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An integral part of Wintertime festivals is the giving and receiving of gifts, which dates right back to the Roman festival of Saturnalia. Yule, Christmas, Passover and Diwali, to mention just a few, all share this one key element of gift-giving.
In Christian tradition, gift-giving echoes the gifts given to the baby Jesus; among the most prominent of which are the gifts of the Magi: gold, myrrh and frankincense.
"Gold" is found in many names from many languages. The Greeks had the word χρυσός (chrysos) which was used in names such as Chryses, Chryseis (which later became Cressida), Chrysa, Chrysanthos, Chrysanthe, Chrysanthi, Chrysallis, Chryseros, Chrysippos, Euchrysios, Helichrysos, Isochrysos and Kallichrysos.
The Latin aurum has lent Aurea, Aurelia, Aurelius, Aureliana, Aurelianus, Aurelie, Aurelien, Aurel, Aranka, Orabela, Oria and Oriana. Similarly sounding is the Irish or (in the name Orlaith/Orla) and the Welsh aur (in Eurig or Eurwen). We can also find Golda (Yiddish), Hema (Sanskrit), Kim (Sino-Vietnamese), Vanna (Khmer), Voski (Armenian), Zarina (Persian), and Zlatan, Zlata (Slavic).
The Hebrew מור (môr) "myrrh" can be found in the unisex Mor, and the feminine Limor. The Greek word was μυρον (myron) which was found in names such as Myron, Myro, Myrinos, Myronides, Myrinne and Smyrna. Myrra in Latin is sometimes cited as an origin for the name Myra.
Frankincense has little usage in names, but as far as translations go there is levonah (Hebrew), encens, oliban (France), franchincenso (Italian), franquincienso, olibano (Spanish), kadidlo (Czech), libani (Greek) and virak (Norwegian).
Moving back to "gift" itself, we can find it in a multitude of names:
The Greek δωρον (doron) was found in several names -- doros being the masculine; dora the feminine -- most usually following the name of a deity. Many, many names derive from this source such as Doron, Dora, Dorothea, Dorothy, Eudora, Pandora, Theodora and Theodore.
Closely related is the Latin donum from which we get Donat, Donatus, Donata, Donatella and Donatien.
The Bible gives us several "gift" names including Jesse, Mattan, Mattaniah, Matthew and Matthias.
The Hebrew שי (shai) is used in Abishai, Lishai, Shai and Yishai, while Arabic gives us Ata, Ataullah, Atiya, Hadiyya, Hiba, Ihab and Nawal.
Gifu / gyfu is the Anglo-Saxon word for "gift" which was used as the second compound in many feminine names. This last element was often Latinised is -iva, such as: Ælfgifu / Alviva, Æðelgifu / Aileva (Elgiva), Beorhtgifu / Brithiva, Éadgifu / Ediva, Godgifu / Godiva, Léofgifu / Leviva, Sunngifu / Sunniva and Wulfgifu / Wulviva.
Also worth mentioning is Adia (Swahili), Darina (Slavic) and Makana (Hawaiian) all meaning "gift".
