under attack. See for more info the Chaotic Set Theory. Legends that are much younger than the sources of our book Genesis report of a predecessor of Eve, named Lilith.
Most (if not all) translators and interpreters derive the name Eve from the verb haya (ha-i-a), meaning live or have life. In Genesis 3:20 it reads that Eve was named this way because she was em kal hay; mother of all life. The Hebrew word em ('em 115a), mother, comes from the same root as amma ('amma), mother city, cubit, tribe/ people; hence the phrases Mother Babylon and Mother Jerusalem. The phrase 'all life' returns six times in Scriptures and never just mankind is meant (show me). Hence the 'mother of all life' is the biosphere; all living things.
And hence the NOBS Study Bible Name List, Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names, and even BDB Theological Dictionary report in dubious unison that the name Eve means Life.
But note the difference between the verb that means to live and the name Eve: haya and Eve. The verb is spelled with a yod but the name is spelled with a waw. These two letter sometimes interchange - and mostly when they're both vowels, which they both aren't in this case - but this verb, and all its many derivations are always spelled with a yod.
So yes, Eve is the mother of all life, but her name simply doesn't mean life.
It's a leap of critical neglect to assume, that when parents call their baby Bob, and say, "because that was the name of our dog," they are doing this because they mean to propone that the name Bob means dog.
The name Eve is identical to the Hebrew root group Eve (hwh 617-619):
• The root Eve (hwh) is unused in the Bible, so we don't exactly know what it means. But BDB Theological Dictionary reports of a identical verb in Arabic that means to collect or gather. The derivative Eve (hawwa 617), meaning tent or village (Deuteronomy, Joshua 13:30) is identical to the name Eve.
• The verb Eve (hawa) meaning to show, tell, make known. This Hebrew verb occurs six times in the Bible (mostly in Job: Job 15:17, 32:6) but the Aramaic equivalent occurs fourteen times in Daniel (3:32, 5:7). Its obvious derivative ahwa (ahwah 618), meaning declaration, occurs once, in Job 13:17.
• The verb Eve (hawa) meaning to prostrate oneself, specifically out of sheer politeness (Genesis 18:2, 23:7), in submission to a superior (Exodus 11:8, Ester 3:2) or in worship of God (Judges 7:15, 1 Chronicles 29:20).
Eve does not mean 'the girl of the two,' and is also not the model for all wives (Keil and Delitzsch' Commentary on the Old Testament) bound to goof up. Man and woman are both under label Adam, and their drive to group up lodge in Eve. The name Eve denotes the collectivity that is so common to the behavior of living things. We should never forget that multicellular creatures, even humans, are in fact a highly efficient colony of single cellular creatures.
The name Eve means Gathering, Declaration or Humility, because she was the mother of all of life.
The name Eve is strikingly similar to the name Hivite. The name Hivite possibly means Villagers (BDB Theological Dictionary). The Hivites are descendant of Canaan, son of Noah but, According to traditional Hebrew sources, the name "Hivites" is related to the Aramaic word "Khiv'va" (HVVA), meaning "snake", since they sniffed the ground like snakes looking for fertile land.
Scholars have sought to identify the biblical Hivites with (a) the Greek Achaeans known from Homer; (b) the Hurrians – one of the most important peoples in the ancient Near East – who are otherwise unmentioned in the Hebrew Bible; or (c) settlers, who went to Shechem and the other locations from Cilicia, a region in Asia Minor, which is called Kue in the Bible.
Several key features can be inferred about the cultural distinctiveness of the Hivite peoples.
First, in Genesis 34:2 it is mentioned that Shechem the son of Hamor was a Hivite. In Genesis 34:14, we find that the Hivites did not practice male circumcision, one of the few peoples living in the land of Canaan that did not. Circumcision, as a practice was quite common among the peoples existing in the land of Canaan. Egyptians, Edomites, Ammonites, Moabites, and other various proto-Canaanite tribes practiced male circumcision along with the Hebrews. Other than Israel’s arch-nemesis – the Philistines – the Hivites appear to be an exception to the rule of circumcision which does lend them quite a distinction among the tribes of Canaan during this time period.
Deuteronomy 7:3 forbade Israelites from marrying Hivites, because they followed other gods; but it is not clear how strictly the prohibition was observed.
It appears that the Hivite cultural distinctiveness ceased before the Assyrian conquest of the northern Kingdom of Israel in the 8th century BCE, and the Babylonian conquest of the southern Kingdom of Judah in the 6th century BCE, each with consequential population deportations.
Now about: Lilith
Whether the Hebrew name Lilith is a Biblical name is a matter of debate. The word Lilith occurs only once in the Bible, in a sermon by Isaiah to warn the nations (and Edom specifically) what their countries were going to look like if they didn't shape up:
"And the dessert creatures shall meet with the wolves. The hairy goat also shall cry to its kind. Yes, Lilith shall settle there and shall find herself a resting place" (Isaiah 34:14)
Lilith was originally a character from Babylonian myths, named early enough to have been familiar to Isaiah. But Isaiah doesn't really mention competitors by name. His fierce attitude towards the various idols in Israel and the surrounding nations makes it highly doubtful that he would have incorporated a contested figure into his writing, other than letting it be the topic of destruction. In his sermon the prophet gives this Lilith a comfortable resting place amidst the creatures, which makes it almost certainly not a acknowledged demon or idol.
HAW Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament invests half a page in this once occurring word, and states: "Lilith: a female goddes knows as a night demon who haunts the desolate places of Edom." But then asks the almost rhetorical question: "Is it not possible also that what was a night demon in pagan culture was just a night creature, perhaps a bat or owl, in Israel? The pagan with his animism fills realities with spirits. [] So lilit might have been a real creature demonized in the surrounding culture."
Lilith became incorporated in the postbiblical Rabbinic tradition but grew into the Western popular culture predominantly through the writing of either Ben Sira, or else an unknown 8th - 10th century author. The time span between this writer and Isaiah is about the same as between us and Charlemagne.
Lilith as Adam's first wife gained even more prominence in Goethe's Faust, and now many people believe that Lilith is an actual Biblical character.
Etimology:
The mysterious word Lilith (lilit) points undeniably towards the very common Hebrew word layela (layela), or the less occurring form layil (layil), both meaning night, although BDB Theological Dictionary notes, "Connection with layela perhaps only apparent, a popular etymology."
The Bible is very clear that both night and day were created and are owned by God (Genesis 1:5, Psalm 74:16, "Yours is the day; Yours is also the night") and God often uses the darkness to bring about great things (Genesis 1:2, Genesis 15:12, Exodus 12:29, Matthew 27:45).
Most probably Lilith comes directly from the Assyrian or Babylonian language and means: "of the night" "lilitu" (l-ee-l-ee-t-oo). The word lilu means spirit in Akkadian, and the male lili and female lilitu are found in incantation texts from Nippur, Babylonia c600 BC in both singular and plural forms. Among the spirits the vardat lilitu, or maiden spirit bears some comparison with later Talmudic legends of Lilith. A lili is related to witchcraft in the Sumerian incantation Text 313. However, Lowell K. Handy (1997) notes that "Very little information has been found relating to the Akkadian and Babylonian view of these demons (of the nights). Two sources of information previously used to define Lilith are both suspect." The two problematic sources are the Gilgamesh appendix and the Arshlan-Tash amulets
The Legend:
According to legends told in the Middle Ages, Lilith was the name of Adam's first wife. Because she refused to obey him, she was turned into a demon and Eve was created to take her place.
"Tablet XII" of the Epic of Gilgamesh dated c.600 BC. "Tablet XII" is not part of the Epic of Gilgamesh, but is a later Akkadian translation of the latter part of the Sumerian poem of Bilgames and the Netherworld.[10] The ki-sikil-lil-la-ke is associated with a serpent and a zu bird,[11] In Bilgames and the Netherworld, a huluppu tree (willow) grows in Inanna's garden in Uruk, whose wood she plans to use to build a new throne. After ten years of growth, she comes to harvest it and finds a serpent living at its base, a Zu bird raising young in its crown, and that a ki-sikil-lil-la-ke made a house in its trunk. Bilgames/Gilgamesh is said to have smitten the snake, and then the zu bird flew away to the mountains with its young, while the ki-sikil-lil-la-ke fearfully destroys its house and runs for the forest. Kramer's identification is repeated without question or justification by Manfred Hutter in the article on Lilith in Dictionary of deities and demons in the Bible (1999)
Suggested translations for the Tablet XII spirit in the tree include ki-sikil as "sacred place", lil as "spirit", and lil-la-ke as "water spirit". but also simply "owl", given that the lil is building a home in the trunk of the tree.
A connection between the Gilgamesh ki-sikil-lil-la-ke and the Jewish Lilith was rejected by Dietrich Opitz (1932)[18] and other scholars, finally being rejected on textual grounds by Sergio Ribichini (1978).
A cult in Mesopotamia is said to be related to Lilith by early Jewish leaders[who?]. According to Siegmund Hurwitz Lilith retained her Shedim characteristics throughout the entire Jewish tradition.[39] Shedim is plural for "spirit" or "demon". Figures that represent shedim are the shedu of Babylonian mythology. These figures were depicted as anthropomorphic, winged bulls, associated with wind. They were thought to guard palaces, cities, houses, and temples. In magical texts of that era, they could be either malevolent or benevolent. The cult originated from Babylon, then spread to Canaan and eventually to Israel. Human sacrifice was part of the practice and a sacrificial altar existed to the shedim next to the Yahweh cult, although this practice was widely denounced by prophets who retained belief in Yahweh.
In Jewish thought and literature Shedim were portrayed as quite malevolent. Some writings contend that they are storm-demons. Their creation is presented in three contradicting Jewish tales. The first is that during Creation, God created the shedim, but did not create their bodies and forgot them on the Shabbat when he rested. The second is that they are descendants of demons in the form of serpents, and the last states that they are simply descendants of Adam and Lilith. Another story asserts that after the Tower of Babel, some people were scattered and became Shedim.
Another proposed connection to Lilith is on the Sumerian king list, where Gilgamesh's father is named as Lilû. Little is known of Lilû, and he was said to interfere with women in their sleep and had functions of an incubus.
The Assyrian lilitû were said to prey upon children and women and were described as associated with lions, storms, desert, and disease.[citation needed] Early portrayals of such demons are known as having Zu bird talons for feet and wings. They were highly sexually predatory towards men but were unable to copulate normally. They were thought to dwell in waste, desolate, and desert places. Like the Sumerian Dimme, a male wind demon named Pazuzu was thought to be effective against them.
Lilith's epithet was "the beautiful maiden". She was described as having no milk in her breasts and as unable to bear any children.
Other storm and night demons from a similar class are recorded from Akkadian texts around this period. The Ardat-lili is from Ardatû, which is a young unmarried woman or maiden, also sometimes a title of prostitutes, and lilitû. These "maiden liltû" would come to men in their sleep and beget children from them. Sick men would also be described as being seized by Ardat-lili Their male counterparts, similar to an incubus, were the Irdû-lili These demons were originally storm and wind demons; however, later etymology made them into night demons.
There is an ongoing scholarly debate as to whether the concept of Lilith occurs in the Bible. The only possible occurrence is in the Book of Isaiah 34:13-15, describing the desolation of Edom, where the Hebrew word lilit (or lilith) appears in a list of eight unclean animals, some of which may have demonic associations.
The early 5th-century Bible Vulgata translated the same word (Lilith) as Lamia.
Name derivates of Lilith include the Arabic, English, and Hebrew Lillith, the Czech Lada, Croatian: Lada, Lado (male), Leda, the English Lady, the name Laidey, the Indian Lata, the English Lataysha, the English Leatha, the English and German Leda, the English Ledah, the English Leeta, the English Leida, the English Leota, the English Leta, the name Leto, the English Letti, the English Lettie, the English Letty, the English Leyda, and the Czech, Dutch, Greek, English, Polish, and Russian Lida. Or more modern: Lolita, Lalita, Lillita and Lulita, Lula, Lol from: http://www.babynamespedia.com/meaning/Lilith/f
Whether the Hebrew name Lilith is a Biblical name is a matter of debate. The word Lilith occurs only once in the Bible, in a sermon by Isaiah to warn the nations (and Edom specifically) what their countries were going to look like if they didn't shape up:
"And the dessert creatures shall meet with the wolves. The hairy goat also shall cry to its kind. Yes, Lilith shall settle there and shall find herself a resting place" (Isaiah 34:14)
Lilith was originally a character from Babylonian myths, named early enough to have been familiar to Isaiah. But Isaiah doesn't really mention competitors by name. His fierce attitude towards the various idols in Israel and the surrounding nations makes it highly doubtful that he would have incorporated a contested figure into his writing, other than letting it be the topic of destruction. In his sermon the prophet gives this Lilith a comfortable resting place amidst the creatures, which makes it almost certainly not a acknowledged demon or idol.
HAW Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament invests half a page in this once occurring word, and states: "Lilith: a female goddes knows as a night demon who haunts the desolate places of Edom." But then asks the almost rhetorical question: "Is it not possible also that what was a night demon in pagan culture was just a night creature, perhaps a bat or owl, in Israel? The pagan with his animism fills realities with spirits. [] So lilit might have been a real creature demonized in the surrounding culture."
Lilith became incorporated in the postbiblical Rabbinic tradition but grew into the Western popular culture predominantly through the writing of either Ben Sira, or else an unknown 8th - 10th century author. The time span between this writer and Isaiah is about the same as between us and Charlemagne.
Lilith as Adam's first wife gained even more prominence in Goethe's Faust, and now many people believe that Lilith is an actual Biblical character.
Etimology:
The mysterious word Lilith (lilit) points undeniably towards the very common Hebrew word layela (layela), or the less occurring form layil (layil), both meaning night, although BDB Theological Dictionary notes, "Connection with layela perhaps only apparent, a popular etymology."
The Bible is very clear that both night and day were created and are owned by God (Genesis 1:5, Psalm 74:16, "Yours is the day; Yours is also the night") and God often uses the darkness to bring about great things (Genesis 1:2, Genesis 15:12, Exodus 12:29, Matthew 27:45).
Most probably Lilith comes directly from the Assyrian or Babylonian language and means: "of the night" "lilitu" (l-ee-l-ee-t-oo). The word lilu means spirit in Akkadian, and the male lili and female lilitu are found in incantation texts from Nippur, Babylonia c600 BC in both singular and plural forms. Among the spirits the vardat lilitu, or maiden spirit bears some comparison with later Talmudic legends of Lilith. A lili is related to witchcraft in the Sumerian incantation Text 313. However, Lowell K. Handy (1997) notes that "Very little information has been found relating to the Akkadian and Babylonian view of these demons (of the nights). Two sources of information previously used to define Lilith are both suspect." The two problematic sources are the Gilgamesh appendix and the Arshlan-Tash amulets
The Legend:
According to legends told in the Middle Ages, Lilith was the name of Adam's first wife. Because she refused to obey him, she was turned into a demon and Eve was created to take her place.
"Tablet XII" of the Epic of Gilgamesh dated c.600 BC. "Tablet XII" is not part of the Epic of Gilgamesh, but is a later Akkadian translation of the latter part of the Sumerian poem of Bilgames and the Netherworld.[10] The ki-sikil-lil-la-ke is associated with a serpent and a zu bird,[11] In Bilgames and the Netherworld, a huluppu tree (willow) grows in Inanna's garden in Uruk, whose wood she plans to use to build a new throne. After ten years of growth, she comes to harvest it and finds a serpent living at its base, a Zu bird raising young in its crown, and that a ki-sikil-lil-la-ke made a house in its trunk. Bilgames/Gilgamesh is said to have smitten the snake, and then the zu bird flew away to the mountains with its young, while the ki-sikil-lil-la-ke fearfully destroys its house and runs for the forest. Kramer's identification is repeated without question or justification by Manfred Hutter in the article on Lilith in Dictionary of deities and demons in the Bible (1999)
Suggested translations for the Tablet XII spirit in the tree include ki-sikil as "sacred place", lil as "spirit", and lil-la-ke as "water spirit". but also simply "owl", given that the lil is building a home in the trunk of the tree.
A connection between the Gilgamesh ki-sikil-lil-la-ke and the Jewish Lilith was rejected by Dietrich Opitz (1932)[18] and other scholars, finally being rejected on textual grounds by Sergio Ribichini (1978).
A cult in Mesopotamia is said to be related to Lilith by early Jewish leaders[who?]. According to Siegmund Hurwitz Lilith retained her Shedim characteristics throughout the entire Jewish tradition.[39] Shedim is plural for "spirit" or "demon". Figures that represent shedim are the shedu of Babylonian mythology. These figures were depicted as anthropomorphic, winged bulls, associated with wind. They were thought to guard palaces, cities, houses, and temples. In magical texts of that era, they could be either malevolent or benevolent. The cult originated from Babylon, then spread to Canaan and eventually to Israel. Human sacrifice was part of the practice and a sacrificial altar existed to the shedim next to the Yahweh cult, although this practice was widely denounced by prophets who retained belief in Yahweh.
In Jewish thought and literature Shedim were portrayed as quite malevolent. Some writings contend that they are storm-demons. Their creation is presented in three contradicting Jewish tales. The first is that during Creation, God created the shedim, but did not create their bodies and forgot them on the Shabbat when he rested. The second is that they are descendants of demons in the form of serpents, and the last states that they are simply descendants of Adam and Lilith. Another story asserts that after the Tower of Babel, some people were scattered and became Shedim.
Another proposed connection to Lilith is on the Sumerian king list, where Gilgamesh's father is named as Lilû. Little is known of Lilû, and he was said to interfere with women in their sleep and had functions of an incubus.
The Assyrian lilitû were said to prey upon children and women and were described as associated with lions, storms, desert, and disease.[citation needed] Early portrayals of such demons are known as having Zu bird talons for feet and wings. They were highly sexually predatory towards men but were unable to copulate normally. They were thought to dwell in waste, desolate, and desert places. Like the Sumerian Dimme, a male wind demon named Pazuzu was thought to be effective against them.
Lilith's epithet was "the beautiful maiden". She was described as having no milk in her breasts and as unable to bear any children.
Other storm and night demons from a similar class are recorded from Akkadian texts around this period. The Ardat-lili is from Ardatû, which is a young unmarried woman or maiden, also sometimes a title of prostitutes, and lilitû. These "maiden liltû" would come to men in their sleep and beget children from them. Sick men would also be described as being seized by Ardat-lili Their male counterparts, similar to an incubus, were the Irdû-lili These demons were originally storm and wind demons; however, later etymology made them into night demons.
There is an ongoing scholarly debate as to whether the concept of Lilith occurs in the Bible. The only possible occurrence is in the Book of Isaiah 34:13-15, describing the desolation of Edom, where the Hebrew word lilit (or lilith) appears in a list of eight unclean animals, some of which may have demonic associations.
The early 5th-century Bible Vulgata translated the same word (Lilith) as Lamia.
Name derivates of Lilith include the Arabic, English, and Hebrew Lillith, the Czech Lada, Croatian: Lada, Lado (male), Leda, the English Lady, the name Laidey, the Indian Lata, the English Lataysha, the English Leatha, the English and German Leda, the English Ledah, the English Leeta, the English Leida, the English Leota, the English Leta, the name Leto, the English Letti, the English Lettie, the English Letty, the English Leyda, and the Czech, Dutch, Greek, English, Polish, and Russian Lida. Or more modern: Lolita, Lalita, Lillita and Lulita, Lula, Lol from: http://www.babynamespedia.com/meaning/Lilith/f
Herr Eisenheim said:
Matilda - Latinized form of Mathilda. (pron: m(a)-til-da) is ancient Germanic name and the meaning of Matilde is "mighty in battle" in original form it was: Mahthildis from the elements maht "might, strength" and hild "battle". William the Conqueror's Queen Matilda (Matilda of Flanders) from 11th century, brought the name to Britain, at that time it was pronounced "maud" basicaly, Normans and their influence over the 11th century Europe, were the reason why Matilda or Mathilda got so widely spread all over the globe. The name was popular until the 15th century in England, usually in the vernacular form Maud. It was revived in the 18th century for awhile and spelled in different ways. Looking way back in history there was as well Teutonic derivation of the words "Matilda" meaning "might, strength" and "battle," but as well, later derivate; maiden of the battle.
According to wiki:
The name is currently popular in Scandinavian countries. Mathilde appeared among the top 10 most popular names for girls born in Denmark in 2008 and the name was also well-used in Norway, Sweden and Finland. It is also currently rising in popularity in other European countries, including the United Kingdom and France and in other English-speaking countries.
The name was most popular in the United States between 1880 and 1910, when it was among the top 200 names given to girls. It left the top 1,000 names in the United States by 1964, but reappeared for the first time in 44 years in the top 1,000 names as the 869th most popular name for baby girls born in 2008 in the United States. End guote.
The name Matilda is used to a great extent; it has 35 variant forms that are used in both English and other languages. English variant forms of Matilda include Maddy (used in German too), Mala (used in Polish too), Mathilda (used in German too), Matti, Maud, Maude, Metta (used in German too), Tildie, and Tildy. Other English variants include the short forms Mat and Tilda (used in German, Scandinavian, and Spanish too), and the pet forms Mattie, Matty (used in German too), Pattie, Patty (used in German too), Tillie, and Tilly (used in German too).
Variant forms used in other languages include the Dutch Machteld, the Polish Macia, the Italian and Portuguese Mafalda, the French Mahaut, the German Malkin, the Italian Matelda, the Hungarian Mathild, the French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish Mathilde, the Spanish Mati, the French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish Matilde, the Czech and Polish Matylda, the German Mechthild, the German Mechtilde, the German Mette, the German Thilde, the Polish Tila, the German, Scandinavian, and Spanish Tilde, and the Czech Tylda, Croatian & Slovenian Metka, Matka.
* # 14 (Australia, 2008)
* # 53 (Chile, 2006)
* # 26 (France, 2006)
* # 485 (the Netherlands, 2009)
* # 25 (Norway, 2009)
* # 25 (Sweden, 2009)
* # 828 (the United States, 2008)
Its diminutive offshoot of Tilly is currently the 93rd most popular female name in the United Kingdom, (2008).
Italian variation of the name Matilda for males include: Matildio and Matildo.
Today Matilda is a classic Aussie name.
SolarMother
Dagobah Resident
Ljubica said:
It reminds me of the suffix in spanish, 'ita', being an endearment term, such as 'precious one', and of course 'little one.' Like you said, showing someone or something affection. Your name could also mean, 'precious love' or 'dear little love.' ;)
Well, Ljubica, I can't find anything new on the name, Maria. Your research on names is really fun to read, so I'm going to jump in here and ask you what you have on this name!!
SolarMother said:
Maria, genfer female and sometimes male (tipicall for Austria in it's original form Maria). The girl's name Maria \m(a)-ria\ is pronounced mah-REE-ah, Maria is "star of the sea" in free translation, but this is the derivate of much older name "Miariam". When the Bible was translated from Greek to Latin, the translators had a problem because Mariam, the Greek version of the Hebrew name Miriam, looked like the accusative form. And that would make Mariam look like the grammatical object of every sentence she featured in. The translators solved the problem by omitting the -m. The newest variation of Miriam = Mariam = Maria is Mary.
There are two Miriams mentioned in the Old Testament. The most famous one is the prophetess and older sister of Moses and Aaron. Another Miriam (most probably a male) is mentioned in the genealogy of Judah (1 Chronicles 4:17).
Mary is a popular name in the NT. The most famous Mary is the mother of Jesus (Mat 1:16). Others are Mary Magdalene (Mat 27:56), the mother of James and Joseph (Mat 27:56), the sister of Martha and Lazarus (John 11:1), the mother of John Mark (Acts 12:12), and a Roman Christian (Rom 16:6).
The origin and meaning of the name Miriam is unclear, although, as many Levite names are for some reason Egyptian, it may have to do with the Egyptian word for Beloved (see the name Merari). On a Hebrew stage, most scholars derive the name Miriam from the verb mara (mara 1242) meaning to be rebellious, disobedient. A derivation from this verb is meri (meri 1242a) meaning rebellion (see the name Meribah). Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names reads Their Rebellion. NOBS Study Bible Name List reads Obstinacy, Stubbornness.
Another possibility is a combination of the words mar and ymm.
mar (mar ) means bitter; mar (mar) means myrrh. Both come from the root marar (marar) meaning be bitter, strengthen, strong. mar (mar) probably means drop but is used only once, in Isaiah 40:15).
The word ymm (yam 871a) means sea.
Hence, the name Miriam also means Strong Waters or Waters Of Strength.
Jerome (4th century AD) suggested relations with the word maor (ma'or), star, from the verb or ('or 52), to be light, shine (see the names Aaron, Ur and Urim). Combined with the word ymm (yam 871a), sea, the name translates to Stella Maris (star of the sea), but that strikes as a very free interpretation.
Variant for Mary used in English-speaking countries in the 18th century, and popular with both Spanish and non-Spanish cultures. Revived in the 20th century due to the popularity of "West Side Story", with its famous ballad "Maria". Marie, the French variant, was the preferred form of Mary in England until about the time of the Reformation.
Maria has lot of variant forms: Maree, Mariah, Marialena, Marialinda, Marialisa, Marie, Marieanne, Mariajana, Mariana, Mara, Marra, Maryah, Marryah, Marielena, Marietta, Mariette, Marika, Marja, Marya, Mayra, Mayria, Moraiah and Moriah, Marija, Marica, Mariszka, Maryka, Marika, Marszika, Mari, Meri.
Maria is a very common first name for women (#7 out of 4276) and also a very common last name for both men and women (#9311 out of 88799). (1990 U.S. Census)
The most common male form of name Maria is: Mario or Marijo. The boy's name Mario is pronounced MAR-ee-oh. It is of Latin origin, and the meaning of Mario is "manly". From Marius actually Latinized form of the name Mary. Maria is also used as a male name in combinations such as Gianmaria (Italian) and José María (Spanish)....,...
Mario is a very common first name for men (#143 out of 1220) and also a very common last name for both men and women (#28669 out of 88799). (1990 U.S. Census)
shijing
The Living Force
Ljubica said:
Just wanted to note that there's a possible connection with Orion here, although it's speculative. There have been various proposals about the origin of Indo-Iranian Arya (Aryan, with a final -n, is the adjectival form of the word), but there is apparently no consensus; likewise, the origin of Greek Ὠρίων (Ōrīōn), which is borrowed into Middle English via Latin, is equally insecure (the most popular etymological proposals seem to be to either Akkadian Uru-anna, 'heaven's light', or Greek ouro 'urine', both of which are problematic).
The thing that suggests a potential relationship is the sound change that occurred between Proto-Indo-European (PIE) and Proto-Indo-Iranian (PII), where the mid-vowels e and o merged with the low vowel a -- a few examples (from Wikipedia) are given below:
So if there was a hypothetical pre-PII word *orio(n), the shift o > a would have resulted in *aria(n), and one additional change called gliding (with i > y) would result in the final form:
*orio(n) > *aria(n) > arya(n)
Since this vowel shift didn't occur in Greek, it could be postulated that it retained the original vocalism, and that Greek Orion could, plausibly, be related to Indo-Aryan Aryan, either through mutual inheritance from a common ancestor or as the result of a very old borrowing. But again, this is speculative.
Shijing said:
Agree with you. Orion is pretty interesting name and should work on it a bit more, let's follow mythology.
According to Columbia Encyclopedia:
Orion (ōrī'ən), in Greek mythology, Boeotian hunter. When Oenopion delayed giving his daughter Merope to him, Orion, when drunk, violated her. Oenopion then blinded him, but his vision was restored by the rays of the sun. The story of Orion's death has many versions. Some state he offended Artemis, who killed him. Others say that he became her favorite hunting companion, but offended Apollo, who loosed a giant scorpion to chase Orion into the sea. Apollo then tricked Artemis into shooting Orion. When she discovered what she had done, she gave way to her grief and immortalized her companion and the scorpion by placing them in the heavens as constellations.
Orion, in astronomy, constellation located on the celestial equator. It is one of the most conspicuous and easily recognizable constellations in the entire sky. From ancient times it has been mentioned in the literature of many peoples and is traditionally depicted as the figure of a warrior. Four bright stars form a quadrangle marking his shoulders and feet; brilliant red Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis) at his right shoulder, Bellatrix (Gamma Orionis) at his left shoulder, and dazzling Rigel (Beta Orionis) at his left foot are all among the 25 brightest stars in the sky, while Saiph (Kappa Orionis) at the right foot is of second magnitude. Three bright second-magnitude stars form a belt almost along the celestial equator; hanging from the belt is a sword of dimmer stars and including the famous Great Nebula (M42). Orion reaches its highest point in the evening sky in late January.
Orion trough various cultures:
The Babylonian star catalogues of the Late Bronze Age name Orion MULSIPA.ZI.AN.NA, "The Heavenly Shepherd" or "True Shepherd of Anu" - Anu being the chief god of the heavenly realms.[16] The Babylonian constellation was sacred to Papshukal and Ninshubur, both minor gods fulfilling the role of 'messenger to the gods'. Papshukal was closely associated with the figure of a walking bird on Babylonian boundary stones, and on the star map the figure of the Rooster was located below and behind the figure of the True Shepherd.
The Bible mentions Orion three times: Job 9:9 ("He is the maker of the Bear and Orion"), Job 38:31 ("Can you loosen Orion`s belt?"), and Amos 5:8 ("He who made the Pleiades and Orion"). In ancient Aram, the constellation was known as Nephila, Orion's descendants were known as Nephilim. End Quote. Interesting no?
more on: http://www.answers.com/topic/orion
On the same page I found more connections of Orion with other cultures:
Greek and Roman
Main article: Orion (mythology)
Orion's current name derives from Greek mythology, in which Orion was a gigantic hunter of primordial times. Some of these myths relate to the constellation; one story tells that Orion was killed by a giant scorpion; the gods raised him and the Scorpion to the skies, as Scorpio/Scorpius. Yet other stories say Orion was chasing the Pleiades.
The constellation is mentioned in Horace's Odes, Homer's Odyssey (Book 5, line 283) and Iliad, and Virgil's Aeneid (Book 1, line 535)
In pre-Christian Scandinavia, "Orion's belt" was known as Frigg's Distaff (Friggerock) or Freyja's distaff.
In Finnish mythology the constellation of Orion is called the scythe of Väinämöinen. The term most likely comes from the fact that it can be seen in the sky in early autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, the time of harvesting crops.
Indian
In Indian mythology, the Rig Veda refers to the Orion Constellation as Mriga (The Deer).
Chinese
In China, Orion was one of the 28 lunar mansions Sieu (Xiu) （宿）. Known as Shen （參）, literally meaning "three", it is believed to be named so for the three stars located in Orion's belt. (See Chinese constellations)
The Chinese character 參 (pinyin shēn) originally meant the constellation Orion (Chinese: 參宿; pinyin: shēnxiù); its Shang dynasty version, over three millennia old, contains at the top a representation of the three stars of Orion's belt atop a man's head (the bottom portion representing the sound of the word was added later).[26]
Native American
The Yokut Native American tribe of the California Central Valley saw the three bright stars as the foot prints of the god of the flea people. According to legend, when his five wives became itchy and ran away, three times the god of the flea people jumped into the sky to look for them. When his footprints are seen (stars are visible in the winter months) the flea people grow afraid and go into hiding (i.e. dormant). This helped explain to the tribal people why they couldn't count on those stars for guides in the summer months, and why there were no fleas about.
The Seri people of northwestern Mexico call the three stars in the belt of this constellation Hapj (a name denoting a hunter) which consists of three stars: Hap (mule deer), Haamoja (pronghorn), and Mojet (bighorn sheep). Hap is in the middle and has been shot by the hunter; its blood has dripped onto Tiburón Island.
The Aztecs called the belt and sword of Orion the Fire Drill. Its appearance over the horizon served as the signal of the start of the New Fire ceremony.
Australian aboriginal
Orion is also important in Australian Aboriginal Astronomy. For example, the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land say that the constellation of Orion, which they call Julpan, is a canoe. They tell the story of two brothers who went fishing, and caught and ate a fish that was forbidden under their law. Seeing this, the Sun sent a waterspout that carried the two brothers and their canoe up into the sky where they became the Orion constellation.
The stars of Orion were associated with Osiris, the sun-god of rebirth and afterlife, by the ancient Egyptians.
Orion has also been identified with the last Egyptian Pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty called Unas who, according to the Pyramid Texts, became great by eating the flesh of his mortal enemies and then slaying and devouring the gods themselves. This was based on a belief in contiguous magic whereby consuming the flesh of great people would bring inheritance of their power. After devouring the gods and absorbing their spirits and powers, Unas journeys through the day and night sky to become the star Sabu, or Orion. The Pyramid Texts also show that the dead Pharaoh was identified with the god Osiris, whose form in the stars was often said to be the constellation Orion.
I found interesting article related to Orion and Nimrod by Petros Koutoupis on: http://www.petroskoutoupis.com/lib/Babylonian_Orion_Cetus.pdf
with nice explanations of stellyr names and meaning related to Orion trough ancient Mezzopotamia. Althiugh we mostly relate Orion to ancient Egypt, it is important to know that Mezzopotamian culture predate the culture of ancient Egypt, so perhaps the most oldest names of Orion are recorded on clay tablets.
as per wiki: In ancient Hungarian mythology, Orion is also a great hunter and warrior, his name is Nimród and he's the mythological father of Hungarians. end quote.
Interesting article related to Nimrod is: NIMROD BEFORE AND AFTER THE BIBLE on: http://www.michaelsheiser.com/PaleoBabble/NimrodHTR.pdf
quote: ....The emphatic precision that Nimrod was a mighty hunter "before the Lord"..... The Greek story of Orion's defeat by a scorpion could perhaps be adduced as a distant parallel of the Sumerian composition. Orion, though not a god, is a giant and a hunter. In response to his threat that he would exterminate all the living animals on earth, Gaia sent the scorpion to kill the arrogant hero. See P. Wehrli, "Orion," PW. Neue Bearbeitung 18/1 (Stuttgart: Metzler, 1939) 1073-74. end quote
This could be another traace of the Orion's picture.
Last article related to orion is on: http://www.geocentricity.com/constellations/pleiades.pdf
Quote:
According to Greek legend, Orion met Pleione and her seven
nymph daughters in Boeotia and pursued them through the woods for
five years until Zeus translated them all, Pleione, her seven virtuous
daughters, Orion, and even his dog into the heaven as the respective
constellations (the constellation of the dog is Canis Major)
......,...
According to the Jews,
Orion is Nimrod, the founder of the Babylonian religious system
and for all of you who would like to read more about Orion - Nimrod you could read book: The Babylon Connection? by Alexander Hislop.
more on: http://www.amazon.com/Babylon-Connection-Ralph-Woodrow/dp/0916938174#reader_0916938174
Unfortunately I did not find anything new on a name Nimrod:
The boy's name Nimrod \n(i)-m
rod, nim-
rod\ is of Hebrew origin, and the meaning of Nimrod is "we will rebel". Biblical: Nimrod "the mighty hunter" in Genesis.
A similar baby name is Njord.
Nimrod is an uncommon first name for men but a somewhat common last name for both men and women (#80522 out of 88799). (1990 U.S. Census)
Nimrod was a very significant man in ancient times, the grandson of Ham and great-grandson of Noah. Nimrod started his kingdom at Babylon (Gen. 10:10). Babylon later reached its zenith under Nebuchadnezzar (sixth century BC). Pictured above are mudbrick ruins of Nebuchadnezzar's city along with ancient wall lines and canals in modern day Iraq.
First, what does the name Nimrod mean? It comes from the Hebrew verb marad, meaning “rebel.” Adding an “n” before the “m” it becomes an infinitive construct, “Nimrod.” (see Kautzsch 1910: 137 2b, also BDB 1962: 597). The meaning then is “The Rebel.” Thus “Nimrod” may not be the character's name at all. It is more likely a derisive term of a type, a representative, of a system that is epitomized in rebellion against the Creator, the one true God. Rebellion began soon after the Flood as civilizations were restored. At that time this person became very prominent.
and from: http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Nimrod.html
imrod is a son of Cush, son of Ham, son of Noah. Nimrod is a mighty king, and the first active character after the flood-cycle.
"The beginning of his kingdom was Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. From that land he went forth into Assyria, and built Nineveh and Rehoboth-Ir and Calah, that is the great city." - Genesis 10:10-12
The name Nimrod probably has to do with marad (marad 1240) meaning be rebellious, rebel, revolt.
Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names reads Rebel. NOBS Study Bible Name List reads Strong. BDB Theological Dictionary suggests a relation to the Babylonian god Marduk, or the star-god Namra-uddu.
another interesting thing is possible connection between Orion - Nimrod - Gilgamesh
from: http://www.christiananswers.net/dictionary/nimrod.html
How does Gilgamesh compare with “Nimrod?” Ancient historian Josephus says of Nimrod,
Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of God. He was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah-a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God, as if it were through his means they were happy, but to believe that it was their own courage which procured that happiness. He also gradually changed the government into tyranny-seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God, but to bring them into a constant dependence upon his own power.
He also said he would be revenged on God, if he should have a mind to drown the world again; for that he would build a tower too high for the waters to be able to reach! and that he would avenge himself on God for destroying their forefathers! (Ant. I: iv: 2)
What Josephus says here is precisely what is found in the Gilgamesh epics. Gilgamesh set up tyranny, he opposed YHWH and did his utmost to get people to forsake Him.
Two of the premiere commentators on the Bible in Hebrew have this to say about Genesis 10:9,
Nimrod was mighty in hunting, and that in opposition to YHWH; not ‘before YHWH’ in the sense of according to the will and purpose of YHWH, still less,… in a simply superlative sense… The name itself, ‘Nimrod’ from marad, ‘We will revolt,’ points to some violent resistance to God… Nimrod as a mighty hunter founded a powerful kingdom; and the founding of this kingdom is shown by the verb with consecutive to have been the consequence or result of his strength in hunting, so that hunting was intimately connected with the establishing of the kingdom. Hence, if the expression ‘a mighty hunter’ relates primarily to hunting in the literal sense, we must add to the literal meaning the figurative signification of a ‘hunter of men’ (a trapper of men by stratagem and force); Nimrod the hunter became a tyrant, a powerful hunter of men (Keil and Delitzsch 1975: 165).
“in the face of YHWH” can only mean ‘in defiance of YHWH’ as Josephus and the Targums understand it (op. cit.: 166).
And the proverb must have arisen when other daring and rebellious men followed in Nimrod's footsteps and must have originated with those who saw in such conduct an act of rebellion against the God of salvation, in other words, with the possessors of the divine promise of grace (loc. cit.).
The Gilgamesh Epic describes the first “God is dead” movement. In the Epic, the hero is a vile, filthy, perverted person, yet he is presented as the greatest, strongest, hero that ever lived (Heidel 1963: 18). So that the one who sent the Flood will not trouble them anymore, Gilgamesh sets out to kill the perpetrator. He takes with him a friend who is a monstrous half-man, half-animal-Enkidu. Together they go on a long journey to the Cedar Mountain to find and destroy the monster who sent the Flood. Gilgamesh finds him and finally succeeds in cutting off the head of this creature whose name is “Huwawa” (“Humbaba” in the Assyrian version; see Heidel 1963: 34ff).
Is there a connection with the Gilgamesh epic and Genesis 10? Note what Gilgamesh says to Enkidu the half man, half beast, who accompanied him on his journey, found in Tablet III, lines 147-150.
“If I fall,” Gilgamesh says, “I will establish a name for myself. Gilgamesh is fallen, they will say, in combat with terrible Huwawa.”
But the next five lines are missing from all tablets found so far! Can we speculate on what they say? Let's try… We suggest that those five lines include,
“But if I win, …they will say, Gilgamesh, the mighty vanquisher of Huwawa!”
Why do we say that? Because Genesis 10:9 gives us the portion missing from the Gilgamesh tablets. Those lines include. “it is said, Nimrod (or Gilgamesh) the mighty vanquisher of YHWH.” This has to be what is missing from all the clay tablets of the Gilgamesh story. The Gilgamesh Epic calls him Huwawa; the Bible calls Him YHWH.
Heidel, speaking of the incident as it is found on Tablet V says,
All we can conclude from them [the lost lines] is that Gilgamesh and Enkidu cut off the head of Humbaba (or Huwawa) and that the expedition had a successful issue [ending] (1963: 47).
The missing lines from the Epic are right there in the Bible!
Because of the parallels between Gilgamesh and Nimrod, many scholars agree that Gilgamesh is Nimrod. Continuing with Gilgamesh's fable, he did win, he did vanquish Huwawa and took his head. Therefore, he could come back to Uruk and other cities and tell the people not to worry about YHWH anymore, he is dead. “I killed him over in the Lebanon mountains. So just live however you like, I will be your king and take care of you.”
There are still other parallels between the Bible and the Gilgamesh epic:
*
“YaHWeH” has a somewhat similar sound to “Huwawa.” Gilgamesh did just as the “sons of god” in Genesis 6 did.
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The “sons of god” forcibly took men's wives. The Epic says that is precisely what Gilgamesh did.
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The Bible calls Nimrod a tyrant, and Gilgamesh was a tyrant.
*
There was a flood in the Bible; there is a flood in the Epic.
*
Cush is mentioned in the Bible, Kish in the Epic.
*
Erech is mentioned in Scripture; Uruk was Gilgamesh's city.
*
Gilgamesh made a trip to see the survivor of the Flood. This was more likely Ham than Noah, since “Nimrod” was Ham's grandson!
*
Historically, Gilgamesh was of the first dynasty of Uruk. As Jacobsen points out (1939: 157), kings before Gilgamesh may be fictional, but not likely. The fact that the Gilgamesh epic also contains the Deluge story would indicate a close link with events immediately following the Flood. S.N. Kramer says,
A few years ago one would have strongly doubted his (historical) existence… we now have the certitude that the time of Gilgamesh corresponds to the earliest period of Mesopotamian history. (Kramer 1959: 117)
end quote.
funny thing about Orion and direct Hebrew translation;
Orion
Hebrew: Kesil; i.e., “the fool”
the name of a constellation (Job 9:9; 38:31; Amos 5:8) consisting of about eighty stars
The Vulgate renders thus, but the LXX. renders by Hesperus, i.e., “the evening-star,” Venus. The Orientals "appear to have conceived of this constellation under the figure of an impious giant bound upon the sky." This giant was, according to tradition, Nimrod, the type of the folly that contends against God. In Isa. 13:10 the plural form of the Hebrew word is rendered “constellations.”
There is interesting connection between Nimrod and Tammuz and and lot of similarity with Orion and Isis myth although in different connotation on: http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-t020.html
quote: When Nimrod eventually died, the Babylonian mystery religion in which he figured prominently continued on. His wife Queen Semiramis saw to that. Once he was dead, she deified him as the Sun-god. In various cultures he later became known as Baal, the Great Life Giver, the god of fire, Baalim, Bel, Molech. “Later, when this adulterous and idolatrous woman gave birth to an illegitimate son, she claimed that this son, Tammuz by name, was Nimrod reborn.”[4] Semiramis “claimed that her son was supernaturally conceived [no human father] and that he was the promised seed, the 'savior'” - promised by God in Genesis 3:15. “However, not only was the child worshipped, but the woman, the MOTHER, was also worshipped as much (or more) than the son!”[5] Nimrod deified as the god of the sun and father of creation. Semiramis became the goddess of the moon, fertility. end quote
quote: When Nimrod eventually died, the Babylonian mystery religion in which he figured prominently continued on. His wife Queen Semiramis saw to that. Once he was dead, she deified him as the Sun-god. In various cultures he later became known as Baal, the Great Life Giver, the god of fire, Baalim, Bel, Molech. “Later, when this adulterous and idolatrous woman gave birth to an illegitimate son, she claimed that this son, Tammuz by name, was Nimrod reborn.”[4] Semiramis “claimed that her son was supernaturally conceived [no human father] and that he was the promised seed, the 'savior'” - promised by God in Genesis 3:15. “However, not only was the child worshipped, but the woman, the MOTHER, was also worshipped as much (or more) than the son!”[5] Nimrod deified as the god of the sun and father of creation. Semiramis became the goddess of the moon, fertility. end quote
