Skip to main content

Senna



Simple botanical name Senna (SEHN-uh) is mysterious and unusual, yet sounds familiar. It has the simplicity of Jenna, but the uniqueness of Gwenna. It can be shortened to Sen, which means "one thousand" in Japanese. (Japanese parents bestowing the name Sen upon their child intend the meaning as "to live one thousand years". It can also refer to the sennin forest/mountain hermit. I named my first cat this, and she definitely suits the name.) The senna plant, specifically the Senna Alexandrina, is a flowering bush with little yellow flowers and can be found in the tropics. Lately it can be found as an ingredient in dieter's tea, laxative tea, although it has a wide array of uses. In Arabic the name  means "brilliance."

This name has been used in a few books and movies, one of which being a vampire in the Twilight series, the other a girl in K. A. Applegate's Everworld book series.



Labels:

Comments

  1. Lou @ Mer de NomsJuly 20, 2012 at 1:06 PM

    I love the name Senna, it makes me thinks of the driver Ayrton Senna.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Waltzing More Than MatildaJuly 28, 2012 at 3:38 AM

    I saw a baby girl called Senna Rae in a BA recently

    http://waltzingmorethanmatilda.com/2012/06/08/angel-and-kash-birth-announcements-from-melbourne-may/

    I can see it's very similar to popular Sienna, but I can't help being reminded that senna is used as a laxative, and unfortunately that's all I can think of!

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousDecember 26, 2015 at 7:24 AM

    My name is Senna :) And i have always been happy with this name.
    Here in belgium we don't have a laxative named senna, so nothing weird over here ^^

    ReplyDelete
  4. K.archSeptember 21, 2017 at 12:59 PM

    I have just named my little girl Senna... had a few comments about the laxative which has really upset me

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Once Upon a Time Baby NamesSeptember 22, 2017 at 3:33 PM

      I can understand your frustration. Sometimes it seems like there is a problem with every name out there, and many names seem off-limits because of another association. I immediately think of all the little girls named Isis after the Egyptian goddess who are now getting negative reactions because of the mislabeled terrorist group name. But Senna is first and foremost a beautiful little plant, and she has literary names to back her up.

      Delete
  5. K.archSeptember 30, 2017 at 4:45 PM

    Thankyou for your response.
    I am still really struggling... now trying to think of alternatives that are similar... as she responds to Sen already... It is so hard already feel I have failed her.

    ReplyDelete
  6. K.archSeptember 30, 2017 at 6:40 PM

    Thankyou for your response.
    I am still really struggling... now trying to think of alternatives that are similar... as she responds to Sen already... It is so hard already feel I have failed her.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sailor Moon Baby Names

As a long-time fan girl of Sailor Moon, I was thrilled to hear about a potential reboot of the series, which was supposed to be in 2013 and has now been pushed to 2014. It's been over 20 years since Sailor Moon first aired, but many still get a warm fuzzy feeling when they think of the show. What is not often mentioned is how well researched Takeuchi's name choices were. She covered gems, minerals, astrology, mythology and creative word choices. Today I'll talk about Sailor Moon names. Usagi Tsukino- Bunny - Serena - Princess Serenity - Sailor Moon Usagi means "rabbit" in Japanese, referring to the Japanese legend of the rabbit on the moon, and Tsukino means "moon." In the translation of the comics, Usagi was renamed Bunny appropriately. Keeping with the mythological aspects of the moon and both Greek and Roman moon goddesses, Usagi's character was given the concept of "serene," which gave her the name Serena in the American TV series (a...
3 comments
Read more

Galician Baby Names

I grew up on a street that was named an Italian variant of Roger. When I got married and we bought our first house, it turned out to be on Roger Street. Once noting that coincidence, I started searching for other variants of the name. However, female variants turned out to be pretty nonexistent. Save for Roxeria, which I later discovered was the Galician female form, possibly pronounced rohz-AIR-ee-uh. That led me to a few lists of female Galician names, ranging from common to rare. Here is a sampling of names not often heard here in the states... Albina Alda Alma Alodia Aloia Amada Amadora Amalia Amparo Anisia Antia Araceli Aranzazu Artemisa Avelina Azucena Baia Balbina Baltasara Beatriz Benvida Berenice Bieita Branca Braulia Caetana Carola Casilda Casimira Ceferina Celsa Cipriana Cira Clorinda Coralia Cornelia Cosima Davinia Delfina Desideria Dionisia Dominga Dorinda Dorotea Dositea Edelmira Edenia Elba Elvira Emiliana Etelvina ...
2 comments
Read more

Witchy Baby Girl Names!

Circe Invidiosa by John William Waterhouse Have a little girl due in October? Looking to name a character? Here's my [seemingly endless] list of witchy-sounding baby names. Most of them also fit in the "clunky but cool" category, or "vintage." Most plants, trees, herbs, spices, flowers, gems, space and nature names fit the bill, because in stories and current practice these things are useful to witches. I've put any actual witch names from legend, myth, literature, movies, etc in bold and up front. I have not considered the names of actual, living people or their Pagan names, and I've left out any characters that only have a surname, or truly ridiculous given names. In the second half you'll see a list of names that, to my knowledge, have not been used for witch characters. Please know that this is not a complete list. Wikipedia has an almost complete list you can view  here . Tabitha, Samantha, Endora, Clara, Serena  (Bewitched) Katrina...
25 comments
Read more