Armenian Names Girls Boys, Meanings – Armenian Male, Female Names

Where did Armenian names come from?

To get to know the meanings of the Armenian names better, we can start from the name Armenia. Aram and Armen are the first basic names that gave us the name Armenian.

The country name of “Armenia” or “Armani” is mentioned, for the first time, in the ancient cuneiform inscriptions of Akkadian kings Sargon and Naramsin (3rd millennium BC). Persian King Darius also mentions the “Armina” or “Arminia” Crown in his inscriptions. There are also references for The Urartu Kingdom.

A number of Armenian and foreign scholars have researched the etymology or origins of the Armenian people’s name “Armen”, but no one has yet given a definitive solution. Here are some examples of etymology.

The first component of the name Armen must be understood as “brave, strong”, and the second part as “man”. The word man is not preserved in Armenian, but it is preserved in the word “manoog-little man”. So Armen means “strong man”. Some do not accept this etymology, considering that in fact the word “ari” was derived from a word (“man, energy”). The “man” or “men” syllable is not related to the “manoog” but comes from “uhn” pronunciation of the letter “N”. So they consider the word “armad=root” be first syllable as in “arm(ad)”+ “uhn” as parts of ARMAN; as in “zarm”= “Z”+”ARM” meaning “tribe, generation”.

Etymologists believe that the name Armen is originated from the name of the first Urartian king Arame.

Opinions are divided into two: some consider “arm” radical, others dissect the “Ar”? For example, it is argued that “Aram” consists of two words: “Ar” and “am”, where “Am” or “Ama” is the Mother Goddess, and “Ar” is the sun, the eye of heaven, by which “Ar” means “the eye of the Mother of God”.

Some experts say that “Aram” comes from the words “Ar”+”Arm”=”Ararm”. Ar as a variant of “Ayr”=(man). It means “strong, brave man” and also “Armenian”. Arm is also a native Armenian word meaning “generation, relatives, root”. “Ararm” has meant “strong man” or “generation of Armenians”. Subsequently, the “R” of “Ararm” fell and “Ararm” became “Aram”.

Some think that the names Armen and Aram came from the name of the great god Ara of Armenians. Plato testified that Er (Eros, that is, Ara) was the son of Armenios. The pagan gods of many ancient cultures later descended into humans and their names became personalized, so it is understandable why Er (Ara) was considered the son of Armenios.

Let’s add that Ara was the son of the patriarch Aram, famous for his marvelous beauty (Ara The Beautiful= Ara Keghetsig). And Aram comes from the name Arame, famous King of Urartians (Armenians).

According to Hratchia Ajarian, Armen is the short form of Armenak, who was the son of the patriarch Hayk and replaced him.

In general, we can say that the name Armenia that unites the ancient people and tribes of Asia, comes from the name Ar or Ara, the ancient chief God of these tribes.

Based on a number of facts, Martiros Gavugchyan concludes that Ar-ma-ni is a complex word whose first Ar component is Ar, the very national god of the Armenians, the Ma component in Sumerian means “to give birth, to procreate”. Ar-ma means “Aradzin=giving birth to men, Ari=brave descendants, Arordi= sons of brave men”, and the ending is plural. Therefore, Armani means “Aradzinner=, Arordiner, SunChild”.

As we can see, opinions still clash, and they are contradictory. Whatever it is, one thing is clear. The names Aram, Armen, Armenak, Arame, Argishti, Ararat, Aragats are Armenians, they come from immemorial times when the ancient gods had not left Armenia yet.

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