Boy names that mean peace
Peace reaches boys' names by three separate roads: the Germanic frid names, where peace is a ruler's duty; the Semitic root s-l-m, which puts Hebrew shalom and Arabic salām on the same three consonants; and the plain vocabulary words of Turkish, Japanese and Hawaiian. Every name below travels one of them.
- FrederickFRED-rikEnglish
Peaceful ruler, from Old High German frid (peace) + ric (power). The peace a lord was expected to keep, not the peace he enjoyed.
- FredrikFRED-rikSwedish
The Swedish shape of the same Germanic name. The ric that ends it also ends Erik and Henrik.
- FrederikFREDH-rekDanish
Frithu (peace) + rīk (ruler). Denmark has alternated Frederik and Christian on the throne for most of five centuries.
- Federicofeh-deh-REE-kohItalian
Ruler in peace: the Italian and Spanish heir of Frithuric, four clean syllables long.
- Fernandofer-NAHN-dohSpanish
Traditionally frithu (peace, protection) + nanth (daring). A competing reading takes the first element as fardi, journey.
- GeoffreyJEF-reeEnglish
The second element is frid, peace. The first has never been settled; territory, stranger and pledge have all been proposed.
- WilfredWIL-fredOld English
Desiring peace, from wil (will) + friþ (peace). The homegrown English cousin of every Frederick.
- SolomonSOL-uh-munHebrew
Built on shalom, peace and wholeness; usually rendered peaceable or his peace.
- Sulaimansoo-lay-MAHNArabic
The Qur'anic Sulaymān, the same figure as Solomon. Read as peace, and sitting comfortably on the cognate root s-l-m.
- Selemaniseh-leh-MAH-neeSwahili
The Swahili Sulaymān, four syllables and traditionally glossed man of peace.
- Salimsah-LEEMArabic
Safe, sound, intact, from the root s-l-m — the consonants behind salām and, one language over, shalom.
- Selimseh-LEEMTurkish
Sound, whole, free from harm: the Turkish vowel shape of Salim, borne by three Ottoman sultans.
- Barışbah-RUSHTurkish
Peace, and specifically peace made — the settling of a quarrel, from barışmak, to be reconciled.
- AkselAHK-selDanish
My father is peace, from Hebrew av + shalom, worn down from Absalom through medieval Absalon.
- AkseliAHK-seh-leeFinnish
The Finnish Absalom. The painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela was christened Axél and respelled himself in 1907.
- Mirosławmee-RAW-swahfPolish
Mir (peace) + -sław (glory) — with a caveat about mir set out below.
- Kazimierzkah-ZHEE-myeshPolish
Traditionally he who destroys the enemy's peace, from kazi- (to spoil) + -mir.
- LubomírLOO-bo-meerCzech
ľub (love, fondness) + mír (peace): the two gentlest elements in the whole Slavic stock, joined.
- DrahomírDRAH-ho-meerCzech
Drah- (dear, precious, as in Czech drahý) + mír.
- JaromírYAH-ro-meerCzech
Jarý (fierce, vigorous) + mír. Jaromír Jágr took it to the Olympics and kept playing into his fifties.
- AnAHNChinese
The character 安 — peace, calm, safe. It draws a roof over a woman: a household at rest. Vietnamese reads the same character An.
- Yamatoyah-MAH-tohJapanese
Great harmony, 大和, from 大 great + 和 harmony, peace. It was the old name of the country itself.
- NagiNAH-gheeJapanese
A lull: the moment at sea when the wind drops and the surface stills. Written 凪, a character invented in Japan.
- MaluMAH-looHawaiian
Shade, shelter, protection; peace and quiet. The related maluhia is serenity, hoʻomalu is to bring under one's care.
- Amenhotepah-mun-HOH-tepEgyptian
Amun is content, from the god's name + hotep, to be at peace. Four kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty carried it.
Three roads to one word
Peace as a job of work. The Germanic frid names are not wishes for a calm child. Frederick, Federico and Fredrik all say peace plus ruler, and the peace in question is public order: the thing a lord was supposed to impose on a territory. Wilfred is the Old English member of the family and Geoffrey the Norman one, and Fernando joins the same element to a word for daring.
One root, three scriptures. Hebrew shalom, Arabic salām and the name Salim are built on the same three consonants, s-l-m, whose core sense is being whole and unharmed rather than merely quiet. Solomon is Shlomo; Sulaiman is the Qur'anic form of the identical name; Selemani is what Swahili made of it on the East African coast. Aksel and Akseli come at shalom from a different direction, through Absalom, "my father is peace".
Peace as stillness. Turkish Barış, Chinese and Vietnamese An, Japanese Yamato and Nagi, and Hawaiian Malu are ordinary words of their languages, chosen because of what they say. Amenhotep is the oldest of them by three thousand years.
One honest caveat about the Slavic -mir names. Mirosław, Kazimierz, Lubomír, Drahomír and Jaromír all end in an element that modern Czech, Polish and Russian read as mir, peace. In the oldest layer that element was probably *měrŭ, "great, famous", and the peace reading is a later reanalysis — our page for Vladimir sets the problem out in full. The names really are understood as peace names today by the people who use them, which is why they are here, but the etymology is a reinterpretation rather than a straight line. In the same spirit, Paxton is not on this list: it is Pæcc's farmstead, and its resemblance to Latin pax is a coincidence.
More lists of this kind are indexed on the meanings hub.