The baby name Tayna

Tayna, faint galaxy from early universe

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes recently spotted the faintest object ever seen in the early universe. The galaxy they spotted existed 13.8 billion years ago — only 400 million years after the Big Bang.

The research team nicknamed the galaxy Tayna, which means “first-born child” in Aymara, the language spoken by the Aymara people of the Andes.

I’m not sure if tayna was ever used as a personal name among the Aymara, but I think there’s a possibility it was. After all, the word winona (meaning “first-born daughter”) was traditionally used as a name for first-born daughters among the Dakota Sioux.

The name Tayna has been given to hundreds of baby girls in the U.S., with usage peaking in the mid-1970s. (This usage mirrors the rise and fall of the more popular choice Tanya.)

What do you think of Tayna as a baby name? Does the cool definition offset the inevitable Tanya-confusion?

Source: NASA Space Telescopes See Magnified Image of Faintest Galaxy from Early Universe
Image: NASA, ESA, and Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.