hello everyone! i am finally back with a new name list, i hope you enjoy it and find it usefull!
[ disclaimer: my sincere apologies if there are any spelling/meaning/origin mistakes in any of my name lists, i am by no means a professional in this area, i just like creating lists to help aid storytellers. i do try my best to find each name’s corresponding origin/meaning/spelling but i am a human who is prone to make the odd mistake. p.s, i take requests! ]
Female
Adalina - German derived - Noble
Adelaide - English - Noble natured
Adrianna - Latin - Person from Hadria
Aishwarya - Sanskrit - Wealth, prosperity
Alethea - Greek - Truth
Alexandria - Greek derived - Feminine form of Alexandros, defender of men
Alexandrina - Greek derived - Feminine form of Alexandros, defender of men
Alianora - Unknown - Unknown
Amaryllis - Greek - Sparkle, shine
Anastasia - Greek - Ressurection
Anastazja - Polish - Reborn
Angelina - Greek - Messenger
Angelique - Latin - Messenger of God
Annabella - Italian - Loving
Annabelle - English - Favoured grace
Annalisa - Latin - Graced with God’s bounty
Annamaria - Italian/French/German - Bitter, grace
Anneliese - Latin - Graced with God’s bounty
Antoinetta - Latin - Praiseworthy
Antoinette - French - Priceless one
Antonella - Italian - First born
Antonia - Italian - Priceless, praiseworthy, beautiful
Antonina - Spanish - Priceless, highly esteemed
Arabella - Latin - Yielding to prayer
Araceli- Latin - Altar of heaven, heavenly homemaker
Araminta - English - Prayer, protection
Arianna - Greek/Italian - Most holy
Ariella - Hebrew - Lion of God
Aubrianna - German - Elf
Augusta - Latin - Great, magnificent
Augustina - Latin - The exalted one
Avabella - Hebrew - My God is an oath
Avalina - English - Little bird
Avianna - Latin - Birdlike
Avrielle - Unknown - Unknown
Bathilda - Germanic/Norse - Battle
Benedetta - Latin/Spanish - Blessed
Benedicta - Latin - Blessed
Bernadetta - French - Brave Bear
Bernadette - French - Brave Bear
Busarakham - Thai - Yellow Sapphire
Cairistonia - Unknown - Unknown
Calliope- Greek - Beautifully voiced
Candelaria - Spanish - Candle
Carlotta - Italian - Free man
Carolina - Latin/French - Free man
Cassandra - Greek - The one who shines & excels over men
Cassiopeia - Greek - Unknown
Catalina - Spanish - Pure
Celestina - Spanish/Italian - Heavenly
Celestine - Latin - Heavenly
Charlotta - French/German - Manly
Charlotte - French - Free man
Chrysanthemum - Greek - Gold flower
Cleobella - Unknown - Unknown
Cleopatra - Greek - Glory of her father
Cordelia - Welsh - Jewel of the sea
Corinthia - Greek - Woman of Corinth
Cressida - Greek - Gold
Daniella - Latin/Hebrew - God is my judge
Dayanara - Spanish - Forceful
Debbonaire- French - Good natured
Deianira - Greek - Man destroyer
Delphina - Greek - Woman from Delphi
Demetria - Greek - Follower of Demeter
Desdemona - Greek - Misery, unlucky
Dolores - Latin - Sorrowful
Dominica - French/Latin - Lord
Dominique - French/Latin - Lord
Donatella - Italian - Gift of God
Dulcinea - Spanish - Sweetness
Ekaterina - Russian/Bulgarian - Pure
Eleanora - Greek - Sun ray
Elenora - Greek - Sun ray
Elisabet - Scandinavian - Pledged to God
Elisabetta - Italian - Pledged to God
Elizabella - Spanish - God is my oath
Elizabeth - Hebrew - My God is an oath
Elizaveta - Russian - God is my oath
Elladora - Greek - A gift sent from heaven, one who is filled with light
Emmanuella - Hebrew - God is with us
Emmeline - French/German - Work
Esmerelda - Spanish - Emerald
Esperanza - Spanish - Hope
Estefania - Spanish/Greek - Crown, garland
Eulalia - Greek - Well-spoken
Evalina - Latin - Desired
Evangelina - Latin - Gospel
Evangeline - Latin - Gospel
Evelyna - Unknown - Unknown
Fatehmeh - Arabic - Captivating, woman who abstains
a character that is morally grey will not burn the world down because it makes them feel powerful, they’ll do it because they perceive something about it to be broken. moral ambiguity has nothing to do with a character’s past, and everything to do with the relationship between their actions and their intentions.
Morally gray is stuff like “I selfishly desire adoration and praise, so I will do heroic acts to gain that praise” and “I am willing to torture an enemy soldier if it means saving the innocent”
It is not “I am an evil tyrant but I was bullied as a child so it’s okay”
We’re going to need a little more information than that…
Please see the following maps of South Asia:
Image description: Two maps of South Asia. The top map depicts the South Asian region, including Afghanistan with color-coding of different regions by 8 color-coded language groups. The bottom depicts the official state/ province/ languages and scripts for countries in the South Asian region, excluding Afghanistan. See end of post for detailed image description under the cut.
Names in South Asian cultures are primarily dictated by religionandlanguage. While there’s some overlap between cultures, we can make an educated guess of someone’s ethnicity & religion based on their name. For example:
Simran Dhillon … is a Punjabi Sikh.
Priyanka Ghosh … is a Bengali Hindu
Maya Srinivasan … is a Tamilian Hindu.
Harsh Patel … is a Gujarati Hindu.
Amin Usmani … is a Muslim from a traditionally Urdu speaking community.
Teresa Fernandes … is a Goan Christian.
Behind the Name is a good place to start looking as they state the specific language the name is from. As for religion, there are more factors to consider.
Sikhs
Sikh first names are gender neutral. The 10th Sikh guru designatedSingh (meaning lion, for men) and Kaur (meaning heir to the throne, for women) as Sikh surnames. These surnames were designed to be equalizers within Sikh communities. However, many Sikhs keep their Punjabi surnames (many of these surnames are now primarily associated with Sikhs) and use Singh and Kaur as a middle name (eg. Ranjit Kaur Shergill, Amrit Singh Cheema). More devout Sikhs use only Singh and Kaur or use the same format legally but do not share their surnames.
Sikh first names are derived from gurbani (Sikh holy texts), so they are often uniform across cultures. Most Sikhs who aren’t Punjabi use Singh & Kaur or cultural surnames in the same format. The latter is usually seen among Afghan & Delhiite Sikh communities. While most changed their surnames to Singh & Kaur, some families still kept the surnames they had before they converted from Islam and Hinduism (eg. Harpreet Singh Laghmani, Jasleen Kaur Kapoor).
If you’re stuck on a surname for a Sikh character, Singh for men and Kaur for women is the safest way to go regardless of ethnicity.
South Asian Christians naming conventions depend largely on who brought Christianity to the region and when. For example, Christianity was largely brought to Goa by Portuguese Catholics so you’ll see Portuguese surnames, while many Christians in the Seven Sister States didn’t change their names. South Asian Christians will also often have Christian first names, either in Portuguese or in English.
Hindus, Jains, castes and gotras
Hinduism is the majority religion in India and the South Asian region overall. A key thing that many newcomers overlook when writing about Hindus is that rather like feudal Europe, a person’s last name can also tell you what their family used to do because of the caste system. Both Hindus and Jains employ gotras (or lineage systems) designed to keep people from the same patrilineal line from marrying each other. Thus, if your Hindu character is a Vaishya (tradesman/ merchant class), but you have chosen a last name for them related to farming, or if your Kshatriya (warrior) character has a last name that means bureaucrat, you’ve made a mistake. Most Hindus and Jains will have last names derived from Sanskrit, or a language with Sanskrit roots.
A note on middle names: in South India, Hindus will often use the father’s first name for the child’s middle name.
For what it is worth, South Asia is hardly the only region to have these particular features. Japanese society until the end of the Edo era was heavily segregated by caste, and to this day, many families with samurai last names occupy relative positions of privilege compared to other castes, even though the Japanese caste system ended with the Meiji Restoration.
A note of caution: Baby name websites tend to be inaccurate for Hindu names, often confusing Farsi and Arabic-derived Urdu names with the more traditional Sanskrit-derived names. Behind the Name is by far the most accurate website, but it doesn’t hurt to check multiple sources. For Hindu and Jain surnames associated with different castes, regions and gotras, Wikipedia is surprisingly thorough.
Muslims
Islam is the majority religion in Pakistan and Bangladesh as well as the second largest religion in India, but the differing ethnicities and arrival periods of Muslims in South Asia over the course of history can have a significant impact on a character’s name. For example, think of when your character’s family will have arrived in South Asia or converted to Islam:
During the Delhi Sultanate, when Hindustani would have been spoken?
Under the Mughals when Persian was more common?
Are they from Bangladesh and thus speak Bengali?
Do they have ancestors from Afghanistan or Swat Valley, and thus have Pashto last names?
Does the family speak Urdu?
All of these will impact what their name might reasonably be. As a general rule, Muslims will have last names that are in Farsi/ Persian,Urdu,ArabicandBengali. Bangladeshi Muslims may have Hindu names (both first and last) as well.
Buddhists
When discussing Buddhists in South Asia, we are primarily talking about NepalandSri Lanka. The majority languages in these countries are NepaliandSinhala, respectively. Both languages are part of the Indo-Aryan language family, and like many Indo-Aryan languages, show heavy Sanskrit influence.
Others
Don’t forget that India also has a large number of lesser known minority religions, including Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Tibetan Buddhism and a host of indigenous religions.
Judaism: There are a number of historical Jewish enclaves in India, as the result of specific waves of migration. Like South Asian Muslim names, Jewish last names will vary depending on the ethnicity and arrival period for each particular wave of Jewish diaspora.
Zoroastrianism: People who practice Zoroastrianism are likely to have Farsi last names.
Tibetan Buddhism: Tibetan Buddhists will obviously have Tibetan names and are often a part of the Tibetan diaspora who entered India as refugees during the Chinese government’s invasion of Tibet.
In Conclusion
An in-depth coverage of name etymology in South Asia would probably be the size of an encyclopaedia. The above is hardly exhaustive; we haven’t scratched the surface of the ethnic and linguistic variations in any of the South Asian countries displayed on the maps above. We hope, however, that it motivates you to research carefully and appreciate the cultural diversity South Asia has to offer. Just like in any setting where issues of lineage are plainly displayed by a person’s name, names in South Asia tell stories about where a person is from, what language they speak, and what their ancestors might have done, even if this has little bearing on the character themselves. It may seem a little elaborate to try and imagine the ancestors of your character before you even decide who your character is, but the reality is that most South Asians know these things instinctively, and whether or not you do your due diligence will be part of how we judge your work.
Name a thing to fight over, and South Asians have probably fought over it at one point or another, whether it be religion, ethnicity, language, or caste. However, one thing many South Asians have in common is pride in our individual origins. Respecting this love of identity will be invaluable as you plan your story.
At the end of the day, there is no substitute for actually talking to people who share your character’s background. We will always recommend having someone from the community you’re writing about check your naming.
