Category Archives: Bengali Names

Zoraiz

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  • Origin: Urdu ضوريز
  • Gender: Male
  • First Est. 1970s
  • Pron: zo-RAYZ

The name came into use in the South-Asian Muslim community in the 1970s. It is often listed as meaning “spreader of light,” in Arabic. It seems to be a creative, Arabic inspired name but is not used among Arabs. It is possibly a smush between the Arabic word زَرَعَI (zar’), meaning “to sow; to spread; to scatter,” along with the Persian suffix -raiz. Another possible inspiration of the first part of the name is perhaps ضَوْء (ḍau’), meaning, “light.”

Alternate transliterations include: Zorayz, Zorez, Zouraiz, and Zuraiz.

Sources

Samavia

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  • Origin: literary invention
  • Gender: Female
  • First Use: Late 1990s

The best-known appearance of this name is in Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1915 novel The Lost Prince, where Samavia is the name of a fictional European kingdom.

Burnett probably coined it for its romantic, vaguely Eastern-European sound, combining familiar Slavic-sounding syllables (Sam-, -avia).

In Pakistan and parts of India you will occasionally see Samavia given to girls as a modern Muslim name, likely inspired by the pleasant sound of Burnett’s word or by similar Arabic-Persian names.

Parents often interpret it as a variant of Arabic names such as Samaviya/Samawiya, which can be linked to samāʾ (سَماء) “sky, heaven.”

Because this is a modern adaptation, meanings offered on baby-name sites—“heavenly,” “from the sky,” “sublime”—are interpretive rather than historically established.

It may also be related to a Prakrit word that means “accomplished, finished.”

It is not a traditional Arabic Muslim name nor is it a traditional name in India, it has only come into use the last 20 years.

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Tasnuva, Taznuva

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  • Origin: Bengali, Urdu
  • Gender: Female
  • Est: 1970s

The name is mostly an Urdu and Bengali coinage, composed of the Arabic word tāj (تاج) “crown” and the Persian word navā (نوا) “sound, tone, voice.”

It’s hard to say when this name first appeared. It has had sporadic use among South-Asian Muslims since the 1970s. Many sites have listed a fabricated origin and meaning.

It is not a classical Arabic name and is not used in Arabic-speaking countries, nor is it used in Iran.

The name is borne by Bengali actress, Tasnuva Tisha.

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