Names that mean “name”

I love coming across personal names that refer to names in their definitions. Some examples:

  • Behnam, meaning “good name” in Persian.
  • Hieronymus, meaning “sacred name,” based on the Greek words hieros, “sacred,” and onoma, “name.”
    • Jerome, the English form of Hieronymus.
    • Jerónimo, the Spanish form of Jerome.
  • Kainoa, meaning “the namesake,” based on the Hawaiian words ka, “the” (singular), and inoa, “name.”
    • Kainoakupuna, “the namesake of one’s ancestor,” with kupuna meaning “ancestor.”
  • N?inoa, which means “the namesakes,” based on the Hawaiian words na, “the” (plural), and inoa, “name.”
  • Nergüi, meaning “no name” in Mongolian.
  • Shem, meaning “name” in Hebrew. (Sem, a variant, is popular in The Netherlands right now.)

Do you know of any others?

2 thoughts on “Names that mean “name”

  1. Interesting post! My experience is that Shem, though it literally means name, commonly refers to something more along the lines of capital-N Name (aka the name of God).

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