Soraya
[soʊˈraɪə]Meaning
Persian form of the Arabic name Thurayya, from a word meaning 'brilliant gem' or 'Pleiades'
Background Story
Soraya comes from the Arabic Thurayya, the name for the Pleiades star cluster, and entered Persian as ثریا. It is used in Arabic, Malay and Turkish, and in Spain and the Spanish-speaking world as Zoraya, a form with its origin in Al-Andalus. The name became popular in parts of Europe through Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiari, wife of the last Shah of Iran, who became a European socialite. For phonological reasons it is usually transcribed as Suraya in Afghanistan and Surayyo in Tajikistan.
Related Names
Saoirse
Irish word for "freedom", from saoirse; used as a given name since the 20th century.
Shasta
Recorded as a given name in English (feminine) and Hinduism (masculine)
Sheeva
Sigrid
From Old Norse Sigríðr, sigr "victory" and fríðr "beautiful, beloved"
Sigrun
Norwegian form of Sigrún.
SigrúN
Old Norse for "victory rune"
Sinead
Irish feminine name, from French Jeanette, from Hebrew Yohanan, "God is gracious"
Svenny
A given name recorded in archaic Norwegian
Zarina
From Persian zarīn, "golden"
Ailani
Possibly from the rare Hawaiian name ʻAilani or the Spanish name Aylén