سُمَيَّة

[𐎛𐎁𐎗𐎅𐎎1]

Hello everybody!

I had a question about the girl's name سُمَيَّة. What is its meaning? It seems to be diminutive. What is it the diminutive of? I think it may be of سَماء what can could that mean?

Thanks

 

[Ali Smith]

Perhaps it's the diminutive of اِسْم 'name'?

 

[Sadda7]

It is a diminutive of سماء.

Perhaps it's the diminutive of اِسْم 'name'?

That would be سُمَيّ.

 

[Ali Smith]

It is a diminutive of سماء.

Are you sure? Why on earth would anyone want to name his daughter 'a small sky'?

It seems to be derived from سَما يَسْمُوْ سُمُوًّا 'to be(come) high' rather than سَماء 'sky'.

 

[Sadda7]

Are you sure? Why on earth would anyone want to name his daughter 'a small sky'?

We can't be sure of what their intention was with that, it could be a diminutive of anything سماء means not necessarily "sky", but سمية is indeed a diminutive of سماء and this is what the is said in grammar books.

 

[analeeh]

سماء is a name, so why wouldn't you use the diminutive?

 

[Mahaodeh]

Are you sure? Why on earth would anyone want to name his daughter 'a small sky'?

The diminutive is common in personal names (مثلا حسين وزبيد وعبيدة وصهيب وخويلد وغيرها). The diminutive is not only used to describe something small, but it’s also used as an endearing term (للتحبب) among others.

 

[Ali Smith]

So, عُمَيْر and زُبَيْر and حُسَيْن started out as terms of endearment?

 

[Mahaodeh]

If you mean that they were originally not diminutives when those people were named at birth, then, these were their original names. If you mean that they were given diminutive names as endearment, then that is very likely but parents name their children for a variety of reasons so we will probably never know.

 

[MohamedHakkam]

سُمية Sumaya, is a diminutive name of سِمة( trait or feature) which means in Arabic the distinctive mark. Refers to a very special person.

 

[Sadda7]

سُمية Sumaya, is a diminutive name of سِمة( trait or feature) which means in Arabic the distinctive mark. Refers to a very special person.

No, سِمة is from وسم like صِلة is from وصل, its form is عِلَة (originally فِعْلة) with an omitted واو.
In the diminutive form you bring back the original letter and it becomes وُسَيمة, and صِلة => وُصيلة, هِبَة => وُهيبَة etc.