Armenian first names: origins and meanings
Ancient goddesses, saints, nature, founding heroes: Armenian first names tell the country’s story. Here are the best known, with their meanings as given by name dictionaries.
- Published
- Facts as of
Girls’ names
- Anahit (Anahid in Western Armenian): the name of a goddess of ancient Armenia, from the Iranian Anahita.
- Anoush: “sweet”.
- Astghik: “little star”; it was also the name of a goddess.
- Lusine: from the word for “moon”.
- Shushan: “lily”.
- Siranoush: from “love” and “sweet”.
- Arpi: from an old word meaning “sun”.
- Nairi: the ancient name of a region, which became a poetic name for Armenia.
- Hripsime and Gayane: two martyred saints honoured by the Armenian Church; the meaning of Hripsime is uncertain.
Boys’ names
- Hayk (Haig in Western Armenian): the legendary forefather of the Armenians.
- Vardan (Vartan): based on the word for “rose”.
- Areg: “sun”.
- Mher: the Armenian form of Mithra, an Iranian god.
- Ara: meaning unknown; the name of the king in the legend of Ara and Semiramis.
- Narek: after Grigor of Narek, a 10th-century poet and mystic.
- Grigor (Krikor): after Gregory the Illuminator, who converted Armenia to Christianity.
- Tigran, Armen, Hovhannes (John), Davit (David) and, for girls, Mariam (Mary) are also very common.
Why two spellings?
Armenian has two main written standards: Eastern Armenian, spoken in Armenia, and Western Armenian, used by most diaspora families in France. Some letters are pronounced differently in each.
In Armenian script the name is spelt the same way; only its transcription into Latin letters changes with the pronunciation. Hence the pairs often seen in France: Grigor and Krikor, Vardan and Vartan, Hayk and Haig, Anahit and Anahid. They are the same name.
What about the -ian ending?
Most Armenian surnames end in -ian (or -yan), meaning “descended from” or “of the family of”. Petrosyan thus means “son (or descendant) of Petros”, that is, of Peter.