Tamara (given name)
Pronunciation | /təˈmɑːrə, təˈmɛərə, ˈtæmərə/[1] |
---|---|
Gender | Feminine |
Language(s) | Various |
Origin | |
Word/name | Derived in Russian from the biblical name Tamar (Hebrew: תָּמָר) and spread to various other languages |
Other names | |
Variant form(s) | Tamra, Tamera, Thamara |
Short form(s) | English: Tammie, Tammy Russian: Mara, Tama |
Pet form(s) | Toma (Russian) |
[2][3] |
Tamara is a variant of the Hebrew feminine given name Tamar, a biblical name. The variant originated within the Russian language and spread into other languages through Russian.[4][5] In Russia, where Tamara is associated with Tamar of Georgia,[6][7] (recognised by the Orthodox church as Saint Tamara the Right Believing[8][9]) the name remains popular and frequently appears in Russian literature.[10][11] It is also common in Central and Eastern European countries.[12]
The name was formed through adding the Russian feminine suffix -a to Tamar (Hebrew: תָּמָר), which originated from the same generic noun for "date" (the fruit), "date palm" or just "palm tree". In the Bible, Tamar refers to two women: one is the daughter-in-law of Judah, Tamar, and the other is the daughter of King David and full sister of Absalom, Tamar. The latter was raped by her half-brother Amnon, leading Absalom to eventually kill him. Absalom named his daughter Tamar, described as a woman of great beauty.[5]
The derived Russian diminutive name is Toma, and its other shortened forms include Mara and Tama.[2]
It first appeared in the English-speaking world in the 1930s and reached its peak in the 1970s. In the 1980s, it gained particular popularity among Black Americans.[11] In the United States, the name was quite common from the late 1950s to mid-1990;[13] more than 1,000 girls were named Tamara annually through 1996, with the highest numbers occurring in the 1970s.[14] As of 2023, Tamara is relatively uncommon in the United States; in 2010, it dropped off the Top 1,000 Social Security Administration baby names list, with fewer than 250 instances recorded that year.[13] Since the 1930s, Tamara has ranked among the top 320 most popular names in Australia, with peak popularity from the 1970s through the 1990s.[15][12] In the United Kingdom it has been suggested that the name can also be a Cornish name, after Tamara, the goddess of the River Tamar.[16][17] In 1997 it was the 137th most popular girl's name in the United Kingdom, but this had dropped to 779th in 2021 when it was given to 47 babies.[17] The Tamara Coast to Coast Way is an 87-mile (140 km) walking route following the river Tamar.[18]
The name was also popular in Spain during the 1980s, possibly influenced by the daughter of Isabel Preysler and Carlos Falcó, Tamara Falcó.[10]
Notable people named Tamara
[edit]In the arts
[edit]- Tamara Al-Gabbani, Emirati fashion designer
- Tamara Arciuch, Polish actress
- Tamara Bleszynski, Indonesian actress, singer, and model
- Tamara Braun, American soap opera actress
- Tamara Buciuceanu, Romanian actress
- Tamara Danz, German rock singer
- Tamara Degtyaryova, Russian stage, television and film actress
- Tamara Dobson, African-American actress and model
- Tamara Drasin, Ukrainian-born singer-actress
- Tamara Feldman, American actress
- Tamara Gorski, Canadian actress
- Tamara Gverdtsiteli, Georgian-Russian singer, actress and composer
- Tamara Jaber, Lebanese-Australian singer and songwriter
- Tamara Jones, stage name of Nigerian singer and actress Tamara Eteimo
- Tamara Karsavina, Russian ballerina
- Tamara Maria Kler, Swiss DJ known by her stage name Dinka
- Tamara de Lempicka, Polish art deco painter
- Tamara Natalie Madden, Jamaican-American painter
- Tamara Makarova, Russian-Soviet actress
- Tamara Marthe, known as Shy'm, French singer
- Tamara Mello, American actress
- Tamara Rojo, Spanish ballet dancer, artistic director of English National Ballet
- Tamara Salman, Iraqi-born designer
- Tamara Macarena Valcárcel Serrano, Spanish singer known as Tamara
- Tamara Sinyavskaya, Russian mezzo-soprano
- Tamara Sky, Puerto Rican DJ and model
- Tamara Smart, English actress
- Tamara Taylor, Canadian actress
- Tamara Todevska, Macedonian pop singer
- Tamara Toumanova, Georgian-Armenian ballerina and actress
- Tamara Tunie, American actress
- Tamara Diane Wimer, known as Isis Gee, American singer
- Tamara Witmer, American actress and model
Politicians
[edit]- Tamara Adrián, Venezuelan politician
- Tamara Duisenova, Kazakh politician
- Tamara Frolova, Russian politician
- Tamara Manukova, Belarusian politician
- Tamara Stohlová, Slovak politician
Sportspeople
[edit]- Tamāra Dauniene, Latvian basketball player
- Tamara Georgijev, Serbian handball player
- Tamara Johnson, American indoor volleyball player
- Tamara Larrea, Cuban beach volleyball player
- Tamara McKinney, American skier
- Tamara Metal, Israeli Olympic high jumper and long jumper, and captain of the Israel women's national basketball team
- Tamara Morávková, Slovak footballer
- Tamara Moskvina, Russian pairs figure skating coach
- Tamara Nowitzki, Paralympic swimming competitor from Australia
- Tamara Radočaj, Serbian basketball player
- Tamara Sivakova, Paralympian athlete from Belarus
- Tamara Zidanšek, Slovenian tennis player
Others
[edit]- Tamara Bunke, Argentinian communist revolutionary
- Tamara Ecclestone, English-Serbian socialite, television personality and model
- Tamara Finkelstein, British civil servant
- Kera Tamara, known as Tamara Hejtan, Bulgarian princess
- Tamara Levitt, Canadian author, mindfulness instructor, and voice-over artist
- Tamara Mellon, British fashion entrepreneur, president and founder of shoes company Jimmy Choo
- Tammy Faye Messner, American televangelist and reality TV star
- Tamara Mkheidze, Georgian arachnologist
- Tamara Moss, Indian model
- Tamara Gräfin von Nayhauß, German television presenter
- Tamara Pamyatnykh, Soviet fighter pilot during the Second World War
- Tamara Samsonova, Russian murderer and suspected serial killer
- Tamara Sher, American psychologist
- Tamara Sujú, Venezuelan activist
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Jones, Daniel (2011). Roach, Peter; Setter, Jane; Esling, John (eds.). Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary (18th ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-15255-6.
- ^ a b Benson, Morton (1967). Dictionary of Russian Personal Names. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 163, 167. ISBN 978-0-8122-7452-3.
- ^ Macleod, Iseabail; Freedman, Terry (1995). The Wordsworth Dictionary of First Names. Wordsworth Editions. p. 214. ISBN 978-1-85326-366-8.
- ^ "Tàmara". Hrvatski jezični portal (Dictionary) (in Croatian). Znanje. Retrieved 31 October 2024.
transl. f. personal name of biblical origin (the name spreads through Russian)
- ^ a b Hanks, Patrick; Hardcastle, Kate; Hodges, Flavia (2006). "Tamara". A Dictionary of First Names (Book via online reference platform). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-861060-1 – via Oxford Reference and the The Wikipedia Library.
Tamara ♀. Russian: probably derived from the Hebrew name Tamar, from a vocabulary word meaning 'date palm', with the addition of the feminine suffix -a. ...
- ^ Dictionary of first names. London: Claremont Books. 1995. ISBN 978-1-85471-707-8.
- ^ "Significado do nome Tamara". Crescer (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 29 April 2024.
- ^ "St. Tamara the Right Believing". St. George Orthodox Church of Boston. Retrieved 31 October 2024.
- ^ "St. Tamara, Queen of Georgia". web.archive.org. Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese. Archived from the original on 17 February 2020. Retrieved 31 October 2024.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ a b "Significado del nombre Tamara: origen e historia - Nombres de niña". Ser Padres (in Spanish). 4 August 2023. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
- ^ a b Dunkling, Leslie (1984). The Facts on file dictionary of first names. New York, N.Y.: Facts on File Publications. ISBN 978-0-87196-274-4.
- ^ a b "Popularity for the name Tamara - Behind the Name". www.behindthename.com. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
- ^ a b "Popular Baby Names". www.ssa.gov. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
- ^ "Girl Name Tamara - Trends, Comments and Popularity of Tamara".
- ^ Nicholas, Josh. "Close call: most popular Australian baby names of the past century revealed". the Guardian. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
- ^ McCoy, Edain (8 May 2017). "Celtic Goddesses and Women of Power". Celtic Women's Spirituality: Accessing the Cauldron of Life. Llewellyn Worldwide. ISBN 978-0-7387-4854-2.
Tamara. (Cornish) Goddess of the River Tamar ...
- ^ a b "Tamara". www.ukbabynames.com. UK Baby Names. Retrieved 31 October 2024.
- ^ "Tamara Coast to Coast Way". Tamar Valley National Landscape. Retrieved 31 October 2024.
- Given names
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