What Do Names Mean?

The meaning of names can be found by a little patient research. Obviously it would be great if one site could document the entire set of meanings for all names, but this would be a pretty crazy feat - there are literally billions of different names out there across the world.

The way to begin your find is to search intelligently across ancestry, family tree and genealogy sites. If you are lucky and have a popular name you may find it easier to get your meaning. Remember that all names and surnames originate from ancient history, and evolve over time into different versions.

I have seen many people asking the meaning of their names even here on this site.
The chief purpose of a name, of course, is identification. From the beginning of the history, children have been given names at birth or soon afterwards to identify them. But when parents gave a child a name in ancient times, they also wanted the name to express something or to have a meaning. It might his appearance or be a term of endearment.

Christian names are usually drawn from some older languages. For example, Benjamin comes from Hebrew; Andrew from Greek; Amy from Latin; Alfred from Anglo Saxon.

Originally, these names had a meaning. A girl born during a famine was sometimes called Una (Celtic for 'famine'). A golden haired girl might be called Flavia (Latin for 'yellow') or Blanche (French for 'white').

When a name is translated from one language to another it often undergoes many interesting changes. For example, Henry is a Teutonic name meaning 'head of the house'. It becomes Harry, Hal, Henri (French), Heinrich (German), Enrico (Italian) and Hendrick (Danish).

Identifications for individuals .

Alyssa