Vera (given name)

Vera (Cyrillic: Ве́ра Véra, “faith”) is a female first name of Russian origin, and by folk etymology it has also been explained as Latin vera meaning true. In Russian, Vera means faith.[1] The name Vera has been used in the English speaking world since the 19th century and was popular in the early 20th century.[2]

Vera
Pronunciation/ˈvɪərə, ˈvɛrə/
GenderFemale
Origin
Word/nameRussian
Meaning"Truth" or "Faith" Albanian: "Summer"
Region of originEurope
Other names
Related namesVeronica, Verena, Olivera, Severa
Popularitysee popular names

Gender: Feminine[3]

Usage: English, German, Italian, Spanish, Scandinavian, Slovak, Czech, Greek, Dutch, Slovene, Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian, Macedonian, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian,[3] Albanian, French, Polish, Armenian, Hungarian, Romanian.

Other scripts: Вера (Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Macedonian), Βέρα (Greek)

Diminutives: Veer, Veerke (Dutch), Verica (Serbian and Croatian), Verka or Vierka (Slovakian), Verochka, Verusha (Russian).

Other languages: Verel (French), Věra (Czech), Veera (Finnish), Veer (Dutch), Wiera (Polish), Vira (Ukrainian), Viera (Slovak), Veronique (French), Veronica (Romanian)

Origin

In the Ancient Greek and Christian faith, Saint Fides (Faith or Vera), her sisters Spes (Hope) and Caritas (Love) and their mother Sophia (Wisdom), died as martyrs in the second century AD during the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire under the emperor Hadrian. The names are also the words designating the three key Christian virtues mentioned in Apostle Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 13:13).

In the English language, late 13c., verray "true, real, genuine," later "actual, sheer" (late 14c.), from Anglo-French verrai, Old French verai "true, truthful, sincere; right, just, legal," from Vulgar Latin *veracus, from Latin verax (genitive veracis) "truthful," from verus "true" (source also of Italian vero), from PIE root *were-o- "true, trustworthy." Meaning "greatly, extremely" is first recorded mid-15c. Used as a pure intensive since Middle English.[4]

In Albanian the meaning of the word "vera" is summer. The Albanian male version of the name Vera is Veriu which has the meaning "north" alb. (veri, veriu).

A

B

C
  • Vera Alexandrovna Tiscenko Calder (1902–1983), Russian actress
  • Vera Carmi (1914–1969), Italian film actress
  • Vera Carrara (born 1980), Italian professional racing cyclist
  • Vera Cáslavská (born 1942), Czech gymnast
  • Vera Caspary (1899–1987), American writer
  • Vera Celis (born 1959), Belgian politician
  • Věra Černá (born 1963), Czech artistic gymnast
  • Vera Chapman (1898–1996), English author and founder of the first Tolkien Society
  • Vera Chino (born 1943), Native American potter
  • Vera Chirwa (born 1932), Malawian-born lawyer and human and civil rights activist
  • Vera Chytilová (born 1929), Czech film director
  • Véra Clouzot (1913–1960), Brazilian-born French film actress and screenwriter
  • Vera Coking, American eminent domain litigant
  • Grand Duchess Vera Constantinovna of Russia (1854–1912), daughter of Grand Duke Konstantine Nicholaievich of Russia
  • Princess Vera Constantinovna of Russia (1906–2001), youngest child of Grand Duke Konstantine Konstantinovich of Russia
  • Vera Cordeiro (born 1950), Brazilian social entrepreneur and physician
  • Vera Cornish, British stage and film actress

D

E
  • Vera Elkan (1908–2008), South African photographer

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P
  • Vera Page (1921-1931), British murder victim
  • Vera Jayne Palmer (1933–1967), birth name of Jayne Mansfield, American actress
  • Vera Panova (1905–1973), Soviet novelist, playwright, and journalist
  • Vera Pauw (born 1963), Dutch football coach and former player
  • Vera Pavlova (born 1963), Russian poet
  • Vera Pearce (1895–1966), Australian stage and film actress
  • Vera Perlin (1902–1974), Canadian humanitarian
  • Vera Pezer (born 1939), Canadian curler and academic
  • Vera Pless (born 1931), American mathematician
  • Vera Popkova (1943–2011), Soviet track and field athlete
  • Vera Popova (1867–1896), Russian chemist
  • Vera Pospíšilová-Cechlová (born 1978), Czech athlete
  • Vera Putina (born 1926), Georgian woman who claims that Vladimir Putin is her lost son

R

S

T

U

V

W

Y

Z

Fictional characters
  • Vera, a character on the Spanish children's television program Barrio Sésamo
  • Vera, a character from Tolstoy's novel War and Peace
  • Vera, a character from Lermontov's novel A Hero of Our Time
  • Vera is the name given to a gun by Jayne Cobb in the television show Firefly
  • Vera Adare, character from V.C. Andrews' standalone novel, My Sweet Audrina
  • Vera Claythorne, character from Agatha Christie's novel And Then There Were None
  • Vera Dietz, the titular character of the young adult novel by A.S. King, Please Ignore Vera Dietz
  • Vera Donovan, a character from Stephen King's novel Dolores Claiborne
  • Vera Douka, fictional character in the ANT1 television series Erotas
  • Vera Drake, title character of a 2004 British Mike Leigh film
  • Vera Duckworth, a character from the British soap opera, Coronation Street
  • Vera Juarez, character from the British television soap opera Torchwood: Miracle Day
  • Vera Keyes, a character from Fallout: New Vegas of the DLC, Dead Money
  • Vera, one of the "Macaw Sisters" played by Anna Stolli in the original 2015 Edinburgh cast of Love Birds: the musical
  • Vera Möldersm, a character from Strike Witches
  • Vera Peterson, an unseen character on the television show Cheers
  • Vera Sweet, a character from DC Comics, and love interest to the Creeper
  • Vera Stanhope, character in a series of detective novels by Ann Cleeves and the television series Vera based on these novels

See also

References
  1. Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges: Oxford Dictionary of First Names (2003)
  2. Hanks, Patrick (2006). A Dictionary of First Names. Oxford University Press.
  3. In the Russian language, Vera may also be a diminutive of the male first names Avenir and Averky.
  4. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=very
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