6 responses so far ↓

• 1 karl // Apr 5, 2005 at 7:48 am

  My english language skills seem to be worse than I thought: Is it because Aryan ist close to the Nazi Arian (?) ideology?

• 2 steve // Apr 5, 2005 at 7:53 am

  Aryan is the Nazi Spelling: From http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=aryan

  “Ary·an adj.
  Word History: It is one of the ironies of history that Aryan, a word nowadays referring to the blond-haired, blue-eyed physical ideal of Nazi Germany, originally referred to a people who looked vastly different. Its history starts with the ancient Indo-Iranians, Indo-European peoples who inhabited parts of what are now Iran, Afghanistan, and India. Their tribal self-designation was a word reconstructed as *arya- or *rya-. The first of these is the form found in Iranian, as ultimately in the name of Iran itself (from Middle Persian rn (ahr), “(Land) of the Iranians,” from the genitive plural of r, “Iranian”). The variant *rya- is found unchanged in Sanskrit, where it referred to the upper crust of ancient Indian society. These words became known to European scholars in the 18th century. The shifting of meaning that eventually led to the present-day sense started in the 1830s, when Friedrich Schlegel, a German scholar who was an important early Indo-Europeanist, came up with a theory that linked the Indo-Iranian words with the German word Ehre, “honor,” and older Germanic names containing the element ario-, such as the Swiss warrior Ariovistus who was written about by Julius Caesar. Schlegel theorized that far from being just a designation of the Indo-Iranians, the word *arya- had in fact been what the Indo-Europeans called themselves, meaning something like “the honorable people.” (This theory has since been called into question.) Thus “Aryan” came to be synonymous with “Indo-European,” and in this sense entered the general scholarly consciousness of the day. Not much later, it was proposed that the original homeland of the Indo-Europeans had been in northern Europe. From this theory, it was but a small leap to think of the Aryans as having had a northern European physiotype. While these theories were playing themselves out, certain anti-Semitic scholars in Germany took to viewing the Jews in Germany as the main non-Aryan people because of their Semitic roots; a distinction thus arose in their minds between Jews and the “true Aryan” Germans, a distinction that later furnished unfortunate fodder for the racial theories of the Nazis.”

• 3 Kerrie S // Jan 5, 2007 at 7:08 pm

  An aquaintence of mine named her two daughters:
  Softly Sight XXXXXXXX and Holly High XXXXXXXX. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. These babies become ADULTS and life is heard enough without having a rediculous name to carry around. Be like most responsible parents and stick to the tried and true names that are still the most popular. Go and have a look at a list of the most popular baby names for 2005 – 2006 at The-Popular-Baby-Name-List.com

• 4 Nancy // Jan 26, 2007 at 5:22 pm

  I may be mistaken, but I believe “Justice” is the poor infant’s middle name, not surname. (Surnames are rarely divulged on these baby-name sites.) The parents were probably thinking ahr-YAHN jzhoos-TEES while the rest of the world is thinking “Heil, snookums!”

• 5 Shailen // Apr 1, 2007 at 3:30 am

  It’s not fair to criticize a name all due to the facts of recent history. Sanskrit ideology dates back well before the Nazi days and has no relevance to the ‘blond haired, blue eyed’ notion of the perfect person. I think that is wrong. Hitler was a mad man. Not a historian and definitely not a fortune teller. He twisted the Aryan ideology to suit his twisted story. It’s not right to dissolve a name which is thousands of years old. Sanskrit is considered the language of the gods in India.

  History needs to be preserved. I love the name Aryan. Being a descendent Aryan myself (from the Aria Shaba), I do not associate myself with the mess which took place in WWII. Rather, we are a thriving community which brought a new culture and thinking to India (Centuries ago). Decendents were scholars not killers.

  Surprisingly! All Hitler had to do was turn the Aryan symbol by 45 degrees and it became both a Nazis cross and a twisted Aryan symbol for us. Talk about twisted minds. Who was he trying to fool!

• 6 Kayleigh // Aug 28, 2007 at 9:34 am

  My son’s name is Aryan and I happen to love it. I am of no Indo-European descent, but his father is from Bangladesh (what was once West Pakistan). My family are caucasian Canadians and it took my mother awhile to adjust to the idea of my naming him this, as her ideology comes from the modern text of Hitler’s Nazi Aryan nation. But after some research to support that Aryan has nothing to do with Hitler’s warped mind, she warmed up to the name. I agree Shailen, Hitler was a mad man and has ruined a beautiful name and it’s “noble” meaning.

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