Even more Greenlandic names

Greenland

This is the last post about Greenland, I promise. :)

The following names were too rare to make the “5+” list that I drew from to create Tuesday’s post, but they all have such fascinating definitions that I couldn’t leave them out of this unintentional series of Greenlandic names.

  • Aloruttaq (m) means “soleless one.” Mythology name. The character was an orphan who had no boots. He later acquired boots and was able to become a hunter.
  • Avaavak (m) means “one who has a tendency to fall and hit the back of the head.” One of several Greenlandic names based on the word avaaq, “the back of the head.”
  • Igaq (f) means “cooking utensil.”
  • Iggiaq (m) means “throat.”
  • Kaataq (m/f) means “hammer.”
  • Kamik (m/f) means “boot” — specifically, “soft boot made of reindeer or sealskin.”
  • Kamillannguaq (m) means “little bootless one.” Mythology name similar to Aloruttaq, above.
  • Kaneq (f) means “rime,” “frost crystals.”
  • Kapiseq (m) means “rain coat made of intestines.”
  • Kapitak (m) means “kayak jacket of sealskin.”
  • Kassoq (m/f) means “floating piece of transparent ice.”
  • Katsuana (m) is based on the word katsuaq, meaning “biceps.”
  • Kaugunnaq (m) means “one who had been buried (or caved) in between rocks.” Mythology name:

According to a legend, a man was hunting auks on a mountain and was buried between rocks in a landslide. Although he survived inside a cavity, he subsequently died of starvation. A powerful shaman came by and liberated the body and brought it to the shore, where he resuscitated him by conferring a new name by saying: “Kaugunnaq iterit!” (O Thou Who Hast Been Caved in by the Rocks, revive!”) and the man began to breathe again, and came back to be among the living.

  • Kujaaq (m) means “keel (of a kayak).”
  • Magserannguaq (m/f) is based on the word massippoq, meaning “rising half up from horizontal position.”

The Greenlandic author Karl Siegstad explains that the name means ‘Flower which is raised up by the heat of the sun, whilst small pieces of ice are still above it.’

  • Maqqioq (m) means “the one uttering/singing healing formulas.”
  • Masik (m/f) means “gill.” It also refers to the curved crossbeam on the deck of a kayak, because of the similarity in shape.
  • Milliaq (m) means either “umbilical cord” or “a piece of skin or cloth under food (as a mat).”
  • Nakatsileq (f) refers to talent as a marksman or a weapon-thrower, from the root word nakataq, meaning “object set up for throwing stones at” or “gun sight.”
  • Nasaq (m) means “hat.”
  • Oqaq (m) means “tongue.”
  • Paajuk (m) means “oarsman,” “paddler.”
  • Pualut (m) means “mittens.”
  • Puiaq (m/f) means “crop” (part of a bird’s digestive system).
  • Qajuuttaq (m) means “ladle,” “spoon.”
  • Qinoq (f) means “brash ice” or “ice sludge.”
  • Qulitsaq (m) refers to “a man’s overcoat of caribou skin with the hairs inward.”
  • Qutuk (m/f) means “collarbone.”
  • Serminnguaq (f) is based on the word sermeq, meaning “glacier.”
  • Sikunnguaq (m) is based on the word siku, meaning “sea ice.”
  • Teqqiaq (m) means “brim on a cap,” “eye-shade tied around head,” “tent roof.”
  • Tuilik (m) literally means “the one with shoulders,” in reference to a water-proof sealskin jacket used in kayaking.
  • Tukkujaq (f) means “sleepover,” from the proto-Eskimo root word *tukku, meaning “be rich,” “host,” “stay at someone’s house.”
  • Tulimaaq (m) means “rib.”
  • Upaluk (f) means “surprise” (but also “unprepared”). It may have been used for unexpected children.

Which of those definitions do you like best?

Sources: Oqaasileriffik, Nordic Names

Image: Adapted from View from Nuuk Fiord by Nanopixi under CC BY-SA 3.0.

More Greenlandic names

Greenland

We looked at popular baby names in Greenland yesterday, but we aren’t stopping there! Because the source I used for that post also listed many of the Greenland’s less-popular names. (The list included any first name that was being used by at least five people country-wide as of 2011.)

Here’s a sampling of the Greenlandic names on that list. I focused on ones with particularly intriguing definitions…

Female names:

  • Akitsinnguaq, meaning “little incomparable one,” based on the word akitsivoq, “surpasses her peers” (in either beauty or lovability).
  • Atangana, meaning “the one who remained (when all the siblings had died).”
  • Aviaaja, meaning “cousin,” “second cousin,” or “half-cousin.”
  • Inaluk, meaning “gut casing.”
  • Maannguaq, meaning “little thin-skinned one,” based on the word maarpoq, “to whine, to wail.”
  • Maliina, meaning “the one to follow.”
  • Manumina, meaning “small piece of fur under the chin.”
  • Naduk, short for inequnartoq, meaning “sweet,” “cute.” Alternatively, based on the name Arnatuk, “seeks a mother” (i.e., “a soul being born into different shapes and animals before crawling into the womb of a woman to be born again and re-claim his name”).
  • Navarana, meaning “the one that alternates between different parties.” Mythology name.
  • Qivioq refers to down on a bird’s skin or wooly hair/fleece on an animal’s skin.
  • Qupanuk, meaning “snow bunting.”
  • Sikkersoq, meaning “bud,” “sprout,” “blossom.” The word also means “burst out laughing.”
  • Tukummeq, based on the word tukumavoq, meaning “agile, vigorous, swift.”
  • Tupaarnaq, meaning “wild thyme.”
  • Uiloq, meaning “mussel,” “bivalve,” “shell.”

Male names:

  • Angula, based on the word angulavaa, which means “chewing and sucking out the fat of a birdskin (for the sake of taste).”
  • Angutivik, meaning “genuine man.”
  • Aqissiaq, meaning “ptarmigan chick.” Mythology name.
  • Avatannguaq, meaning “little sealskin float” (for use in a kayak).
  • Ilasiaq, meaning “a companion (child) acquired (through magic).” Mythology name.
  • Imina, based on the word imiit, meaning “scoop, bailer, mug” (for water).
  • Maligiaq, meaning “mid-size wave.”
  • Malinnguaq, meaning “little wave.”
  • Masauna, based on the word masaut, meaning “wet snow.”
    • “When the sea-ice becomes soft and unsafe, the wet snowcover is called masaut.”
  • Miteq, meaning “sea duck.”
  • Nanoq, meaning “polar bear.”
  • Panigpak, meaning “genuine daughter.”
    • Why “daughter” for a son? “The first born after a recent passing was named after the deceased, regardless of gender.”
  • Putdlaq, meaning “bubble” (the container for the soul while on Earth).
  • Qarsoq, meaning “arrow.”
  • Qillaq, meaning “knot,” “laced together.”
    • Qillaq was the top name for baby boys in Greenland in 2007.
  • Qisunnguaq, meaning “little wood,” “little tree.”
  • Qulutaq, meaning “snow bunting.” (Same meaning as Qupanuk, above.)
  • Sequssuna, meaning “egg insdie a bird” (i.e., not yet laid).
  • Sorlannguaq, meaning “little root (of a plant).” Can refer to golden root or to saltmarsh starwort.
  • Uvdloriaq, meaning “star.”

Names that showed up in the data for both genders:

  • Akisooq, meaning “precious one.”
  • Angerla, short for angerlartok, meaning “the one who has returned.”
  • Inequ, short for inequnaq, meaning “sweet,” “cute,” “attractive.” (Similar to Naduk, above.)
  • Ungaaq, meaning “baby” (or “younger sibling”), based on the word ungaa, which signifies a baby’s cry.

That suffix -nnguaq is common in Greenlandic names. It essentially adds “little” or “sweet” to the meaning of the root word. I’ve been listening to audios featuring various -nnguaq names (like this one with Paninnguaq) and can’t really hear that “q” at the end. Omniglot confirms that certain consonants (t, k, q, p, g) at the end of Greenlandic words are weakly articulated.

Sources: Names in Greenland as of 1 July 2011 (PDF), Nordic Names, Search Names – Oqaasileriffik

Image: Adapted from View from Nuuk Fiord by Nanopixi under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Baby names in the news: Gloria, Google, Pink

Some recent and not-as-recent baby names from the news…

Balfour: A baby boy born in Orkney, Scotland, on June 15 was named Balfour because he was the first baby born in the new Balfour Hospital in Kirkwall. (Press and Journal)

Fani: A baby girl born in Bhubaneswar, India, on May 3 — in the midst of Cyclone Fani — was named Fani. (Outlook India)

Gloria: A baby girl born in St. Louis on June 12 — minutes before the start of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, which was won by St. Louis — was named Vivian LeAnne Gloria Moore, second middle name in honor of the Blues’ season anthem, “Gloria.” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Google: A baby boy born in Indonesia in November of 2018 was given the single name Google because his father hoped he would be “useful” to people, as Google is. The father chose not to add a surname so that “the essence” of the name would not be diluted. (Mirror)

Hayes and Jersey: Twins born in Winnipeg to NHL player Dale Weise in April of 2019 were named Hayes (boy) and Jersey (girl). Hayes was named for country singer Hunter Hayes and Jersey was named for the state of New Jersey. (NHL.com)

Narendra Modi: A baby boy born in India on May 23 — the day Narendra Modi’s National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was victorious in India’s general election — was named Narendra Modi. (Khaleej Times)

Pink: A baby girl born at a Pink concert in Liverpool on June 25 was named Dolly Pink. (EW)

Mayan “Ix-” names

Temple at Chichen Itza
Temple at Chichen Itza

During the colonial period (and probably earlier), Mayan children were given personal names that began with either of two gender prefixes: the masculine prefix “Ah,” or the feminine prefix “Ix” (pronounced eesh).

You can see the “Ix” in the name of the Mayan goddess of midwifery and medicine, Ix Chel. Other examples of feminine Mayan names include Ix Chan, Ix Cahum, Ix Can, Ix Cakuk, Ix Kan, Ix Kauil, Ix Kukul, Ix Nahau, and Ix Titibe.

Out of all of these traditional names, though, only Ixchel and variants (Ixel, Ixcel, and Ixtzel) have been used often enough in the U.S. to appear in the baby name data.

The data also includes two more Ix-names: Ixayana and Ixareli. These might be modern takes on the Mayan Ix-names, and/or they might be variants of Itza-names (like Itzayana, Itzamar and Itzael)…which themselves may have evovled from Ix-names.

What do you think of the name Ixchel (pronounced ee-shel)?

Sources:

Image: Taken in 2019 by Nancy’s anonymous husband. :)