Talk:Tamara (name)

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Tamara (name) is currently a Language and literature good article nominee. Nominated by The Blue Rider at 00:56, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

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Short description: Feminine given name

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Etymology

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Sources?

Can we get some sources on this? this site said that it also means date palm www.family.sg/editorial/article.aspx?Id=94&sc=9 --Davidkazuhiro 21:59, 8 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Tamara means date (the fruit) not palm tree — Preceding unsigned comment added by 110.174.78.102 (talk • contribs) 09:35 22 July 2012‎ UTC

Pronunciation?

Could anybody make at least a partial overview how this name is pronounced in the non-english speaking countries? Here I mean especially where the accent is placed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.161.230.145 (talk) 13:17, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

In Israel the pronunciation is like Tah-mah-rah, it's a bitch to pronounce if you don't try it a couple dozen times. Hpelgrift (talk) 17:12, 12 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

In North America Tamara is pronounced Tam-uh-ruh

Not necessarily. I've known several Tu-MA-ras (and no "Tam-uh-ruhs"). Kostaki mou (talk) 19:19, 21 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Inconsistencies and contradictions in the etymology

The lead opens with:

Tamara is a feminine given name with origins in Hebrew, Arabic, Spanish, Hindi, Sanskrit, and Russian. The name means date, date palm, or palm tree and is derived from the biblical name Tamar (Hebrew: תמר tamar). In Arabic, it comes from the singular form Tamra (Arabic: تَمْرَة tamrah) and the plural form Tamar (Arabic: تَمْر tamr).

The first and second sentences are immediately contradictory. I can understand if this name is used in multiple languages, but how could it possibly have origins in all of these languages: Hebrew, Arabic, Spanish, Hindi, Sanskrit, and Russian. Either "Tamara" is an English transliteration of multiple names from a wide variety of languages, each with its own etymology, in which case the page should reflect that, or this sentence is confusing "use" with "origin", or it is just flatly wrong. The second and third sentences also give it Hebrew and Arabic etymologies. The Arabic and Hebrew names have the same meaning, roughly, date. But, again, are these separate names that were used independently that happen to have similar etymologies and forms because Hebrew and Arabic are both Semitic languages? Did one language borrow it from the other? The lead leaves this unclear. Was the name Tamara even used in the non-Jewish Arabic-speaking world before modern times? If not, just because it can be retroactively assigned an Arabic meaning does not mean it has an Arabic origin.

As for the etymology section, there is an attempt made to give the name etymologies in several of the languages mentioned in the lead. But again, just because a name happens to mean something in a language does not mean it originated from that language. Is there, for example, an independent history of the use of the name in Sanskrit sources, or is this just a later/modern attempt to assign a Sanskrit meaning to the word now that Indians may also name their children Tamara? This is without going into the general unreliability of many of the sources, or the fact that I find some of the etymologies suspect in languages I know. For example, I have never heard तामर to mean "spice" in Hindi or any Indian language, nor could I find it in any of several Hindi dictionaries I checked. The sources for that particular claim are from name dictionaries, both quite dated, the authors of which cannot be believed to be particularly reliable sources of knowledge on Hindi. Brusquedandelion (talk) 04:40, 16 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]