Zehra (name)

Zehra (variants: "Zerah", "Zahra", "Zahrah", "Zarah", "Zara", "Zaara", "Zohra", "Zohrah", "Zora", "Zorrah") is a female given name, that might have a Swahili, [ [http://www.babychatter.com/babynames/name_zahra.html|Baby Chatter] ] Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, [ [http://www.etoile.co.uk/Columns/RoyalScribe/040308.html|Royal Scribe] ] Slavic [ [http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/0/Zora|Think Baby Names] ] or English origin (where it may be another form of Sara or Sarah). [ [http://www.babynames.com/Names/name_display.php?id=4204|Baby Names] ] It means all of the following:

* a flower, [ [http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=zahrah|Behind The Name] ] or to blossom [ [http://www.babynamesworld.com/meaning_of_Zahra.html|Baby Names World] ]
* radiance, [ [http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/0/Zara|Think Baby Names] ] brilliant, bright [ [http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=zahra|Behind The Name] ] or fair [ [http://www.babynames.com/Names/name_display.php?id=5562|Baby Names] ]
* dawn [ [http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/0/Zora|Think Baby Names] ] or bright as the dawn [ [http://www.etoile.co.uk/Columns/RoyalScribe/040308.html|Royal Scribe] ]
* princess [ [http://www.etoile.co.uk/Columns/RoyalScribe/040308.html|Royal Scribe] ]
*the colour white [ [http://www.weddingvendors.com/baby-names/meaning/zahrah/|Wedding Vendors] ]

The variant "Zara" or "Zerah" or "Zarah" is also a male first name that occurs in [http://www.google.com/custom?domains=NewAdvent.org&q=zara&sitesearch=NewAdvent.org&client=pub-8168503353085287&forid=1&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&safe=active&cof=GALT%3A%23008000%3BGL%3A1%3BDIV%3A%23336699%3BVLC%3A663399%3BAH%3Acenter%3BBGC%3AFFFFFF%3BLBGC%3A336699%3BALC%3A0000FF%3BLC%3A0000FF%3BT%3A000000%3BGFNT%3A0000FF%3BGIMP%3A0000FF%3BFORID%3A1%3B&hl=en|several instances] within the Bible, including one that may refer to an Egyptian Pharaoh: Osorkon I or Osorkon II; The first part of a male Ethiopian first name, as in Zara Yaqob. Zerah was also a son of Tamar (Gen. 38:30) and a Gershonite Levite (1 Chr. 6:21, 41). The variant Zora is also a male first name, as in the name of Zora Arkus-Duntov, the Belgian-born U.S. engineer. The variant "Zaara" is an archaic variant of Sahara, both being English transliterations of the original Arabic word for desert.

People with the name Zehra or its variants

* Fatimah Zahra, daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad {صلواة الله عليها و آلها}
* Fatima-Zohra Imalayen, Algerian novelist, translator and filmmaker
* Zahra Kazemi, Iranian (Persian)-born freelance photographer
* Fatima Zohra Karadja, Vice-President for the African Union's Economic, Social and Cultural Council for Northern Africa
* Zara Curtis, a dancer. She's seen on the DVD Celtic Thunder, dancing in "That's a Woman!", "Heartbreaker" and small time appearance in another song sung by Paul Byrom.
* Zara Anne Elizabeth Phillips, daughter of Princess Anne
* Zahra Freeth, British writer on Middle Eastern subjects
* Asuran Zara, one of the main characters from the anime series Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny
* Zara Cully, American character actress
* Zara Whites, Dutch porn actress
* Zora Neale Hurston, American folklorist and author
* Zarah Leander, Swedish actress and singer
* Zara Sheikh, Pakistani model and actress
* Zohra Lampert, American character actress
* Zohra Daoud, former Afghani, actress and model [http://afghanland.com/entertainment/missafg.html]
* Zohra Segal, British Indian actress [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/857648/index.html]
* Zohra Drif, retired lawyer and longtime senior member of the Algerian senate
* Zohra Nigah, Pakistani Urdu poetess
* Zohra Ben Lakhdar, Professor of Physics at the University of Tunis, Tunisia and 2005 L'Oreal-UNESCO Award Laureate for Africa [http://www.myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?hero=LAKHDAR]
* Zohra Bellahsene, Professor in Computer Science at the University of Montpellier II, and author of various books [http://www.amazon.com/s?search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Zohra%20Bellahs%C3%A8ne&page=1]
* Zora Andrich, American model and actress
* Zora Arkus-Duntov, Belgian-born U.S. engineer

Places with the name Zehra or its variants

* The city ruins of Medina Azahara (Arabic: Madinat Al-Zahra) in Córdoba (Spain)
* Žehra is a village and municipality in the Spišská Nová Ves District in the Košice Region of central-eastern Slovakia
* Zara, the Italian name of the Adriatic port city of Zadar (official 13th-20th century), former capital of Dalmatia, in Croatia
* Zara (Turkish district), a district in the Turkish province of Sivas
* Zara, Eritrea, a city in central-western Eritrea

Other references to the name Zehra or its variants

* Zora, a fictional race in "The Legend of Zelda" series of video games
* Literary references to the deserts of Zaara
* Zaara Haayat Khan, lead character in the Yash Chopra Hindi / Urdu film "Veer-Zaara"
* Zahrah, main character of Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu's debut children's novel "Zahrah the Windseeker"
* Zara, the flagship chain store for the Spanish Inditex Group
* Archdiocese of Zara, [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15752a.htm] located in Dalmatia, a diocese since A.D. 381 and since 1146 an archdiocese
* Zara Spook, a type of fishing lure
* The Italian cruiser Zara
* The Zara class cruiser
* ZORA short for Zurich Open Repository and Archive, provides open and worldwide access to the research and scholarly output of the University of Zurich, Switzerland [http://www.zora.unizh.ch/zora/]

ee also

* List of peoples
* List of adjectival forms of place names
* Most popular given names
* List of unusual personal names
* Unisex name
* Arabic Name

References