Where does the name Yarisca come from?

June 19, 2017 6:15 PM

I recently met someone named Yari, short for Yarisca. I am curious about the origin of this first name and wondering where it comes from and what it means. Any help?

My internet sleuthing tells me that it is uncommon and seems to be used in Spanish-speaking parts of the world. I don't feel comfortable asking this person about their cultural heritage.

posted by bq to Writing & Language (4 answers total)

My guess is this person is Cuban, and their name is part of Generación Y.

The TL;DR; is that Cubans got creative with their naming towards the end of the Cold War, and names that started with Y were/are very common.
posted by sideshow at 8:17 PM on June 19, 2017 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Could be (or named after someone of that age group) but I've also found a number of results for the same name (male and female) spelled with a J. I suspect it comes from somewhere.
posted by bq at 9:05 PM on June 19, 2017

Best answer: My vote is for Generacion Y as well - I know a lot of Puerto Ricans with Y-starting names, including several Yaritzas (potential origin here). There's no specific genesis besides naming trends to the best of my knowledge. I also know a Yanira, a Yaimilis, and a Yelitza. They don't have a clear origin, either.
posted by quadrilaterals at 7:13 AM on June 20, 2017

Yanira is a Hawaiian name, Yaimilis sounds like a different romanisation of Yamile, of middle-eastern origin.

Yarisca could be a variation of (or have a common root with) Yara (also romanised as Hiara), another middle-eastern name. Yara means "small butterfly" in Arabic, and "someone you love" in Persian.
posted by Promethea at 10:30 AM on June 20, 2017 [1 favorite]