Saturday, January 2, 2016

Potential -ianas and -inas

We get lots of our modern names from Latin--no denying that! And many of them are obviously closely related--Lucia & Luciana, Paula & Paulina, Julia & Juliana, etc. While -ina is usually considered a diminutive nowadays, back then, it was a suffix of possession or origin, as was -iana. So, Luciana = "like/of Lucia/Lucius/light"; and Paulina = "like/of Paula/Paulus/a small thing".
We already have a lot of these pairs, but since -ana is a rather trendy ending right now, I though it'd be fun to see if there's any we've forgotten, or possibly have never been used.
(there doesn't seem to be a hard rule for when words/names get -iana and when they get -ina. Usually -ia names become -iana and anything else is -ina, but not always. There's also a third suffix, -ana, but that one's pretty uncommon.)

  • Aetiana, Aetina; from Aetius
  • Amabiliana, Amabilina; from Amabilia 
  • Amandina; from Amanda 
  • Amantina, Amantiana; from Amantis 
  • Amatina; from Amata 
  • Appiana; from Appius
  • Atiliana, Atilina; from Atilius
  • Aulina, Auliana; from Aulus
  • Aureana, Aurina; from Aurea 
  • Aurorina, Auroriana; from Aurora 
  • Aviliana, Avilina; from Avilia
  • Avitina; from Avitus
  • Beatina; from Beata
  • Caeciliana/Ceciliana; from Caecilia/Cecilia
  • Caeliana/Celiana; from Caelia/Celia
  • Camilliana, Camillina; from Camilla
  • Cardeana, Cardina; from Cardea 
  • Cassiana; from Cassius
  • Celsina; from Celsus
  • Clarina, Clariana; from Clara
  • Claudiana, Claudina; from Claudia
  • Cloelina, Cloeliana; from Cloelia
  • Concordina; from Concordia 
  • Corneliana; from Cornelia
  • Drusina; from Drusa
  • Drusilliana, Drusillina; from Drusilla
  • DuilianaDuilina; from Duilius
  • Egeriana; from Egeria
  • Eliciana; from Elicius
  • Eligiana, Eligina; from Eligius
  • Emerentina; from Emerentius
  • Fulviana; from Fulvia
  • Gallina, Galliana; from Gallus
  • Hilariana; from Hilaria
  • Janina/Ianina; from Janus/Ianus
  • Jovina/Iovina, Joviana/Ioviana; from Jove/Iovis
  • Juniana/Iuniana; from Junia/Iunia
  • Laeliana; from Laelia
  • Laurina, Lauriana; from Laura
  • Luciliana; from Lucilius
  • Marciana, Marcina; from Marcia
  • Maurina; from Maurus
  • Naeviana/Neviana, Naevina/Nevina; from Naevius/Nevio
  • Octaviana; from Octavia
  • Olivina; from Oliva
  • Patriciana; from Patricia
  • Priscina; from Prisca
  • Priscilliana, Priscillina; from Priscilla
  • Remigiana; from Remigius
  • Remina; from Remus
  • Sabelliana, Sabellina; from Sabellius
  • Silviana/Sylviana, Silvina/Sylvina; from Silvia/Sylvia
  • Tulliana; from Tullius
  • Ursina; from Ursa
  • Variana; from Varius
  • Victoriana; from Victoria
  • Vitina, Vitiana; from Vitus

If you want an -iana that's a bit less "out-there" but still uncommon, I did an earlier post here. :)

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