Names of the Week: Asa and Lumi

We’re looking at short and sweet names this week. One of our names has a connection with a fizzy drink, the other with Christmas.

This week’s male name is Asa; a Hebrew name, meaning doctor. Pronounced ay-sah, this name is short, yet understated. It also leads nicely to the possible nickname of Ace.

One of our most notable bearers is in the Old Testament, take a look and you will find an Asa as a King of Judah.  Scholars suggest he reigned sometime around 900 BC.

As well as being a Hebrew name, Asa is also the Japanese word for morning – an interesting way to honour an early-morning arrival.

He also appears in several other cultures:

• A Swedish female name, pronounced AW-suh.
• A Nigerian name meaning little hawk, pronounced ASH-a.
• The name of a river in Jordan.
• The name of a Kenyan God.
• Asa Raga is the Indian format of musical rules.
• Asa is an alternative name for naboot, a staff used in Egyptian stick fencing.

Another notable Asa is British Child actor, Asa Butterfield, who portrayed Bruno in the war film, The Boy in Striped Pyjamas.

And the fizzy drink connection? The finder of the Coca-Cola franchise was also an Asa – Asa Griggs Candler.

As for popularity, currently Asa sits at #553, he peaked at #512 in 1910. He fell off the list in 1945-1946, 1950-1973 and 1975. Since the beginning of the 21st Century, Asa has been rising consistently.

Our female name is Lumi. She’s the Finnish word for snow. And don’t we all dream of a White Christmas ( thanks to Charles Dickens)?

The name Lumi originally comes from the Proto-Uralic word lomi, meaning snow.

She is a legitimate baby name, since her name day is the 2nd February. She also has a variant name of Lumikki, which means Snow White in Finnish.

If Lumi were a Korean name, she would mean numerous beauty.

Where has Lumi been used? Well, the name is in fact used by a Dutch company (of all places), she’s part of their brand name. The company offers open source and open development software project for the analysis and comprehension of  methylation microarray data.

I’m not even going to pretend I know what that means, but it is interesting to see a Finnish name used by a Dutch company. This is Globalisation.

This also bodes well for Lumi outside of Finland (although she is not widely used there), if she can be used in The Netherlands by a company, she has the potential to work elsewhere.

I’ll leave you with this fact: Lumi is the name of a village in Yemen.