Atlas
Male nameGreek
✨ Meaning
Atlas is the name of the Titan condemned in Greek myth to hold up the sky at the western edge of the world. The name is usually connected to the Greek verb 'tlenai,' to bear or to endure, giving the sense of 'the one who carries.' Because sixteenth-century mapmakers put his image on the title page of their collections, the word also came to mean a book of maps, so the name evokes both endurance and the whole world at once.
🌍 Origin
Atlas appears in Hesiod and Homer and gave his name to the Atlas Mountains of North Africa and to the Atlantic Ocean. Its modern use as a personal name is recent, part of the same wave that brought Apollo, Orion and Phoenix into nurseries, and it has climbed quickly in the United States and Australia since the mid-2010s.
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❓ Frequently Asked Questions
What does the name Atlas mean?
Atlas is usually derived from a Greek verb meaning to bear or endure, and belongs to the Titan who holds up the sky.
Why is a book of maps called an atlas?
Sixteenth-century cartographers placed the Titan's image on the frontispiece of their map collections, and the word transferred to the books themselves.
Is Atlas a usable first name?
Yes. It has been rising steadily since the mid-2010s alongside other mythological names such as Apollo and Orion.