Blue is a colour of serenity. For centuries it has been used to represent both the sea and the sky and the deities that resided over them. In Feng Shui, blue is considered to be healing and calming and is used in areas of rest such as the bedroom. It is also the colour of the UN flag, used to represent unity and peace.
In today's society we use blue for baby boys, and pink for girls, however, this was not always the case. Blue was originally the colour for girls, as it reflected the mantle of the Virgin Mary.
Words used to desribe the colour blue include: peace, tranquility, calmness, harmony, honor, soothing, understanding, devotion, patience, comfort, forgiveness, unity, devotion.
There are several shades of blue including:
Aquamarine
Azure
Alice Blue
Aqua
Beryl
Celeste
Carolina Blue
Cerulean
Cobalt Blue
Cyan
Indigo
Iris
Lovat
Maya Blue
Mazarine
Navy
Periwinkle
Sapphire
Slate
Teal
Tiffany Blue
Turquoise
Blue itself is finding some use for both boys and girls; as is the French Bleu and Italian Blu. As a first name it is mostly confined for boys (12 boys were named Blue, 12 named Blu and 9 Bleu in 2010) but we do find it used as a middle name for girls. Blewett, Blewitt, Blouet and Bluett are surnames used in Britain that derive from the Old French bleuet "bluish", a diminutive of bleu
In other countries we can find some "blue" names in use. Nilima "blue," Nila "dark blue" and Sunil "very dark blue" in Sanskrit are found as names in India. The poetic Finnish form of blue, Sini, is found in Finland, and Odeta, which is believed to be derived from deti "blue" is used in Armenia. The English name for Sapphire, the distinctly blue gemstone, derives ultimately from the Hebrew sappir. Sapphira appears as a character in the New Testament.
The Proto-Celtic *glasto- "green, blue, grey" has lent to the adjective glas in both Welsh and Irish. The boundaries between the colours were less distinct originally in the Celtic languages, so glas could be used for shades of green, blue and grey. Irish derivatives include Glass, borne by a legendary king of Munster; Glaisne, a king of Ulster and favourite among the Mac Mahons; and Glassan, a saint, and prince of Ulster.
Welsh variants include Glesni, Glesig, Glasfryn (glas + bryn "hill"), Glasnant (glas + nant "stream") and Glasynys (glas + ynys "island").
Direct translations in other languages include azul (Spanish, Portuguese), mavi (Turkish), modry (Czech) and sinine (Estonian).
