Zemfira

z(y)em-FEER-ah

Unclear - possibly Greek or Romani

Zemfira Origin and Meaning

The name Zemfira is a girl's name .

The name of the tragic heroine of Alexander Pushkin's narrative poem The Gypsies, which has been adapted into several dozen ballets and operas. It may also have inspired Prosper Mérimée's novella Carmen, on which the famous opera of the same name was based.

The name has seen rare but regular use in Russia, particularly in the republics of Bashkortostan and Tatarstan, and in Azerbaijan. A famous bearer is the popular Russian rock musician Zemfira Talgatovna Ramazanova, known professionally simply as Zemfira.

Its origin is unclear, but it may be of Romani origin, or possibly from the Ancient Greek sappheiros ("sapphire") via Turkic.