With Chanukah beginning tonight (and lots of other celebrations of light around this time), I like to reflect on and share my favorite multilingual names with light-related meanings from the past year! It was super fun for me to make this post last year, so I thought I’d make another one with my new favorites. Suggestions and opinions are very welcome!
Alemtsehay (አለምፀሃይ) - Amharic - “sun of the world”
Amandipa (अमनदीपा) - from Arabic and Sanskrit - “lamp of peace”
Ayşenur - Turkish and Arabic - “life, light”
[name_m]Bhaskara[/name_m] (भास्कर) - from Sanskrit - “light maker”
Chandrakala (चन्द्रकला) - from Sanskrit - “moonbeam, phases of the moon”
Hajnal - Hungarian - “dawn”
[name_f]Lesedi[/name_f] - Tswana - “light”
Narangerel (Нарангэрэл) - Mongolian - “sunlight”
Nishantha (නිශාන්ත) - Sinhala - “night’s end, dawn”
Pratibha (प्रतिभा) - from Sanskrit - “light, intelligence”
Sarvashri (सर्वश्री) - from Sanskrit - “whole, diffusing light”
Shamshira - Uzbek - “sweetness of light”
[name_u]Zohar[/name_u] (זוהר) - Hebrew - “brilliance"
last year's picks
Aberash, Ashraqat, Deepali, Mounira, [name_u]Or[/name_u], Roshni, Savitri, [name_u]Shachar[/name_u], Shamsuddin, [name_u]Sol[/name_u], [name_f]Suhaila[/name_f], [name_m]Surya[/name_m], & [name_f]Zahara[/name_f]
and some personal favorite suggestions were Kashi, [name_u]Nuri[/name_u], Shama, & Ilun (thanks @acajou), [name_f]Nadra[/name_f] (thanks @NameLover2020), [name_f]Laoise[/name_f] (thanks @ElrynTheBookdragon), and [name_f]Günay[/name_f]
(thanks @Poffin)!!