Names That Mean Star

Star names reach across nearly every culture that has looked up at night. Latin stella gave Stella, Estella, and Estelle, while Spanish supplies Estrella and Lucero, a word for a bright star often used for the morning star. Esther, the biblical queen, is widely thought to come from a Persian word for star, and Roxana and Soraya also have Persian roots tied to light and the stars.

Astronomy offers direct choices. Orion is the great hunter of Greek myth, placed in the sky as one of the best known constellations, and Lyra is the constellation of the lyre linked to the musician Orpheus. Danica and Danika come from a Slavic word for the morning star.

Some of the most meaningful names here come from beyond Europe. Tara is a Sanskrit word for star and the name of a revered figure in Hindu and Buddhist traditions. Dhruv refers to the pole star in Sanskrit, and Citlali means star in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs. Because these names come from so many traditions, ask how each is pronounced in its home language before settling on one.