Names That Mean Honorable

The origins of the name Brian are not entirely clear, but it is suspected that it evolved from an Old Celtic word related to nobility. In Ireland the name is associated with Brian Boru, the most famous of all Irish warrior-kings, credited with driving the Vikings out of Ireland around the year 1000.

Brianna's popularity in the US came later than father name Brian's, peaking in the 1990s, two decades after Brian's Top 10 reign of the 1970s.

An alternate spelling of Brian, Bryan's one of the most enduring of Irish imports. Bryan is now slightly more popular than the original, with associations to Bryan Cranston, Bryan Ferry and Bryan Brown.

Aryan derives from the Sanskrit word ārya, meaning "honorable" or "high-born." As a term, Aryan was used to describe Indo-Europeans—particularly Iranians—who shared common religious, cultural, and linguistic history. It was later misapplied by the Nazis to refer solely to Germanic and Nordic Caucasians, ultimately corrupting the term.

Spelled this way, Briana was coined by Edmund Spenser for his great literary work, The Faerie Queene, which gives the now-overexposed name a far classier pedigree than it's usually credited with.

Katana is a male name in Old Persian and a well-used word in Japanese, but as a girls' name is these days found more often as Kitana, the name of a princess in the video game Mortal Kombat II.

Aryan and Arian are common names in Iran but in the US and much of the English-speaking world, the term Aryan has strong connections with white supremacy. It's a name best avoided.

Long associated with Egyptian-born actor/bridge expert Omar Sharif, also a title bestowed on descendants of Muhammad.