Names That Mean Essence

Sounds like a fictional rank of royalty.

Spiritual word names are becoming more and more popular – think Peace, Bodhi, Zen and Psalm – and Spirit is among the rarer options, given to a couple dozen baby girls each year in the US. It's the name of the horse in the kids' TV show Spirit.

Pronounced mah-zah, Maaza means a pleasant scent, usually from a yellow daisy popular in Ethiopia. Hot young Ethiopian-American novelist Maaza Mengiste introduced the name to our shores.