Tamara (given name)
| Tamara | |
|---|---|
| Gender | Female |
| Origin | |
| Word/name | Hebrew |
| Meaning | palm tree (and others) |
| Other names | |
| Related names | Tammy, Tamy, Tami, Tammii, Tam, Tamera |
Tamara is a female given name most commonly derived from the Biblical name "Tamar", meaning date palm tree. In eastern European countries like Georgia, Armenia, Macedonia, Russia, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Poland, and the Czech Republic it has been a common name for centuries. In Australia it was very popular from the 1960s to 1990s. It is also used in Romania, although it is not very frequent.
In the United States, the name was fairly common from the late 1950s to mid 1990s, bolstered by the popularity of the film Tammy and the Bachelor (Tammy is commonly a nickname for Tamara). In the US the most girls named Tamara were born in 1970 and the number of Tamaras born per year was greater than 1,000 as late as 1996.[1]
The name is now fairly uncommon in the US: in 2010, the name fell off the Top 1000 SSA Baby Names list, with fewer than 250 baby girls named Tamara that year.[2]
In ancient Britain, Tamara was the goddess of rivers and streams. The River Tamar that forms the border between Devon and Cornwall derives its name from this spirit.
Variants
Variations include Tamar, Temara, Tamra, Tamera, and Tamora. In North America Tamara is typically pronounced Tam'-uh-ruh; in the United Kingdom and Australia it is sometimes pronounced as Tuh-mahr'-uh; and in Russia Taw-mahr' -uh. In Arabic it is pronounced Tah-mar-ah. The most common US nickname for Tamara is Tammy or Tam, but other nicknames exist, such as Tatia (თათია) Tamar (თამარ) or Tamuna (თამუნა) in Georgia, Toma in Russia, Mara, Tama or Tara.
One notable occurrence of the name 'Tamora' in literature is a character in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. In this play, Tamora is an ambitious and vengeful woman. Her sons plan to rape the daughter of Titus Andronicus and Tamora refuses the girl's pleas to stop them. Titus, in revenge for the brutal rape and disfigurement of his daughter, kills the young men, has them baked into a pie, and serves the pie to Tamora. Titus tells her that she has just eaten her sons immediately before killing her.
List of people with the given name Tamara
- Tamara Barnett-Herrin, British singer-songwriter
- Tamara Braun, American soap opera actress
- Tamara Buciuceanu, Romanian actress
- Tamara Bunke, better known as Tania the Guerrilla, a communist revolutionary
- Tamara Danz, German rock singer
- Tamara Diane Wimer, known as Isis Gee, American singer
- Tamara Drasin, Ukrainian-born singer-actress
- Tamara Ecclestone, English-Croatian socialite, television personality and model
- Tamara Feldman, American actress
- Tamara Gverdtsiteli, Georgian-Russian singer, actress and composer, People's Artist of Ingushetia, Georgia and Russia.
- Tamara Jaber, Australian singer
- Tamara Jones, singer and actress
- Tamara Karsavina, Russian ballerina
- Tamara Johnson, American indoor volleyball player
- Tamara Larrea, Cuban beach volleyball player
- Tamara de Lempicka, Polish art deco painter
- Tamara Maria Kler or Tamara Hunkeler, Swiss DJ known by her stage name Dinka
- Tamara Marthe, known as Shy'm, French singer
- Tamara McKinney, American skier
- Tamara Mello, American actress
- Tamara Mellon, president and founder of designer shoes company Jimmy Choo
- Tammy Faye Messner, American televangelist and reality TV star
- Tamara Metal, Israeli Olympic high jumper and long jumper, and captain of the Israel women's national basketball team
- Tamara Mkheidze, Georgian arachnologist
- Tamar of Georgia, Queen of Georgia
- Tamara Moskvina, Russian pairs figure skating coach
- Tamara Gorski, Canadian actor
- Tamara Moss, Indian model
- Tamara Rojo (born 1974), Spanish ballerina, principal dancer with The Royal Ballet, London
- Tamara Salman, Iraqi-born designer
- Tamara Macarena Valcárcel Serrano (born 1984), Spanish singer known as Tamara
- Tamara Sher, American psychologist
- Tamara Siuda, American author, and founder of the Kemetic Orthodox faith
- Tamara Sky, DJ and model
- Tamara Taylor, Canadian actress
- Tamara Todevska, Macedonian pop singer
- Tamara Toumanova, Georgian-Armenian ballerina and actress, active in Paris and Hollywood
- Tamara Tunie, American actress
- Tamara Witmer, American actress and model
- Tammy Sutton-Brown, American WNBA basketball player