Joshua, your name is really cool! It means “YHWH will save.” It has a fascinating history because it entered into the European languages twice: once through Ancient Greek, and again when translators of the Bible started looking at older, closer to the original sources and retranslating everything. Basically, Joshua and

Madeline, your name is really cool! It’s from the Ancient Greek word meaning “of/from Magdala.” It was used as an epithet for one of the many Biblical characters named Mary, and started to become used as a name on its own after the translation into Latin. Magdala itself is the

Andrew, your name is really cool! It’s an Ancient Greek name meaning “man (as in the gendered term).” This name has been imported to many languages, and become a name for women as well, which makes the translation a little difficult. For those, I’ll shift the translation to “manly” instead.

Dorothy, your name is really cool! It’s an Ancient Greek name meaning “gift of a god.” The word “theós” is a generic word for “a god,” not a name for a specific god. Therefore, translating this will be much easier than other deity-themed names. Quenya The word for “gift” is

Roman, your name is really cool! It’s a name based on the Roman ethnicity, and those are really, really difficult to translate. Well, you know me, I love it when it gets interesting! Sometimes when translating an ethnicity, you can go back to what the name of the ethnicity means.

Linda, your name is really cool! It’s based on an ancient word meaning “weak, tender, soft.” It wasn’t used on its own until recently, where it was a Germanic nickname for names ending in -linde. But, this isn’t the only source of your name! It’s also a Spanish word meaning

Dennis, your name is really cool! It’s an ancient Greek name that means “the Zeus of Nysa.” Nysa was a forested land of nymphs where Dionysios was raised. Zeus was his father, which is why he was named after him, much the way that Finwë’s descendants include “Fin” in their

Christine and Christian, your name is really cool! It’s a Latin family name meaning “follower of Christ.” This -iāna/-iānus suffix, which was used for members of a family or of a group having something to do with whatever the suffix is attached to, survives for us as the -ian suffix.

Edward, your name is really cool! It’s an Old English name that means “Wealth Guard.” Sindarin The word for “wealth” is Maelig, but this is connected to the word for “greed, lust” and therefore has a negative connotation.  An alternate way to translate “wealth” is with the word for “treasure,

Joseph, your name is really cool! It’s an ancient Hebrew name meaning “he adds [to].” Elven languages don’t have sentences in their names. Instead, we’ll take the verb “to add [to]” and use agental suffixes to make it mean “one who adds [to].” Sindarin Sindarin has two verbs that are