How to read this guide

We give the meaning that is often repeated, then what Monier-Williams and the name references record. Many of these names are modern, loved and fully legitimate. A name does not need a dictionary meaning to be a good name; the point is only that a meaning should come with a source. [1]

Aarav

Often given as “peaceful” or “a calm melody”. The Sanskrit word ā-rava means a cry, howling, a crash, a noise or thundering, and Behind the Name gives “crying, howling, noise”. A sound is not a calm, and the nearest word for noiselessness, a-rava, is a different headword. Sanskrit uses the word for all kinds of noise, including bees humming, so it is not a bad name, only not a peaceful one. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Vivaan

Often given as “rays of the morning sun” or “full of life”. The only matching Sanskrit word in the dictionary is vi-vāna, “plaiting, twisting”, and the scholar Nityanand Misra reads the name as something woven. The sun-name is Vivasvān, which sounds similar. Behind the Name found no definition for Vivaan. [1] [3] [4] [5]

Saanvi

Often given as a name of Goddess Lakshmi. The word does not appear in the major Sanskrit dictionaries; it is a modern coinage in the pattern of names such as Tanvi. The nearest real word is sānu, “a summit, ridge, top of a mountain”. Behind the Name holds only user submissions for it, and no source ties the name to Lakshmi. [1] [3] [6]

Kiaan

Often described as derived from a Sanskrit word “Kian” meaning grace of God. No such Sanskrit word exists. Kian is a Persian name meaning “king, foundation” and also an Irish variant of Cian, adopted in India in the 2010s. Misra lists Kian among names that websites trace to Sanskrit but that are not Sanskrit. [3] [7] [8]

Anaya

Often given as “caring” or as a Hebrew “God answered”. In Sanskrit, a-naya or an-aya means bad management or bad conduct, and ill luck or misfortune. Behind the Name says the meaning is unknown, possibly from the Spanish surname Anaya. The spelling is lovely to say, but the nearest Sanskrit word is an unlucky one, so we give no classical meaning. [1] [9]

Myra

Sometimes labelled Indian and glossed “beloved”. Behind the Name records that Myra was created by the 17th-century poet Fulke Greville, possibly from Latin myrra, “myrrh”, or as a rearrangement of Mary. It is not Sanskrit, and “beloved” has no cited source. [10]

Anika

Two names share the spelling. The European Anika is a diminutive of Anna, from a Hebrew word for grace. The Indian Anika is the feminine of Anik, from Sanskrit anīka, which the dictionary gives as face, appearance, splendour, edge, front, army and war. “Graceful young girl” belongs to the European name. [1] [11] [12]

Ira

Several unrelated names are merged. Sanskrit irā means any drinkable fluid, food, refreshment, comfort, speech or the earth, and it is also the name of an Apsaras. Hebrew Ira, a male name, means “watchful”, and Russian Ira is a short form of Irina. Glosses such as “woman of Magdala” are not Indian in origin. [1] [13] [14]

Inaya

Often given as “gift of Allah”. The Arabic word ʿināya means care or concern, as Behind the Name records from Wehr’s dictionary of modern written Arabic. “Gift” is a different Arabic idea and is not the meaning of this word. [15]

What a good source looks like

A trustworthy meaning names its language, the word it comes from and the entry that records it. Where a name is a modern coinage, the honest label is “modern name, no classical meaning”. Each name profile on this site follows the same rule: the dictionary entry is cited, and a name without one says so. [1]