Talk:Yara (given name)

yara means "seagull" in certain Australian languages[1] and "room" in Yoruba[2], but we have no indication that either common noun is in use as a given name. --dab (𒁳) 10:03, 12 December 2016 (UTC) In practice, it appears there are three items,[reply]

the Biblical name, no evidence of modern use
the Brazilian name from native mythology
the Arabic name, of unknown origin

add to this Yara as a nonsense/Lallname in the modern fashion (since the 1980s or 1990s) to pick meaningless syllables as given names purely on the basis of euphony -- so I suppose for women born after 1985 or so, it may be impossible to decide whether the name is "Brazilian" or "Arabic" because it was just chosen at random.

Also note that the Arabic name يارا is not explicitly feminine (no ta marbouta) and appears to be given only recently(?) It's certainly not Classical Arabic (not listed in Lane). --dab (𒁳) 10:07, 12 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

It is interesting that the Arabic name only seems to pop up around 1980 (possibly 1967?). I have no idea where it is from. It's not real Arabic. It's not in the dictionaries. Arabic morphological analysis comes up empty. Maybe from Persian? But it can't be a traditional name, or it would have been given before the 1960s. --dab (𒁳) 10:01, 13 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

apparently [3] it means "ability" or "courage" in Persian, this sounds like a plausible explanation at least. --dab (𒁳) 10:11, 13 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

real source: Francis Joseph Steingass, A Comprehensive Persian-English Dictionary, p. 1525: yārā:

(vocative of yār) O friend!
(from the verb yārastan) boldness courage; strength, force, power of resistance; occasion.
(from Turkish) a wound.

--dab (𒁳) 10:24, 13 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I think I have all but figured this out now. It is Persian yārā "strength", which however does not function as a given name in Persian proper, only as a loan into Arabic, because a girl's name that is homophonic with the vocative "hey, friend" is somewhat impractical. --dab (𒁳) 13:39, 13 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]