Mina is a given name with a variety of origins.

Egypt

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Mina, Mena or Meina (Coptic: ⲙⲏⲛⲁ) is a male given name for Egyptian Coptic Christians. It is often confused with the Greek name Menas.

Mina in the Coptic language (derived from ancient Egyptian language) means: a person who is steadfast, committed, unrelenting or determined.

Arabic

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Mina, Minah, Meena (Arabic: مِينَا mīnā) is an Arabic female given name transformed from the female given name "Amina", but perhaps the Arabic "Mina" is the Persian "Mina" which bears the meaning "stained (tinted) glass mirror", artistic paint (also generic name for enamel or varnish) for porcelain and metal.

Chinese

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Mina is a Chinese feminine given name. It may be written as 米娜, 蜜娜 and 密娜. Na (娜) is a commonly used character in Chinese female names.

  • Mina Shum (born 1966) is an independent Canadian filmmaker

Cambodian

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Mina is a unisex name which means the month of March in the Cambodian language, Khmer.[1] It is written មីនា.

India

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Meena is an Indian female given name.

Japanese

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Mina is a Japanese feminine given name. It may be written various ways in kanji, including , , 南 and .[2]

Korean

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Mina
Hangul
민아
Hanja
, , , and others
Revised RomanizationMin-a
McCune–ReischauerMina
Alternative spelling
Hangul
미나
Hanja
, and others
Revised RomanizationMi-na
McCune–ReischauerMina

Mina, Meena, and Minah are various Roman alphabet spellings of two homophonous Korean feminine given names with different hangul spellings. The meaning differs based on the hanja used to write each syllable of the name.

For the name Min-a (민아), there are 27 hanja with the reading "min" and 20 hanja with the reading "a" on the South Korean government's official list of hanja which may be used in given names.[3]

  • Bang Min-ah (born 1993), South Korean singer, member of girl group Girl's Day
  • Shim Mina (born 1972), South Korean singer
  • Jung Mina (born 1979), South Korean musician
  • Shin Min-a (born 1984), South Korean actress
  • Kwon Mina (born 1993), South Korean singer, member of girl group AOA
  • Jung Min-ah (born 1994), South Korean actress
  • Kang Min-ah (born 1997), South Korean actress
  • Justine Mina Ok (fl. 2000s), Korean American songwriter

For the name Mi-na (미나), there are 31 hanja with the reading "mi" and 16 hanja with the reading "na" on the South Korean government's official list of hanja which may be used in given names.[3]

  • Mina Cho (born 1960), South Korean writer
  • Son Mi-na (born 1964), South Korean handball player
  • Meena Lee (born 1981), South Korean golfer
  • Kang Mi-na (born 1999), South Korean singer

Persian

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Mina (Persian: مینا mīnā) is a female given name in Iran, meaning "azure", "azure sky", "blue (decanter) or glass", "glass bead", or "enamel". Mina is also another name of lapis lazuli (Persian: لاجورد lājward, colloquially "lāzward")

Mina is also the name for the birds mockingbird or myna ('morgh-e-mina' [Persian: مرغِ مينا murgh-i mīnā, literal meaning "Mina bird"]), which easily repeats many sounds like a human voice and the name of the flower marguerite (marguerite daisy) ("gol-e-mina" [Persian: گلِ مينا gul-i mīnā, literal meaning "Mina flower"]).[4]

The Turkish spelling of the name is Mine.

Pashto

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Meena or Mina (Pashto: مینه) means "love" in Pashto, an Eastern Iranian language spoken in Afghanistan and the Pashtun Diaspora of Pakistan,[5] which is the feminine noun for the word "lover" – the masculine form is "māyan میين". Although no source of it as used in a name except for the Persian "Mina". See Meena (disambiguation)

Other

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Mina can be a short form of the feminine names Wilhelmina, Hermina or Assimina (in the case of Greek names).

Fictional

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "The Khmer Calendar | Cambodian Religion, Festivals and Zodiac Astrology". The Human Origin Project. 25 April 2019. Retrieved 7 September 2022.
  2. ^ Breen, Jim (2011). Japanese Names Dictionary. Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group. Archived from the original on 5 December 2012. Retrieved 2 December 2012.
  3. ^ a b "인명용 한자표" [Table of hanja for use in personal names] (PDF). South Korea: Supreme Court. Retrieved 17 October 2013.
  4. ^ Steingass, Francis Joseph. "مینا mīnā". A Comprehensive Persian-English Dictionary. Digital Dictionaries of South Asia. University of Chicago. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  5. ^ Raverty, H.G. "مینه mai-nā". A Dictionary of the Puk'hto, Pus'hto, or language of the Afghans. Digital Dictionaries of South Asia. University of Chicago. p. 955. Retrieved 16 April 2014.