April By Any Other Name Is Mighty Aphrodite
I have more baby name books than I care to count, and strangely enough my purchase of them had absolutely nothing to do with naming babies. When I aspired to write for a living, I believed in the power of the name. Every one of my characters had to have a name that meant something specific, something to help characterize the person they were.
So it should come as no surprise that in my search for identity I’ve looked up my own name several hundred thousand times. Many books will tell you that April is derived from the Latin Aprilis, meaning “opening” or “to open” as in the opening of the earth for spring, and that is usually as far as they will go. A person can be open, true, but it’s hardly enough of a blueprint to govern my life.
Lucky for me, my name also happens to be a month, which broadens my list of potential research material, so I’ve whipped out John Ayto’s Dictionary of Word Origins and read this:
April [14] Aprilis was the name given by the Romans to the fourth month of the year. It is thought that the word may be based on Apru, an Etruscan borrowing of Greek Aphro, a shortened version of Aphrodite, the name of the Greek goodess of love. In that case Aprilis would have signified for the Romans ‘the month of Venus.’ English acquired the word direct from Latin, but earlier, in the 13th century, it had borrowed the French version, avril; this survived, as averil, until the 15th century in England, and for longer in Scotland. The term April fool goes back at least to the late 17th century.
»Aphrodite
So there you have it. I, April, am somehow tied to Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. Of course, that means I’ll expect some kind of worship from you mortals.
If you leave your offerings at the temple, I’ll tell you what your name means.
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16 thoughts on “April By Any Other Name Is Mighty Aphrodite”
*bows respectfully*
I doubt they have the origin of "Nupuri" listed in that book. However, I am curious to know what’s the origin of the name "Minnie."
I’ve got five of my baby name books out (the rest are still packed away somewhere), and you’re right. "Nupuri" isn’t in any of them. "Minnie" however is a familiar form of Minerva; Minna; Wilhelmina.
Minerva
(Greek) "wisdom." Mythological: the goddess of wisdom.
Greek: Menos. “Force, purpose.” Latin: Minerva. “The thinking one.” Minerva was the highest goddess of Rome, coupled with Jupiter and Juno.
The name literally means “mind.”
Minna
(Old German) "tender affection." A short form of Wilhelmina.
Old German: Minne. “Love.” Medieval German Minnesingers were ballad singers of noble birth.
“Remembrance, or loving memory” (Teutonic).
Wilhelmina (Old German) "determined guardian." A feminine form of William.
Old German: Willi-helm. “Resolute protector.”
“Resolute protectress.”
A wise, tenderly affectionate and determined guardian… The name suits you well! 😀
Wait a sec. You want us…to worship you?
Come now my dearest Ahrodit..er..April…
We always have.
Actually, do any of your many books have a nice meaning for Sean?
(in certain situations i still use the legal spelling of my name, in most everything else i spell it wrong…just like everybody else.)
=)
I shall go sacrifice a stick figure right now oh might one..um April…
I know that mine means "birthday" or "Christ’s birth day", depending on the source. I always wished it had a cooler meaning – I mean, it’s kind of silly to name a kid "birthday", isn’t it?
Anything on the name Jon? The only other way I have encountered it spelled without an ‘h’ is as the name of Garfield the Cat’s owner.
I’ll address Saen and Jon first because their names are related, in a way:
Sean (Irish) Variant form of John, from the French Jean.
Jon Variant form of John or short form of Jonathan.
John (Hebrew) "Jehovah has been gracious; has shown favor." Hebrew: Yehokhannan. "God is gracious."
"God’s gracious gift" (Hebrew). The "beloved disciple" of the New Testament. This favorite name has 93 variant forms used in 27 different languages.
Jonathan (Hebrew) "Jehovah has given."
Hebrew: Y-honathan. "Jehovah’s gift."
"Gift of the Lord" (Hebrew).
Okay, now for Tony:
Tony Short form of Anthony and its variants, frequently used since medieval times as an independent name.
Anthony (Latin) "priceless."
(English) Variant form of Antony, (Latin) "Highly praiseworthy."
Latin: Antonius. "Inestimable, priceless one."
"Inestimable, or beyond praise" (Latin).
And supporting info for Natalie, who was born in June:
Natalie (Latin) "Christmas, born on Christmas day."
(Latin/French) "Birthday," especially referring to the birthday of Christ.
Latin: Natalis. "Birthday or natal day."
"Christmas child." Names derived from the Latin "dies natalis" or "birthday of our Lord," and often given to girls born at Christmastide.
I tried looking for a cooler meaning, so I checked John Ayto’s book, too. The closest word I could find to Natalie was “natal,” which said to see “native.” Native is one of a large family of English words that go back ultimately to the Latin verb nasci. This meant ‘be born,’ and was a descendant of the Indo-European base *gen-, *gn- ‘produce,’ which also gave English gene, general, generate, etc. From its past participial stem nat- was formed the adjective nativus ‘from birth, born,’ which has produced English native (and also, via Old French, naive, which is etymologically the equivalent of ‘born yesterday’), and also its derivative nativity (applied from earliest times specifically to the birth of Christ). Other English words from the same source include cognate, innate, nascent, natal, nation, nature, noel (earlier nowel, from an Old French descendant of Latin natalis ‘of birth’), pregnant, puny, and renaissance (literally ‘rebirth’).
I totally love Latin-derived names. They always have an interesting history and relationship with other words.
Ooooo…I like that. 🙂
Ooooo…I like that. 🙂
Oooops, accidentally hit my refresh button.
Any ideas on the name Sarah?
Besides knowing it is a very common name where I grew up, I don’t know anything else about it.
Definitely cooler. Thank you! 🙂
Sarah, I think you’ll like yours. 😀
Sarah (Hebrew) "princess." Sarah was the wife of Abraham and the mother of Isaac in the Bible. She was first named Sarai meaning "quarrelsome" or "the contentious," but when Sarai was changed to Sarah it became "princess" (that she might become the mother of princes) and "one who laughed."
i would like to find the true meaning of my name. If you can find it I would be truely grateful
hi my name is also April and i have always wondered about what my name or now our name meant lol but thanks so much for the site and i’m also a writer
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