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

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

Elowen

Elowen is a recent Cornish baby name meaning "elm." It may not take off in America like the last Cornish hit, Jennifer, but it's certainly pretty. She's part of a "linguistic revival," as Appellation Mountain puts it  here . Her nickname could be Ellie, Elle or Ella, or a more unusual choice, Wendy. The pronunciation of Elowen is "ell-LOH-en," though most Americans will probably stick with "ELL-oh-wen." Please note that it is not spelled Elowyn. There is a similar name, Eowyn, but if you spell it Elowyn it will no longer be the Cornish name meaning elm tree, just some creative name. Other great Cornish names include Penrose, Chesten (the Cornish form of Christine), Demelza, Denzel, Hammitt, Kerensa/Kerenza, Meraud (very similar to French gem name Emeraude, both meaning emerald, but Meraud is pronounced "meh-row"), Merryn, Morwenna, Tremain, Emblyn, Jory, Massen, Treeve and Cotton. Here's 's a link to a post on Cornish n...
2 comments
Read more

Ancient Germanic Female Deities

Loki and Idun by John Bauer Here is a list of ancient Germanic goddess and personifications. There is some overlap with the goddesses of the Norse pantheon, and I've limited it to those names that I think would wear well today on modern babies. Of the following names, only the following were used in 2016. Sol was given to 91 girls, Ran to 5 girls, Saga to 9 girls, and Beyla to 6 girls. Beyla - as a possible agricultural personification, her name could mean "cow," "bean," or "bee," but she has been associated with bees and mead, so my guess is "bee." However, there's been a proposed connection to the reconstructed Proto-Norse name Baunila, which means "little bean." This is also a Spanish and Italian girls name. Fulla - possibly means "bountiful." Her other name is Volla, which I think is equally accessible as a name. She is a virgin goddess in Old Norse mythology. Gersemi - means "treasure." Sh...
Post a Comment
Read more