My husband went to Dubai on business a few months ago. Being the thoughtful guy he is, he returned bearing gifts. One of his gifts was a box of chocolate-covered dates made by a company called Nadiya Dates.
(Our chocolates didn’t look like the chocolates in the photo, though. They were more like melty amorphous globs, thanks to summertime temperatures in the Middle East. But they were delicious nonetheless.)
Anyway…the name of the chocolate company inspired me to write a quick post about the baby name Nadiya and all related names — Nadia, Nadya, Nadiyya, Nadiyah, Nadiah, Nadyah, Nahdia, and so forth.
In the U.S., the most common spelling is Nadia. This version of the name was popularized in the 1970s by Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci. Her name is a diminutive of the Russian name Nadezhda, which means “hope.”
But Nadia can come from Arabic as well. In this case, it’s based on a word meaning “moist with dew.” As the authors of A Dictionary of First Names note, “in a hot, dry climate, morning dew is highly valued.”
One name, two distinct derivations. Which origin/definition do you prefer, and why?
P.S. Speaking of chocolate, here’s a list of baby names for chocolate lovers.
Source: Hanks, Patrick, Kate Hardcastle and Flavia Hodges. A Dictionary of First Names. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.