Meaning theme
44 Names That Mean Night
Names that mean night include Layla (Arabic), Nyx (Greek), Nisha and Rajani (Sanskrit), Chausiku (Swahili), and Otieno (Luo). Layla, meaning night, is a longtime American favorite, while Vesper and Hesper evoke the evening and the evening star in Latin and Greek.
Night names hold a velvet glamour, suggesting starlit quiet rather than darkness to be feared. Arabic poetry made Layla immortal, Greek myth personified night as the primordial goddess Nyx, and Swahili and Luo traditions name children for the hour of their birth. These names share a true etymological link to night and evening.
- Adham MasculineArabic“black”
- Ahlam FeminineArabic“dreams”
- Azrael MasculineHebrew“God is my help; the angel of death”
- Chausiku FeminineSwahili“born at night”
- Ciara FeminineIrish“dark, black-haired”
- Citlali FeminineNahuatl“star”
- Donovan MasculineIrish“descendant of the dark one”
- Esther FemininePersian and Hebrew“star”
- Hesper FeminineGreek“evening star”
- Hilal MasculineArabic“crescent moon”
- Hoku UnisexHawaiian“star”
- Hoshi FeminineJapanese“star”
- Ilta FeminineFinnish“evening”
- Isra FeminineArabic“night journey”
- Kieran MasculineIrish“little dark one”
- Layla FeminineArabic“night”
- Luna FeminineLatin“the moon”
- Mahina FeminineHawaiian“moon, moonlight”
- Mara FeminineHebrew“bitter”
- Maya FeminineSanskrit“illusion, magic”
- Melanie FeminineGreek“black, dark”
- Morpheus MasculineGreek“shaper of dreams”
- Najm MasculineArabic“star”
- Nisha FeminineSanskrit“night”
- Nishant MasculineSanskrit“end of night, daybreak”
- Nyx FeminineGreek“night”
- Orion MasculineGreek“uncertain; the hunter of Greek myth”
- Otieno MasculineLuo“born at night”
- Qamar UnisexArabic“moon”
- Rajani FeminineSanskrit“night”
- Raven FeminineEnglish“the black bird”
- Roya FemininePersian“dream, vision”
- Samar FeminineArabic“evening conversation”
- Sauda FeminineSwahili“dark-complexioned”
- Selene FeminineGreek“moon”
- Seren FeminineWelsh“star”
- Sitara FemininePersian and Urdu“star”
- Soma MasculineSanskrit“the moon; the sacred ritual drink”
- Swapnil MasculineSanskrit“dreamlike”
- Tariq MasculineArabic“he who knocks by night; the morning star”
- Tsukiko FeminineJapanese“moon child”
- Vesper UnisexLatin“evening”
- Winter UnisexEnglish“the cold season”
- Yama MasculineSanskrit“twin; the god of death”
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Questions
Layla, from the Arabic word for night, is by far the most popular, ranking high in the American top 100 for years. Nisha and Rajani both mean night in Sanskrit, and Nyx names the Greek primordial goddess of night, a dramatic pick for bold parents.
Otieno is a Luo name from Kenya given to boys born at night. Tariq, an Arabic name meaning the one who comes knocking by night, traditionally refers to the morning star and carries centuries of history, including the general Tariq ibn Ziyad.
Yes. Layla comes directly from the Arabic word layl, meaning night, and is often poetically glossed as night beauty. The name was carried into Western pop culture by the seventh-century romance of Layla and Majnun and later by Eric Clapton's song Layla.
Chausiku is a Swahili girls' name meaning born at night, and Otieno is its masculine counterpart in the Luo language of Kenya. Both belong to a wide African tradition of names recording the time or circumstances of a child's birth.