The Origin of the name 'Mandana'

*With thanks to Sir Justus Goodasany for allowing us to use this and other archived material from their old site*

I have very kindly been provided with this information by Ninni... to whom I am extremely grateful! There have been discussions for some time about the origin of the name Mandana, and maybe now it can be solved...

Mandana (or Mandane as she was also known) according to legend was a Princess (!) who appears in Eastern Mythology. She was the daughter of King Cyrus - a great Persian king. The story tells us that King Cyrus dreamt one night that his daughter passed so much water that it drowned all of Asia (yes, it is actually true) and when he asked his advisor and sign-teller the next day what the dream meant he was told that the interpretation was that Mandana would give birth to an intelligent son that would be mighty enough to challenge the King himself. Therefore the king married Mandana off to an insignificant soldier in his troops so that the child (if born) would never get to a position of power. Then when Mandana did have a son the King got scared, asked one of his men to go there and take the child away from the parents and kill it. He did go and take the baby but couldn't bring himself to kill him, instead the boy grew up with a good-hearted shepard who raised him as his own. Of course he then went on to indeed meet the King and challenge him etc.

Interestingly King Cyrus the Great (app.580-529BC) appears in the Bible under a slightly different name (Kurush in the original Persian) and is there portrayed in a positive and honourable light as he was the one who stormed Babylon and finally ended the Jews' Babylonian captivity. He was also the founder of the Persian empire. This is history rather than legend so it indicates that there might be more than mythology involved but whether this also means that the Princess Mandana actually existed or not I cannot say but it proves that the name is probably very old.

If you check out other people called Mandana (e.g. on the Internet) it's easy to spot that they all have last names such as "Yamin" and "Latif" which come from in and around Iran. And as Persia is present day Iran and still Persian speaking.... well, I rest my case.