baelor:

🌟 i randomly spent all day making a masterpost of the non-East Asian names in Avatar 🌟

ASIA

These are all real, common, well-known names and words with widely available translations.

Inner Asia

Tibetan names:

• Gyatso (རྒྱ་མཚོ།) – “ocean”
• Pema (པདྨ།) – “lotus flower”
• Tenzin (བསྟན་འཛིན) – “upholder of the Dharma” or “defender of the faith”
• Yangchen (དབྱངས་ཅན།) – Tibetan translation of Sanskrit “Saraswati”, the Hindu goddess of knowledge, music, arts, wisdom and nature

Mongolian names:

• Baatar (ᠪᠠᠭᠠᠲᠦᠷ (baγatur) / баатар (baatar)) – “hero”
• Mongke (ᠮᠥᠩᠬᠡ (möngke) / mөнх (mönkh)) – “eternal”
• Ogodei (ᠥᠭᠡᠳᠡᠢ (Ögedei) / Өгэдэй (Ögedei)) – unknown meaning
• Saikhan (сайхан (saikhan)) – “beautiful”, “handsome”

Khitan names:

• Yeh-Lu (yelü / 耶律 (Yēlǜ)) – unknown meaning

Central Asia

Uzbek names:

• Yulduz – “star”

South Asia

Sanskrit names:

• Bumi (भूमिः (bhūmiḥ)) – “earth”
• Avatar (अवतारः

  (avatāraḥ)) – “descent”

• Raava (रवः

  (ravaḥ)) – “sound”

• Vaatu (वतु

  (vatu)) – “silence”

Hindi-Urdu names:

• Kuvira (कुविरा) – “courageous woman”
• Pathik (पथिक) – “traveler”
• Rohan (रोहण) – “ascension”

NORTH AMERICA

Most of the Water Tribe names are made up. Only a few are for-sure legit and verifiable like Noatak which is a real place in Alaska with an Inupiaq name.

Some are listed on sketchy baby name sites (and a lot of dog name sites which seems really racist…) and I included these in square brackets meaning take them with a big grain of salt.

I also found some similar-sounding words in Inuttut, an Inuit dialect spoken in Nunatsiavut (from this museum dictionary), that seem to have similar etymologies. I included those, along with other similarities, in curly brackets.

Also, I transliterated all the names into the Inuktitut script, which is only used in Nunavut and Nunavik in Canada, but I thought it would be fun to do it for all of them anyway.

Northern North America

Inuit-Yupik names:

• Arnook (ᐊᕐᓄᒃ (arnuk)) _OR_ (ᐊᕐᓇᖅ (arnaq)) – “woman”
• Eska (ᐁᔅᑲ (eska/aiska)) – a creek in southern Alaska
• Desna (ᑌᔅᓇ (desna/taisna)) – [“boss”]
• Iknik (ᐃᒃᓂᒃ (iknik))
• Kuruk (ᑯᕈᒃ (kuruk)) – a creek in northern Alaska, see also possible Pawnee etymology
• Kya (ᑳᔭ (kaaya)) _OR_ (ᑲᔭ (kaya)) – [“stay”]
• Malina (ᒪᓕᓇ (Malina)) – an Inuit sun goddess
• Maliq (ᒪᓕᖅ (maliq)) _OR_ (

  ᒪᓕᒃ (malik)) – “follow” in Inupiaq, [“wave” in Greenlandic]

• Naga (ᓈᒐ (naaga)) _OR_ (ᓇᒐ (naga)) – “no”
• Noatak (ᓄᐊᑖᖅ (nuataaq)) – a community in northern Alaska, [“river that provides food for the people”]
• Pakku (ᐹᒃᑯ (paakku)) – {pakkujak – “candle”}, {pakkak – “melt”}, {pakkâk – “heat”}
• Sangok (ᓵᖕᒑᖅ (saanggaaq)) _OR_ (ᓭᖕᒑᖅ

  (senggaaq/sainggaaq)) _OR_ (ᓴᓐᒍᒃ (sangok/sanguk))

• Senna (ᓭᓐᓇ (senna/sainna)) – {sennasaut – “sour ingredient”, “spice”}, {sennâluk – “rhubarb”}, {sennatuk – “sour”, “vinegar”} _OR_ (ᓴᓐᓇ (Sanna)) – the Inuit goddess of the sea
• Sokka (ᓴᒃᑲ (saakka)) _OR_ (ᓱᑲ (soka/suka)) – [“fast”]
• Tarrlok (ᑖᕐᓛᖅ (taarlaaq)) _OR_ (ᑕᕐᓗᒃ (tarlok/tarluk))
• Tonraq (ᐋᓐᕌᖅ (taanraaq))

  _OR_ (ᑐᓐᕌᖅ (tonraaq/tunraaq))

  – [“a spirit or ghost”], {tonngak – “evil spirit” or “spirit used by shaman”}, {tunngak – “ruling spirit”}, {tannik – “soul”}

• Ummi (ᐆᒻᒥ (uummi)) _OR_ (ᐅᒥ (umi)) – “ship”, “boat”
• Unalaq (ᐆᓇᓛᖅ (uunalaaq)) – [“west wind”],

  {uanniluak – “southwesterly wind”},  {unanngâk – “east wind”}

• Varrick (ᕚᕐᕆᒃ (vaarrik)) _ OR_ (ᕓᕐᕆᒃ (verrik/vairrik))

Ahtna Athabaskan names:

• Yakone (ᔭᑰᓐ (yakon/jakuun)) – [ “red aurora”], [“blood spray on the snow”]

Plains North America

Pawnee names:

• Kuruk (ᑯᕈᒃ (kuruk)) – “bear”, see also possible Inuit-Yupik etymology

Siouan names:

• Hakoda (ᐊᑰᑕ (hakoda/hakuuta)) – {koda – “friend”}
• Hotah (ᐆᑖ (hotaa/huutaa)) – “white”

Other

Other names:

• Bato (ᐹᑑ (baato/paatuu))
• Hama (ᐋᒪ (haama))
• Kanna (ᑳᓐᓇ (kaanna))
• Katara (ᑲᑖᕋ (kataara))
• Korra (ᑰᕐᕋ (korra/kuurra))
• Yugoda (ᔪᒎᑕ (yugoda/juguuta))