Alma (given name)

Alma (/ˈɑːlmə/ AHL-mə)[1] or (according to Jones 1997) /'ælmə/) is an English feminine given name, but has historically been used in the masculine form as well, sometimes in the form Almo.[2] The origin of the name is debated; it may have been derived from "alma mater"[3] ("benevolent mother", a title used for the Virgin Mary, and in antiquity, for several goddesses). It gained popularity after the Battle of Alma in the 19th century and appeared as a fashionable name for girls and a popular place name,[4] but it has decreased in appearance in the 20th and 21st centuries. The name Alma also has several meanings in a variety of languages, and is generally translated to mean that the child "feeds one's soul" or "lifts the spirit".[5]

Alma
Alma Parens, by William-Adolphe Bouguereau.
Pronunciation/'ælmə/
GenderFemale
Language(s)Latin
Origin
Meaningkind, nourishing
Other names
Variant form(s)Allma, Almah
Short form(s)aem
See alsomea

Origin

The exact origin of the name Alma is debated (cf. Hanks/Hodges 1990:'of uncertain origin'), but it is most likely derived (according to some sources), in the female form,[6] from the Latin word almus, which means "kind", "fostering", or "nourishing".[1] Drosdowski (1974) differentiates between two different names: one derived from Spanish, the other derived from Germanic names with the element 'Amal'. It has been most familiarized by its use in the term alma mater,[3] which means "fostering mother",[7] or "nourishing mother",[6] and in modern times is most associated with a collegiate hymn or song, or to encompass the years in which a student earned their degree. Also, the Arabic words for "the water" and "on the water" are el-ma and al-ma, respectively. It may also be of Greek derivation, where the word αλμη means "salt water".[8] In Hebrew, Alma (עלמה) means a young woman, particularly unmarried, and it appears in the Bible in the Old Testament, in the Book of Genesis 24:43.

Early appearances
The Alma River.

It has been applied repeatedly for the title of goddesses, namely Diana and Ceres, as well as other deities of the light, earth, and day. Alma was used classically in connotation as a way to reflect the traditional female roles in providing nurture,[2] following its derivation from its Latin root. It was introduced with minimal usage during the Italian Renaissance, as the likely result of a character by Edmund Spenser in his poem The Faerie Queene. Alma, who is the head of the House of Temperance, is considered to parallel the spirit metaphorically.[9]

On 20 September 1854 the Battle of Alma, named after the Alma River nearby, which was a war between the French, English, and Ottoman empires and the Russian empire[10] was fought and ended. This battle is typically considered to be the first battle of the Crimean War. Alma is the Crimean Tatar word for "apple". The name had limited use for females prior to the war, and afterwards it began appearing in birth registers for both male and female, and in significantly higher frequency. Alma also came in conjunction with many terms related to the circumstances of the war, such as "Alma Victoria", "Alma Balaklava" and "Alma Inkerman".[11] Primarily in West England,[10] many were christened with the name Alma.[12] The widespread use has been attributed to the extensive news coverage of the Crimean War.[4]

In the Book of Mormon, a collection of fifteen books first published in 1830 that is regarded as scripture by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Alma is given as the name of two characters—a father and his son. The characters are marked by a love for and service of God and appear in the Book of Mosiah and in the Book of Alma.

The name Alma also appears in Irish folklore in the masculine form: the son of Nemed was named "Alma One-Tooth",[3] a noble prince who fought repeatedly for a respite in taxes issued by Conann on his people.[13]

In the 1910 Census (Milan Texas Precinct 7), the name Alma appears within a family descended from Bohemia (or Czechoslovakia, depending on which other document is inspected).

Name statistics

Alma ranked No. 52 of most popular names for girls in the United States in 1901. In birth registers, this constituted .47% of the population,[7] or roughly 1 in every 213 births.[14] Its usage today has dropped into the thousands.[7] It has increased in usage in recent years among parents seeking names with positive meanings for babies born during the COVID-19 pandemic.[15][16]

In numerology, the name Alma corresponds to the number 9. The characteristics of this value mean compassion, charitableness, and civility; it is regarded as being the "Humanitarian".[17]

Meaning

The name Alma, with its Latin origin, appears in various European languages, and has different meanings in each.[18] These varieties do not generally stray from the notion of the wise, nurturing mother, however.

In the Hebrew Bible, Almah means maiden - a young girl or a young woman. In the Septuagint, the word is often rendered as parthenos ('virgin'), most famously in Isaiah 7:14, which is quoted in Matthew 1:23 as a prophecy about Jesus being born of the Virgin Mary.

People

Women

Men

Mormon religious figures

Fictional characters

Variants

In language

Abbreviations for
  • Amelia • English
  • Amelberga • English.[6]

References
  1. Norman, p. 119.
  2. Lang, p. 132.
  3. O'Boyle, p. 150.
  4. Callary, p. 6.
  5. Browder, p. 57.
  6. Grussi, p. 274.
  7. "Alma". BabyNamesPedia. Greater Works. 2009. Retrieved 10 October 2010.
  8. Buckton, p. 490.
  9. Reid, p. 512.
  10. Woldmar Ruoff, p. 799.
  11. Murray, p. 348.
  12. Charnock, p. 6.
  13. "The Book of Invasions". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 10 October 2010.
  14. 1 / 213 ~ .0047 = .47%, per routine calculations.
  15. "Popular Baby Names". Archived from the original on 2018-02-02. Retrieved 2022-06-04.
  16. Dunn, Jancee (19 January 2021). "From 'Alma' to 'Zuri,' Parents Are Looking for Positive Baby Names: They're searching the heavens, and through family history, for strong monikers in a pandemic". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  17. "Meaning of Alma". Meaning of Baby Girls Names. Meaning of Baby Girl Names. 2009. Archived from the original on 2012-06-15. Retrieved 10 October 2010.
  18. Sheehan, p. 25.
  19. Sheehan, p. 26.
  20. Liu, p. 114.

Sources

Drosdowski, Günther. 1974. Lexikon der Vornamen. 2nd ed. Mannheim (etc.). Dudenverlag.

Hanks, Patrick and Flavia Hodges. 1990. A dictionary of first names. OUP.

Jones, Daniel. 1997. English pronouncing dictionary. 15th ed. Ed. by Peter Roach & James Hartman Cambridge : Cambridge Univ. Press

  • Bromiley, Geoffrey William (1995). The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: Q-Z. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 1211. ISBN 0-8028-3784-0.
  • Buckton, T.J. (1854). Notes and Queries. Oxford University Press. 10. ISSN 1471-6941. OCLC 49760337. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  • Browder, Sue (1998). The New Age Baby Name Book. Workman Publishing. pp. 393. ISBN 0-7611-0232-9.
  • Callary, Edward (2009). Place names of Illinois. University of Illinois Press. p. 425. ISBN 978-0-252-03356-8.
  • Charnock, Richard Stephen (1882). "Prænomina; or, The etymology of the principal Christian names of Great Britain and Ireland". Trübner & Co., Ludgate Hill: 128. OCLC 156094657. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  • Coghlan, Ronan (1985). Irish First Names. Appletree Press. p. 72. ISBN 0-86281-153-8.
  • Grussi, A.M. (2006). Chats on Christian Names. Kessinger Publishing. p. 460. ISBN 1-4286-5787-8.
  • Lang, John (2010). Six Poets from the Mountain South: Southern literary studies. LSU Press. p. 209. ISBN 978-0-8071-3560-0.
  • Liu, Xiaoan (2005). Best Chinese names: your guide to auspicious names. Asiapac Books Pte Ltd. p. 200. ISBN 981-3068-30-2.
  • Murry, John (January–June 1871). The Cornhill Magazine. Smith, Elder & Co. XXIII: 760. OCLC 611177326. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  • Norman, Teresa (2003). A World of Baby Names. Perigee. pp. 640. ISBN 0-399-52894-6.
  • O'Boyle, Fragrance (2008). Irish Baby Names. Irish Baby Names. p. 228. ISBN 978-0-9558057-0-7.
  • Reid, Robert L. (1981). "Alma's Castle and the Symbolization of Reason in the Faerie Queene". The Journal of English and Germanic Philology. 80. ISSN 0363-6941. OCLC 1754568.
  • Sheehan, Thomas W. (2001). Dictionary of Patron Saints Names. Our Sunday Visitor Publishing. p. 593. ISBN 0-87973-539-2.
  • Woldmar Ruoff, Henry (1909). "The standard dictionary of facts: history, language, literature, biography, geography, travel, art, government, politics, industry, invention, commerce, science, education, natural history, statistics and miscellany". The Frontier press company: 908. OCLC 2654528. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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