Aria (name)

Aria can be a male, female, or even a unisex name depending on the country of origin. The Persian Arya (Persian: آریا) is a male name that means "noble". Italian Aria refers both "air" and the melody, aria. In the Albanian language, Aria or Ari means "treasure" or "gold" or "of high value". In Hebrew, (Hebrew: אריה, romanized: Arye), the name means "lion", while the alternate Ariyah (Hebrew: ארייה) means "God's (-Yah) Lion (Arye)". The Hebrew meaning is also carried over to Neo-Aramaic dialects (Syriac: ܐܪܝܐ). The term Arya has been used by the Iranian people, as well as by the rulers and emperors of Iran, from the time of the Avesta. Evidently from the time of the Sassanids (226–651 CE) Iranians have called it Iran, meaning the "Land of the Aryans" and Iranshahr. In Middle Persian sources, the name Arya and Iran is used for the pre-Sassanid Iranian empires as well as the Sassanid empire. As an example, the use of the name "Iran" for Achaemenids in the Middle Persian book of Arda Viraf. The Proto-Iranian term for Iran is reconstructed as *Aryānām (the genitive plural of the word *Arya); the Avestan equivalent is Airyanem (as in Airyanem Vaejah).